District officials plan to move to Google Chromebooks, following the example set by the Webb City, Carl Junction and Springfield school districts.
Reasons cited for the move, according to documentation provided to the board include the following:
-The iPads are at the end of their life cycle
-Chromebooks are less likely to get viruses
-Chromebooks are more cost-efficient than iPads
-Chromebooks are easier to manage since no special equipment is needed and everything does not have to go through the server
-They work well with NWEA and MAP tests.
The cost of the Chromebooks is $170,187, which is only slightly below the $174,444 originally spent for the iPads, but that does not tell the whole story.
It turned out that $174,444 was just the down payment and the district had to pay another $129,475 just to get the first batch of iPads.
District officials were so eager to go to iPads at that time that they did they did not solicit bids for any other product and soon after the first school year with the devices, they realized their function was limited without keyboards, which cost taxpayers an additional $103,000, plus $70,000 for teacher iPads and $20,000 for covers for a total of $506,919 or close to three times as much as Google Chromebooks will cost five years later.
If former Superintendent C. J. Huff had his way that same kind of money would have been spent on seventh and sixth graders.
Without any OK from the board of education, the C. J. Huff Administration was already moving to get iPads for seventh and sixth graders, according to the district's 2012 Race to the Top application. In it, the Administration asked for $1 million for iPads, naming that device specifically. The proposal was rejected.
Sounds like a good move.
ReplyDeleteI’m in the Carl Junction School District, although my grandchildren are in Joplin; what does CJ use.
BTW, all these districts are very inefficient,
Every other state, even those in the south have Districts per counties, or even a couple of counties—as Jasper Newton could be.
Harvey HUTCHINSON 303-522-6622 voice&text
Hope they put it out for bid!
ReplyDeleteSerious questions: Isn't specifying "Chromebooks" limiting? Are there competitors or any other options to consider?
Harvey, Carl Junction uses Chromebooks.
ReplyDeleteWhat Joplin hasn't disclosed(although it could be included in this cost) is the cost of MDM(mobile device management). Simply adding the Chromebooks to their domain is not sufficient, they need a proper MDM solution in place to assist with the inevitable lost/stolen devices.
The only competitor would be more Apple devices, which would be much more expensive, or Windows devices, which would better prepare kids for a business environment, the world runs on Windows and Unix, not Chrome OS. Throwing Apple and Google devices at kids because they're trendy is a disservice to the children.
10:16 AM: Chromebooks are anything but trendy, but they are the preferred solution for K-12 because they're the only option that was primarily designed for security, and Google provides the backing infrastructure once you can get packets to and from their servers, so the whole package is the most affordable. To get features like MDM, you've got to pay Google for G Suite for Education, according to Wikipedia this educational ecosystem has 70 million users as of a year ago.
ReplyDeleteAs for Windows, it's a management nightmare, especially as the quality of Windows 10 updates declines (it would appear to be a bad idea to fire your dedicated QA people). In the consumer editions this includes forced updates while you're trying to get work done, which would defeat the purpose of using the laptops in class. The very basics, things like a word processor and spreadsheet, are adequately supplied by Google Docs, and students won't find it overly difficult to switch from them to the Microsoft Office suite.
Ridiculous that kids have to use computers for learning education. Use books, paper and pen/pencils.
ReplyDeleteWhen the power grids go out they will not be able to function at all.
Too dependent on technology.
They already can't count back change when you go through the drive through.
They can add or subtract without calculators and can't write-some can print but many cant write in cursive or even spell.
"The dumbing down of America".
No wonder they are eating Tide-Pods.