should I buy my kid a Chromebook? Which one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is providing all elementary school students with new touchscreen chromebooks.

Source?

The plan they just sent out.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/reopening/MCPSDraftRecoveryPlan-updated.pdf page 29
"All elementary students will get a new touchscreen Chromebook. Students who have an older MCPS Chromebook will be able to swap it for the new model prior to the start of the new school year. "

I hope this means that teachers will be able to run GoGuardian. With that, they can monitor students and what they are doing on the chromebook, and they can either take over a student screen or mirror the teacher screen to a student, to help the students understand a task. It would reduce some of the parent complaints about not being able to monitor their kids all the time on the computers.

Wait, what about high school and middle school kids? They get squat?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chromebooks suck. Get a cheaper laptop instead

I know.

- starts up in 5 seconds
- battery lasts 20 hours
- fewer virus issues
- quick and auto updates
- lightweight and durable
- simple to use

They are glitchy, they run super slow, you can not store anything, it is a PIA to print anything out, and it is horrible for ZOOM. Everyone knows the "chromebook kids" on zoom. Their pics are grainy and their voices are not clear. Most just move to a tablet, phone or parent's computer for ZOOM classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is providing all elementary school students with new touchscreen chromebooks.

Source?

The plan they just sent out.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/reopening/MCPSDraftRecoveryPlan-updated.pdf page 29
"All elementary students will get a new touchscreen Chromebook. Students who have an older MCPS Chromebook will be able to swap it for the new model prior to the start of the new school year. "

I hope this means that teachers will be able to run GoGuardian. With that, they can monitor students and what they are doing on the chromebook, and they can either take over a student screen or mirror the teacher screen to a student, to help the students understand a task. It would reduce some of the parent complaints about not being able to monitor their kids all the time on the computers.

Wait, what about high school and middle school kids? They get squat?

Don't be so over-reactive. HS and MS students have chromebooks too if they need them, just not necessarily touchscreen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chromebooks suck. Get a cheaper laptop instead

I know.

- starts up in 5 seconds
- battery lasts 20 hours
- fewer virus issues
- quick and auto updates
- lightweight and durable
- simple to use

They are glitchy, they run super slow, you can not store anything, it is a PIA to print anything out, and it is horrible for ZOOM. Everyone knows the "chromebook kids" on zoom. Their pics are grainy and their voices are not clear. Most just move to a tablet, phone or parent's computer for ZOOM classes.

That's what I was thinking too. I've never used a chromebook, and I had my kids on a macbook pro and surface pro this past Spring. I was thinking of taking the chromebooks the school will be providing just in hopes that the teacher/school would better be able to instruct them how to perform certain functions on it since "everyone is using a chromebook." But when I started looking at the specs, I was like, how the hell are they going to run streaming video while simultaneously editing a document, having their e-mail open, etc. I just don't see the user experience being good since Zoom already takes a heavy toll on the cpu even on a decent laptop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chromebooks suck. Get a cheaper laptop instead

I know.

- starts up in 5 seconds
- battery lasts 20 hours
- fewer virus issues
- quick and auto updates
- lightweight and durable
- simple to use

They are glitchy, they run super slow, you can not store anything, it is a PIA to print anything out, and it is horrible for ZOOM. Everyone knows the "chromebook kids" on zoom. Their pics are grainy and their voices are not clear. Most just move to a tablet, phone or parent's computer for ZOOM classes.

That's what I was thinking too. I've never used a chromebook, and I had my kids on a macbook pro and surface pro this past Spring. I was thinking of taking the chromebooks the school will be providing just in hopes that the teacher/school would better be able to instruct them how to perform certain functions on it since "everyone is using a chromebook." But when I started looking at the specs, I was like, how the hell are they going to run streaming video while simultaneously editing a document, having their e-mail open, etc. I just don't see the user experience being good since Zoom already takes a heavy toll on the cpu even on a decent laptop.

My kids have been using their school provided Chromebooks since we got them in April. We had them for the last 6+ weeks of the Spring term. They have been using them over the summer too.

They actually work very well for streaming and Google Meet and Zoom. I bought a subscription to Brain Pop because the kids were enjoying the virtual videos and they were educational. The school district's subscription expired June 30 so I bought the subscription so the kids could continue watching those videos over the summer. A lot better than the Minecraft and Roblox videos they find on-line. The kids also use them periodically when they want to watch different things on TV, one will bail and watch his own thing on his Chromebook. So they stream things on their Chromebooks daily.

In ES, the kids are very rarely multitasking. And having something backgrounded doesn't seem to cause any performance issues. So they open one things, then background it and do something else. They may have multiple things open, but they really are not multi-tasking and the Chromebook is up to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is providing all elementary school students with new touchscreen chromebooks.

I saw this...right after I purchased one (which hasn’t yet arrived). Does anyone know how the distribution is going to work? We waited in the Spring, to give families in need a chance to get them first. Then when I discovered my iPad wasn’t up to everything we needed it to do, I tried to get one from the school. After a month of trying to contact the principal and others, I gave up. I am curious if the schools are going to give them out to everyone, regardless of need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For older students, do not buy a chrome book. Buy a cheap laptop with webcam. If you can afford it, buy one with touch screen capability. It will be well worth the investment. Chrome books do not work with many lockdown browsers for testing.

We invested in a surface pro last spring and it was the best decision. Our daughter was able to annotate PDFs, share and write on a whiteboard, and has a great webcam and microphone. I also recommend a second monitor for Zoom classes. I know this is all expensive. I am a high school teacher and I purchased over $2000 of technology including a Wacom tablet to make my classes easier to deliver. Zoom is so much easier to navigate when you can put the control portion on the laptop and teacher's screen on main monitor.

Obviously not everyone can afford this (including me!) but I want this whole DL thing to go as well as possible. I have been prepping for weeks and it is not going to be close to a face to face class but I will do my absolute best. I do wonder about teachers who just think they will 'wing it' or are not preparing now. I guess those teachers are the reason we have such a bad reputation right now. Some of us believe we are essential workers and that means working more hours than usual. It also means little sleep as we also try to home school our own children. And, yes, it drives me CRAZY when my kid's teachers just call it in. I am on the lower pay scale but I never got into teaching for money.

You're an awesome teacher.

[Anonymous]

So for those of us who were planning to have our kid use a Mac desktop, are we good as far as equipping DC? Can we skip the Chromebook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is providing all elementary school students with new touchscreen chromebooks.

I saw this...right after I purchased one (which hasn’t yet arrived). Does anyone know how the distribution is going to work? We waited in the Spring, to give families in need a chance to get them first. Then when I discovered my iPad wasn’t up to everything we needed it to do, I tried to get one from the school. After a month of trying to contact the principal and others, I gave up. I am curious if the schools are going to give them out to everyone, regardless of need.

We got a note from the principal today about the school distribution plan. They are handing the chrome books out to everyone. If you have an old one, you have to bring it back.