Chromebook Webinar and BYODD

I participated in a Chromebook Webinar last Tuesday afternoon for an hour straight after school! For those of you unfamiliar with the Chromebook check it out here...

The Chromebox in my classroom

The discussion started mostly around Chromebooks in the classroom and the benefits of Chromebooks Vs Tablets...here is an interesting article on the fall of tablets from The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year. Most of the points it highlights I'd tend to agree with, and with the focus from CEO on the Google environment I'd say we definitely have made the correct decision in choosing the Chromebook as our designated device for our BYODD (bring your own designated device) program.

The focus of the webinar then shifted to managed Chromebooks, whereby using a web based management tool an administrator can assign apps, lock down certain sections of the Chromebook, block sites etc. the concept was quite cool, though not applicable to a BYODD program as the devices belong to the students themselves. Apart from this we have no funding for a Chromebook Administrator in any case ;)

Close Up

I asked the question about the presenter's thoughts on the Chromebox as distinct from the Chromebook (my blog pictures featuring ours today) - the lack of mobility was a factor for him, being in a high school setting, which I understood...though I made the point that for $270 a Chromebox makes a lot of sense in primary schools.

We have a perfectly good wired network (although the Chromebox has wireless functionality as well), an aging fleet of Windows XP desktops verging on unusable, but a 'glut' of perfectly good flatscreen monitors, keyboards and mice (mouses?) that will all work perfectly with a new Chromebox! Saves the environment, replaces old hardware with usable technology, requires virtually no tech support, no licensing fees etc - everyone wins. Chromeboxes are pretty much our cost effective exit strategy from Windows based operating systems...

Officeworks $45

One thing to be aware of however is the fact that the Chromebox has left VGA behind as a connection to your monitor or TV, it only has HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces! The photo to the left is of a converter I purchased from Officeworks for $45 - making the $270 Chromebox price tag not so appealing maybe...? Thank goodness Hong Kong came to the rescue with a VGA to HDMI converter for $8ish dollars including postage that does the job perfectly - see below.

Deal Extreme Hong Kong $8 

Bit of a lengthy post, but I thought some of you may be looking down the path of replacing desktops, and with Google's product constantly improving, these devices are more than adequate replacements for aging technology and costly Windows PCs that suit our evolving classroom pedagogy.

As an aside, I took ours home and tried it out on our home TV - excellent media PC! being wireless also it hooks up with your home wifi, plugs straight in, grab a USB keyboard (I use this one) surf the web, check emails, watch youtube/iview/catchup tv etc  - very versatile !

~ Steve