What Google's Chromebook Means To Education

If you look "inside" Google's laptop at the hardware, it is as ordinary as can be. In fact, it may even be less than ordinary. Primitive, even. The laptop sports a modest Intel® Atom^TM Dual-Core Processor, a reasonable 2GB RAM and small 11.6" or 12.1" screens (depending on the model). Hard disk space? Well, it does not really have a hard disk per se. Both models come with SSD memory card slots!

No, Chromebook is not intended for gaming. It is intended for working in the cloud instead. Saving in the cloud means putting things on the Internet. For example, if you take a picture with your smartphone and upload it on your blog, the picture is now in the cloud. Access your email through your browser? Well your emails are actually in the cloud! Back up your thesis as a Google Document? Yes, your thesis is in the cloud. The great thing about putting stuff in the cloud is that you can access it anywhere, on any device that can be connected to the Internet. I actually barely use my pen drive any more. It's much easier to upload my documents in the cloud and retrieve them whenever I want later on. At least I know I can't misplace the cloud!

With Chromebook, getting your things in the cloud is the norm. Actually, on the software side, Chromebook only features an operating system (Google Chrome OS) and that's it. Everything else is found online through Google's wide array of applications and services such as Google Docs (Word, Spreadsheet, Presentation, etc.), GMail, Calendar, and Books, amongst numerous others. As you might have guessed by now, a must-have with Chromebook is an Internet connection.

If you're still unconvinced about the power of Chromebook and the cloud, here's a video that should flip you for good:

As Chromebook features modest hardware, it makes sense that its retail price is less expensive than the great majority of laptops out there. The least expensive Chromebook model will only cost $349 in the US. Furthermore, Google will also lease Chromebooks to businesses and schools. Educational institutions will only have to pay $20 a month per unit! This is a tremendous opportunity for education institutions who may no longer need to buy more expensive PCs or Macs, software, and their accompanying cascade of updates and patches and continual technical support.

The less expensive pricetag of Chromebook is not the only benefit to educational institutions, especially those in the developing world. In developing countries, cell phone connectivity has a much greater penetration than computer-based Internet access. And Chromebooks can be purchased with Wi-Fi and/or 3G as well. This makes it ideal for institutions in developing countries.

While Chromebook will make the headlines in the next couple of months because of its novel approach to cloud computing, it is worth keeping in mind that this product may help access to education for many children and adults around the world. If Google succeeds in doing so, Chromebook may well be the company's greatest and most noble achievement since creating its search engine, more than a decade ago.

Image Credit: B. P. Griner & P. J. Butler (from Wikimedia Commons)

Further reading:
Will Chromebooks for Education Be a Good Deal for Schools?
Chromebook: why Google has its head in the cloud