Google’s leader of Chromebook, Rajen Sheth, announced a deal this week with three school districts in the US that will bring 27,000 Chromebooks to students in Iowa, Illnois and South Carolina. Sheth announced about the deal in a speech to the Florida Educational Technology Conference.
“A lot of schools are on OSes that are 5 to 10 years old because of the cost and labor to bring that up to the latest standard,” Sheth said. “The Chromebook updates itself automatically and gets better over time.”
Richland School District Two in South Carolina will use 19,000 of the Chromebooks to equip students in 3rd to 12th grades over a three-year program. Other schools, like Leyden Community High School District in Illinois and Council Bluffs Community School District in Iowa, will deploy less than 5,000 each, but both plan to issue each student a Chromebook by next year.
Bryan Weinert, technology coordinator for the Leyden Community High School District in Illinois said, “This is the right device for student learning.” He also added, “This is the right device for student learning, we plan to deploy 3,500 to students next year. Every single student will be issued a Chromebook they can use at school and at home.”
The Chromebooks will replace Netbooks, he said. “We were looking for a device that can be invisible. We want teachers to focus on instruction,” not technical support, waiting for laptops to boot, or making sure they’re charged, he said.
(Image Source: Samsung)
