Google’s Chromebooks have overtaken Apple products as the most popular devices in American classrooms, but Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will not be following the search giant’s approach to the education market, which has been a stronghold for Apple since the early days of the Mac.
“Assessments don’t create learning,” Cook said in an interview with BuzzFeed News Wednesday, calling the cheap laptops that have proliferated through American classrooms mere “test machines.”
ChromeBooks are pushing Apple further and further away in education, and Google claims that at the end of 2015, there will be more ChromeBooks in US schools than all other devices combined. This is clearly very frustrating for Apple, who always had a strong foothold in education. However, if Tim Cook really thinks ChromeBooks are popular because of testing or their price, he’s delusional.
One of the primary reasons he fails to mention: ChromeBooks are infinitely easier to manage than iPads. Virtually every teacher or school employee I’ve ever heard talking about this was frustrated with the lack of proper centralised management for iPads, whereas ChromeBooks are dead easy to manage, control, and replace. Combined with their low cost and real keyboard, any school worth its salt would choose ChromeBooks.
Instead of attacking the competition who seems to understand education better than you do, Mr. Cook, you might want to focus on, you know, creating a good product for education.
Between low cost and ease of support, Chromebooks are superior to Apple.
What I wonder about, though, is that Chromebook is so perfect for monitoring students…
Schools can monitor them — http://www.goguardian.com/chromebook-monitoring-provides-complete-v…
and the government can monitor them… http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/why-the-nsa-l…
Is this really the society we want?
But think of the children who are going to be blown up by terrorists if the government can’t watch your every single move!
Why do you hate children?!?
Why are you a terrorist?
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO HIDE?!?
George Orwell was a freakin’ optimist.
Beware, learning to program might be dangerous for the government!
http://oomlout.co.uk/blogs/news/79367233-national-crime-agency-list…
You don’t even need to learn code.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/nsa-linux-journal-extremist-for…
Save the children from the NSA peeping pervs!!!!111!
Or… you can supply your children with their own devices.
My daughter has a Chromebook issued to her by her school – but she uses her own laptop for pretty much all schoolwork, and the Chromebook sits in the corner. The online websites provided to submit her work are accessible on any device.
The life lesson being: Surveillance is not a problem when you’re rich. 😉
On a more serious note, the right approach to the “surveillance issue” is to discuss it with the school, which can instruct their IT admins to configure the amount of data that is collected.
The data collection the EFF complained about is mostly for convenience features. These days customers assume that “things just work” and so every available knob and dial is tuned towards convenience by default.
For example, storing the browsing history with the profile allows you to migrate the profile to another machine – very useful when they’re shared systems (like in a computer lab) and you may not always use the same one.
If you don’t need that (because the school issues personal devices, and losing the history is okay when the device is lost/broken), disable it.
Or set up a separate browser data pass phrase (chrome://settings-frame/syncSetup), so that the data is encrypted locally before sent to servers.
But such configurations can be inconvenient and users don’t like that. They will complain loudly when (not if) they lose their profile because the machine broke down and they forgot the password that protects the backup.
Because any parent can aford to give their child a laptop for school…. oh wait…
People will care only if they lose money. This applies to almost everything.
Most schools already have trouble just finding a teacher that has time to teach. Having an IT-department that can keep up the internet and have all machines up and running. If you think there is someone monitoring and analyzing everything that students do…..you are very delusional about IT-powers.
Is it anything new that the ones that provide the hardware and install the software can monitor what happens on the device? No, that has always been the case and is probably even a requirement. It is the same in business or when you are watching a movie in a plane.
Guess what, Apple MacBooks are perfect for monitoring students too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_Distric…
So instead of investing in creating educational material, software, and reasources that are open source,, we just buy computers and hand them to kids, as if they didn’t already have machines in from of their faces all the time. That tax dollars are syphoned to tech firms for this shit is insulting. Doesn’t matter if it’s Apple or Google.
My wife is a 6th grade teacher at a school that uses Chromebooks. This is the first year they have used them and so far the experience has been very positive. The collaborative features of google docs is probably the feature she likes best and the fact that “they just work”.
does the school know how much data is being ‘shared’ with Google?
Google Docs might ‘just work’ but there is a cost to pay IMHO. That cost is that Google knows a lot more about everyone in your kids school.
Who really knows what they are going to do with that data.
Our shared disgust of government and company monitoring aside, what sensitive materials could those shared docs contain, seriously. Just make sure your kids know about how these services work and train them to protect their private stuff – you’d need to educate them in these matters anyway sooner or later.
Yes, who REALLY knows?
Aside from the Reverse Vampires and Saucer People, of course.
In your worst killer robots filled dystopian nightmare, how do you imagine they are using this data?
Are you guys in a constant paranoia that you are so afraid students may have sensitive information that can be used by the government?
What are those?
The privacy thing was overblown out of proportion. If you are a student, you don’t have to hide something, unless you’ve been radicalized and may shoot people in the future, the government needs to protect its citizens.
Your opinion is worse for the future of mankind than terrorism.
chromium is a decently open platform. chromium OS can be built from chrome sources, sans some closed source codecs. It’s mostly a gateway to internet anyways.
Try knowing what you’re talking about. In our school, with I-Ready and other software programs, children are getting the education software they need. Especially in special needs, computers, when coupled with quality instruction, prove a vital tool for monitoring progress without the pressure of quizzes and tests every 5 seconds. Students can keep track of their own progress, as well.
i’m right there with you, but i think you have to ride the wave.
we think we can decide how much our kids takes to certain things but they make their own way and decide about tech for themselves, just like you and i did. my mom didn’t really determine if i became techy or not, not past K-2 age.
now my buddies kids have screens with them at all times, often active, sometimes more than 1 going. my kid on the other hand gets 1 hour of iPad time to play minecraft and then it’s back to books and legos, and the grandparents are yelling at us about holding him back from the modern world! you can’t win either way.
lady up the street won’t let her kid play with any of the other kids on the street. some kids raise themselves. school has to deal with all of it, and if they can do a spreadsheet and a web search and make a pdf by the time they are in 5th grade i don’t think that’s bad that’s just progress. i was online at 1200 baud in 6th grade waiting 3 minutes for a greenscale nudy pic.
20 years ago professionals couldn’t do a spreadsheet search the web and make a pdf at the same time. now it’s a basic tool for life. my kid builds fantastical software worlds with all sorts of community mods from the server and he just understands and accepts how it all works, it’s just the next level.
i just realized my response has very little to do with your point about software. sorry.
you don’t even have to have chromeos to do your homework, just the chrome or chromium browser. ChromeOS provides a very inexpensive, simple and secure base platform. It’s great. Just wish they would seriously fix printing and scanning so my parents could enjoy it better.
Edited 2015-12-10 05:13 UTC
My Son’s school uses Chromebooks but is transitioning to BYOD. They do everything on Google Docs and other web sites.
All you need is the Chrome Browser. Leave your device at home? Use any chromebook at school (they’ll still have them). Leave it at school? Use a PC with Chrome at home. Your data is on Google.
With an iPad, the school has to worry about data backups & restores. Or anything else that doesn’t use Google.
If it’s not BYOD, they have to worry about accounts, security antivirus, lifecycle, disposal, breakage.
So the Google Docs app, available on all iPads, doesn’t use Google?
Your situation only enhances the viability of iPads if those are the devices students choose to bring. Imho, that’s nothing but a good thing as everyone should be permitted, and able, to use the device they prefer.
What craziness is having kids program on iPads, when any kind of compiler or script engine isn’t allowed in the app store! Screw you Tim Cook. If you want kids to learn, let them and anyone else on ios.
Maybe you should learn some facts before releasing your hate on Apple!
Pythonista
https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/pythonista/id528579881?mt=8
Python
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/python-2.7-for-ios/id485729872?mt=8
Codea
https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8
Lisping
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lisping/id512138518?mt=8
GLSL Studio
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glsl-studio/id481421644?mt=8
Just a small sample to update yourself.
Best of all, the children can use them on the go between home and school without any need of internet connection.
Ah, they changed the policy back in 2010. My mistake.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3991418/internal-scripting-progr…
That didn’t used to be the case. Had an app rejected for it before that… Still kinda sore about that.
Nooooo!!! Really? I hadn’t noticed! :/
Funny given how education was one of the few core markets that sustained Apple through the 90’s. I remember learning computers at school on an Apple IIe–or as it was engraved on each case, an Apple ][e. Most people that I know who are my age in the US know what I’m talking about, or at least are familiar with the ubiquitous game that they played at that age, Oregon Trail.
In our school, kids use iPads, phones, etc, for play. They use the Chromebooks for work. No matter how they try, adding business software, a lame keyboard, or whatever, tablets will never be looked at as something to do work on. They’re a home/recreation device.
First: we are using chromebooks on our school. They are great to work (not play like a tablet) and to share or collaborate.
But then: first a myth about digital natives: They are not there. I have to learn my kids step by step how to share a file with google apps. Only a few are seeing logic in docs and have a good way of working with devices. I you realize that, any device has to be taught and every student has to learn how to work with a device in a classroom.
On my school I would love to ditch the chromebooks for Byod. The school could provide an amount of money where kids can buy what they think is a good device to work on. Small problem. They don’t know yet.
Then there are the publishers of educational books. Somehow they love iPads. Every educational book available in Nl is readable with an iPad. Very annoying. It should be open and device agnostic. The quality of online content from publishers is very low. Or sometimes links to information on wikipedia of educational sites. Publishers like to have control, so instead of integrate into your learning environment they force to use theirs. No thank you.
What I might want to say. Educational resources need to be open and usable on every device. Schools shouldn’t be bothered about their sexy device, but about sexy OER. They are not.
And how do schools buy stuff? With experience from their own private live. When our ICT department showed their apple-tv-thingies and that is was great and so on, I gave them my Android mobile phone. Connect it, was my question. The answer was that is was easy to connect with (their) iPhone. I should buy one too.
The next step is that every teacher will get a Macbook… I don’t think I must ask for a Dell xps 13 linux edition.
the apple stuff is crazy. with how much the schools ask the kids to fundraise you would think they would think twice about buying the most expensive devices possible…which they are.
My sister (teaches 3rd grade, seattle area) recently got certified as an apple tech, I haven’t yet asked her about chromeos (my daughter’s school denver area deployed it 2 years ago I think).
I really want to see libraries start to go chromeos next. I always shudder when I go to the public library and see the expensive apple stuff everywhere.
Edited 2015-12-10 13:36 UTC
Alternatively, encourage the kids to explore and share their findings with their peers. Of course there needs to be time allocated for that and a backup plan.
I appreciate what you’re saying, but realistically you’re a teacher who’s posting on OSnews, so you clearly like computers and know several OSs. I doubt most teachers want to teach 4 different methods to do everything that BYOD would require.
On surveillance: fine. Teach kids young that you should expect to be monitored by any device that is issued to you from your school, employer, or (maybe) parents. If you want to know who has eyes on a device, set it up yourself.
Hi,
Don’t worry – the step after that is to replace most of the teachers with online learning.
– Brendan
Well, with some of the teachers we have in the US, that would be one heck of an improvement.
Out of curiosity, are you a teacher?
(Talking to child).
“Coding is a really important language to learn — as important as English, someday.â€
Wow, just wow!
Serious question: Can Tim Cook code?
No, I doubt Tim can even Cook.
iPad vs. ChromeBook is the wrong way.
They would need to bring a new low-cost eBook with full OS X to get back in business there…
Put the retina MacBook in a nice white plastic casing, price it at under $ 500 and success will follow.
i worked software in the us education market for a decade, and thom’s not wrong about the multi-user management. but he’s simplifying.
ease of use, reliability, size, durability, build quality, and software simplicity are all very important if kids are involved. not just any piece of plastic can survive those little animals day after day. apple has focused on the things i listed for decades now, as opposed to raw specs or lowest purchase price. that makes an apple product generally capable and a safe buy in a classroom setting.
teachers are also left with very little budget so for years they have made do with whatever tech was around. classrooms would have apples sitting on a cart running for 15+ years, a lot of first impressions made during that time.
the reason apple won’t do multiuser in iOS is because they fundamentally don’t see it as a multi-user device. it’s either your phone, your tablet, your watch, your iPod or it’s someone else’s. it’s not a shared device by design.
there are exceptions though – i wonder how the iPad POS’s (cash registers) work with security.
also – can the apple TV save favorites and lists from different users? that’s a possible exception.
of course, any app can manage user accounts within the app, but we are talking about full OS-level user accounts. i don’t know if iOS will ever have it.
It had better, if they ever want the iPad to be used in a communal education setting. Otherwise, iPads will remain strictly a BYOD or individually-issued device, and won’t make headway in the general classroom. If you are sharing a device in a school setting, multiple users are a must-have, not a luxury.
I generally agree with you, but I don’t think Apple does. I think they are sticking to their guns on this. We have been asking them for multi-user since iOS2. They clearly could have added it many iterations ago. It’s a design decision.
They also have huge accounts in education, you’d think those huge accounts would pressure them too.
What if every student had a single iOS device with an account on OS X servers? I know they have some middleware stuff for education, like closed app stores, but I know there’s open issues like sharing Apple ID’s.
Yeah I agree, I always thought they could take over education if they just changed a few things and multiuser is the main one. They want a device for every kid, not shared devices.
But you’re back to every student having their own device again. Square one.
Apple really tried doing this, some ages ago. It was hailed with much hyperbole, as a revolution and a textbook killer, and then promptly forgotten:
http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-kills-textbook-ibooks-2-ibooks-author-…
http://gizmodo.com/5877500/apples-ipad-textbooks-everything-you-nee…
To be fair to Gizmodo, they actually write that it’s not a revolution. But then they do:
http://gizmodo.com/5877574/you-cant-afford-apples-education-revolut…
In the real world, though, students still prefer paper. Mainly because having a physical object with text laid out spatially aids memory, whereas glitzy video and simulated page turns do not. There’s also the problem that real-world authors and book designers thought the application itself was shit.
..and spend the savings on good teachers.
I love Apple kit. My kids and grandchildren all have it, but it doesn’t teach them much at all. It’s good for consuming and enjoyment, but nothing special for learning. Surely any programmable computer is potentially the same.
Somewhat countering my argument above, a good learning trick might be to give them a Linux or BSD box and tell them to make it do exactly what they enjoy doing on their MS or Mac box.
Ah, if only school boards had that much sense. Instead, they’ll spend it on their own bonuses.
The private schools in my area (Brisbane Australia) seem to like 11.6 Lenovo” Thinkpads. They’re tough as nails but very expensive.
http://www3.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/11e-and-chromebooks/1…
Edited 2015-12-11 09:25 UTC
Dear Thom,
You are now allowed to say anything anti-Apple.
Sincerely,
Tim