Chrome books

[12poundbass]

6poundbass’s school use Chrome books for a lot of their work, and use them for virtual schooling as needed. We need to purchase one for him and looking on line the prices are all over the place from $40 to over $200. So what’s the difference? I don’t feel like he needs a higher end one and he’s not going to use it for anything but classroom work. So what does the BR group recommend? 

[Jigfishn10]

I'm surprised that you need to purchase, usually schools want specific programs loaded in and give them out like we used to get text books. I'm by no mean an expert here and I'm spit-balling a bit, but depending on the programs used, I would think the amount of memory (RAM) would be a deciding factor. Again, spit-balling here.

 

My daughter is up to date with them, I'll get back to you. 

 

@12poundbass EDIT:

Just looked at my son's, his school has the kids using a 3100, 2 in 1.

[DaubsNU1]

I would check with the school...they should be able to give you minimum recommendations, and maybe even suggested brand / model.

 

Taxes are high here in Nebraska...my wife's boys both got school issued lap-tops (not Chrome books), from public school district.  

 

Schools and roads are good here...but taxes kick my tail. 

 

Good luck with your search. 

[Deleted account]

Don't skimp on memory, and as with most things, stay away from the cheapest, and most expensive, and you will get a good bang for the buck.

[Jigfishn10]

I would get what will get you by, Chromebooks are pretty much useless after the kids leave school. 

[12poundbass]

33 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

Don't skimp on memory, and as with most things, stay away from the cheapest, and most expensive, and you will get a good bang for the buck.

Not being a tech guy myself, what would be a suitable amount of memory for the little bit he’ll use it?

[Jigfishn10]

6 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Not being a tech guy myself, what would be a suitable amount of memory for the little bit he’ll use it?

I know you directed this to someone else, but he Deleted his account. The 3100 2 in 1 has 4GB. Not exactly gaming speed but good enough to white a report on bass feeding activity in Michigan.

 

One other thing you can do is to check out kids who just graduated from the school, they may sell their to you. 

[jbsoonerfan]

Okay, I have been teaching 16 years and we have been a 1 to 1 (each student has a Chromebook) school for the last 6 years. This was way before Covid came along so I have some experience with them. First of all, Chromebooks do NOT have a hard drive. They have an SSD and they vary as far as GB goes but they range between 4 and up. However, this really doesn't effect the capability of the CB to run efficiently or have to worry about storage issues. You can Google SSD's for more info. If your child's school is a Google school (uses Classroom, Docs, Slides, etc) then all their files are saved to the Google cloud. That's why they can access their information for Classroom or anything else from any device in the world simply by logging into their Google account. Basically any Chromebook will work because all you need is access to the internet, you do not need any storage. I do all my virtual assignments from my laptop, not a Chromebook, just by logging into my Google account.

[12poundbass]

1 minute ago, jbsoonerfan said:

Okay, I have been teaching 16 years and we have been a 1 to 1 (each student has a Chromebook) school for the last 6 years. This was way before Covid came along so I have some experience with them. First of all, Chromebooks do NOT have a hard drive. They have an SSD and they vary as far as GB goes but they range between 4 and up. However, this really doesn't effect the capability of the CB to run efficiently or have to worry about storage issues. You can Google SSD's for more info. If your child's school is a Google school (uses Classroom, Docs, Slides, etc) then all their files are saved to the Google cloud. That's why they can access their information for Classroom or anything else from any device in the world simply by logging into their Google account. Basically any Chromebook will work because all you need is access to the internet, you do not need any storage. I do all my virtual assignments from my laptop, not a Chromebook, just by logging into my Google account.

That helps because they do use Google classroom, DOCs, ect. 
 

Thank you!

[jbsoonerfan]

2 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

That helps because they do use Google classroom, DOCs, ect. 
 

Thank you!

The biggest benefit, from what I can tell, is that by using a Chromebook they have to log in with their school info which basically makes sure they are always able to access their information at anytime. When using my laptop or phone there is the extra step of me logging into Google. 

 

BTW, if you get a Chromebook, there is a chance he could accidentally change some settings via a shortcut. For some reason there are a lot of shortcuts. Our school technology teacher left for a new job about 2 weeks ago and they just decided to put me in charge. I have seen some strange things with the Chromebooks.