The Age of Chromebooks: Create a Productive e-Learning Environment

There are many educational benefits that Chromebooks can bring and deliver to your institution. If you are still on the fence about incorporating Chromebooks into your schools, they can change the way your students learn. Chromebooks help level the playing field of ed tech for students in low-income districts and high-income districts, teaches your students to focus and collaborate, easy to configure, set up and use which takes the intimidation out of computer learning, offers plenty of cloud storage, has a long battery life which means fewer learning interruptions, and affordable to buy them in bulk for hundreds of dollars less than its counterparts, which is essential if your institution is on a budget.

Chromebook integration in education has provided many benefits to schools while stirring up some challenges as well. Some of the challenges your institution leaders could face with Chromebook integration is an absence of Microsoft Office or desktop productivity tools, not as useful for younger students compared to middle school where typing skills are usually acquired by, not as optimal for teachers if they are looking for a front-of-the-classroom interface solution and Chromebooks may not support necessary school software systems like grade-book systems or LMS’s.

With all the remote learning that has been happening within the past couple of years, Chromebooks have become a staple in the classroom. As computers become increasingly important in education, many of the options out there are far from affordable. Below are some of the important Chromebook specs you should be on the lookout for when purchasing them for your classrooms.

• Accessibility: Every one of your students deserve a quality education and a device that is designed for all learners.  Students with diverse needs, learning styles, and abilities need to have the tools at their disposal to discover and achieve their full potential without limitations or obstacles. Right out of the box, Chromebooks provide easy-to-use, accessible features such as enlargement of all on-screen text and visuals, built-in screen magnifiers, high-contrast modes for easier reading and sharper contrast, built-in screen readers, and Braille support for your teachers and faculty to work with visually impaired users.
• Productivity: Your classrooms’ productivity shouldn’t have to wane and suffer from slow software and halfway decent speed. With Chromebooks, they boot up in mere seconds and provide automatic software updates to where they continuously stay technologically ahead of its counterparts without interrupting your students’ learning experience. Chromebooks also have features like Google Assistant to help its users multi-task to get things done faster, Smart Lock to use your phone as a wireless key to unlock your Chromebook automatically, and Fingerprint Unlock which uses your fingerprint to unlock and get into the device faster.
• Privacy and Security: If your institution is looking to have more control over its privacy and security, Chromebooks has you covered. Chromebooks have built-in security features such as security chips to encrypt sensitive data, Verified Boot - a comprehensive security check-up, multi-user support, and virus protection to automatically defend your Chromebooks from malware. Rest assured that Chromebooks can keep your institutions’ data always protected.
• Simplicity: Present times in the classroom are complicated enough. Chromebooks can make your classrooms’ daily activities simpler. Powered by Chrome OS, a Chromebook’s simple and secure operating system, Chromebooks are equipped with a long battery life, offline access if you don’t have Wi-Fi nearby, endless touchscreen capabilities to navigate through the displayed content how you want and are simple to set up – just log into an existing Google account.

Children’s physical and educational needs grow with them throughout their progression in the education system. The devices to support learning and teaching should change and grow with them. For personalized learning, it is important that your institution chooses the right Chromebook devices for each grade level while also preparing students with modern skill sets to meet the demands of the 21^st century workforce. Below is a list of the top Chromebook devices that can support the grade levels in your institution.

Grades K-2: For the early elementary grade level, a Chrome OS Tablet will keep the same tablet form factor for the K-2 student, allow your IT department’s infrastructure to manage all student devices from a single pane of glass, and can support your curriculum that encourages early learning success and leverages a touch-based tablet. This will help young students understand the subject matter while developing motor skills.

Grades 3-5/6-8: In the upper elementary grade level, your instructors are probably incorporating a mixture of both teacher-led and student-led activities in their methodologies. At the middle school grade level, your students are much more dynamic and require consistency in interactive lessons, problem solving and computational thinking.  A 2-in-1 Chromebook allows students to create content within the Google Workspace ecosystem as well as provides touch functionality where needed, particularly in STEM or STEAM classes.

Grades 9-12: This grade level have developed technology skills and will start spending most of their time brushing up on their college and career readiness skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and communicating. The best device for this age group of your students would be a 2-in-1 Chromebook or a laptop that provides flexibility, is lightweight, and has a full-sized keyboard. A bonus feature is having these devices come with an active stylus pen that makes drawing or note-taking much easier.

Teachers/Faculty: With ongoing development revolving around integrating activities in curriculums to help students continue to learn and develop skills, your teachers and faculty need to be equipped with devices to help them achieve this. A 2-in-1 Chromebook will allow your faculty and staff to work in the same ecosystem as their students in the Chrome platform. They also allow its users to gain access to full featured Windows applications where and when needed. Devices in this space are also powerful with up to 32GB RAM and a numeric keypad on select devices for grade input.