I know for a kindergarten classroom specifically, the amount of useful and quality software available on an iPad far exceeds what's available on a Chromebook (ie, as a web app).

Kits like Osmo are a great example of this.

https://www.playosmo.com/en/

Understood, but the topic here is iWork-vs-gDocs and the collaborative applications (word processing, presentations, spreadsheets) in an education setting.

iPads are great for certain purposes like the Osmo. They're a relative failure when it comes to typing up a book report or creating a group slide presentation.

Fair point. What I've heard comes secondhand from kindergarten / early elementary school teachers where students can't do those kinds of things yet.

Even with all Android apps being available on Chromebook now?

Personally I don't know of any schools using tablets that aren't iPads. I'm not sure that the K-5 education market is a segment that gets a lot of attention on Android.

Osmo, one of the best and most funded education software startups, doesn't even make Android versions.

I think the parent is referring to Android apps being available on Chromebooks now. However, that's still in a pilot/beta phase, and has not deployed broadly yet.

My tablet comment was just meant to give context to why I don't think having access to Android apps on Chromebooks is a game changer in K-5 education.

Probably the higher up you get the less students are using "educational software" and more just common productivity programs and I'd suspect the gap between platforms fades away there for general purpose reports, presentations, etc.

Some people claim Chromebooks already have the best education software (as in learning stuff, handing in reports and teachers grading them online, not playing games).

Given that advanced CAD software nowadays run inside a browser, I think the chromebooks will work just fine even the higher up you go.

I'd be surprised if Android tablets have any significant uptake in business or education settings. Not only do they generally lack software support in terms of security updates (imagine connecting your desktop PC to the internet without access to Windows updates), but also their apps are often just blown-up phone apps.

I know there are some school districts that use Kindle Fires but I haven't seen other Android tablets.

I think this is a deliberate move by Google. For education they wanted to push chromebooks not tablets.

I think they did the right choice, in this context chromebooks are significantly better than tablets, phones or even "real" laptops.

It's an old trope isn't it? How many families bought their first PC and subscribed to AOL so kids could look things up for their homework? But homework never required that. It's a great excuse to give parents that want to buy anyway.

I am buying my kids a 3D headset and a 3D printer, they will need it for their education.

My kids' middle school just moved to iPads from Chromebooks, which I thought was weird. (The elementary school had some iPads, so my kids felt like they were moving up to adult-ish laptops when they moved to middle school.)

The iPads had iWorks pre-installed, so I imagine they'll be using this feature.

My kids (10 and 7 years) have iPads in their school. They were bought for educational purposes but they are full of games. While I like the idea kids should learn to code. I really don't see any need for children that are not fluent on reading and writing to have any computers in the school.

> While I like the idea kids should learn to code.

If they had forced us to "learn to code" in kindergarten I would probably be a truck driver now.

This idea that every kid must learn to code is stupid and harmful.

Why not educational games...?

My kid's were issued Lenovo Thinkpads and the machines are total garbage. I don't understand why they didn't go for Chromebooks.

You rather have a sub 300$ device than a premium above 1000$ product? I know the Thinkpad brand is being abused with Ideapads and their similarity but to say Chromebooks are better is a lie.

The Thinkpad's are $400 devices (11e is the model), and they are indeed junk. The battery lasts around 3-4 hours which means kids have to find an outlet to work. The charging circuit makes an intermittent high pitched whine that many kids are complaining about (I can't hear it). When my daughter's is plugged in, the time until charged is always "UNKNOWN". Apparently, that's a common problem.

There have been issues with the touchpad as well, although my daughter's has been fine.

So, yes I wish they used Chromebooks. We could at least just buy a new one, log in, and have everything there ready to go.

The 11e is quite simply not a ThinkPad.

One of the biggest problems with Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's laptop division is their constant dilution of the ThinkPad name. Initially, in the first few years after the acquisition, Lenovo introduced a line of budget devices under the 'E' series and these were not marked with the ThinkPad identity because they were of significantly poorer construction and did not come with the same warranty and service options. In the years since, though, they've started slapping the ThinkPad name on these and a number of new low-cost product lines.

In practice, it's only really a ThinkPad if them model number starts with a T, W, or X. Unfortunately Lenovo itself is working hard to eliminate this distinction, positioning ThinkPad as another Dell or HP instead of as a high-end enterprise and luxury product line.

The 11e is indeed a ThinkPad. You might not think it's deserving of the name, but that's where ThinkPad is these days.

I've had a bunch of ThinkPads over the years and two are still in use.

I have a T520 that I now use basically as a terminal. It's a very creaky, heavy, machine that never gave me more than about 3 hours of battery, and the keyboard was terrible. But it sits there and keeps working (I use an external keyboard, monitor, and mouse).

I also have a ThinkPad Yoga 12.5. I really like the keyboard, but again the battery life isn't weak (4 hours). I occasionally think about getting something a little bigger, but the small size is pretty nice for traveling.

I don't think Lenovo has ever had a laptop with good battery life, outside RT Yoga 11 (12 hours?) and Yoga 2 Pro (9 hours).

You buy thinkpad for the great keyboard the red-dot-whatsitsname-thingy. And the fact that it can stop bullets. But not for the battery life.

What thinkpads are garbage?

11e

Which is actually a Chromebook!

No, it isn't. You can get it running Chrome OS, but these ThinkPads run Windows and that's why the battery life is so terrible.

11e and x131e are available as windows and chromebooks. I think the chromebook version has an AMD cpu and a smaller battery

These are definitely not the best laptops Lenovo has designed. Pretty much the bulkiest 11" laptop you can buy with the worst display, the worst keyboard I have ever touched and the crappy battery life and the fan noise are legendary...

But in the end, both were better than anything I had when I grove up. So yeah, basically "kids today..."

That seems off to me. Thinkpads are normally quite amazing machines. What model(s) were assigned?

ThinkPads used to be uniformly excellent, but these days it's a crapshoot. Even the best hardware comes with Lenovo's software installed and my advice to anybody that buys a ThinkPad is to remove as much of the Lenovo bloatware as you can.

iPads for education support multiuser login

As of iOS 9.3 (March 2016).

Too little too late. Our switch to chromebooks took place last year and the planning probably started a year or so before that.

I also don't see where iOS' "Shared iPad" feature lets you log in to any iPad anywhere like a Google Apps account would.

> I also don't see where iOS' "Shared iPad" feature lets you log in to any iPad anywhere like a Google Apps account would.

You can certainly log into any iPad in the school.

Regarding other devices, AFAICT you log into Shared iPad with a 'Managed Apple ID', which you could probably also log into on icloud.com or use natively from personal Apple devices you have, though since macOS and iOS currently only support one iCloud account configured at a time (per user account in the former case) the utility would be limited, as you'd probably also have a personal Apple ID.

System-wide maybe it's late, but many education apps already had multi-user login support baked in. I guess it depends how you use the iPads.

Those Chromebooks in many cases get coupled with Google's classroom software. One doesn't imply the other, but lots of schools seem to be jumping on the integrated platform.

Eh, having Chromebooks really does imply using Google Classroom.

If for no other reason, that Google Apps is the default office suite on Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education is free, and Google Classroom is included with that. Most schools don't have much in the way of a technology budget, so they win by default.

Yeah we have some heavy integration going on. Our district even has a full-time dedicated gApps administrator now.