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New Zealand Chooses Google Chromebooks Over Microsoft Windows 10 For Education (betanews.com)
Google announced this week that it has signed an agreement with New Zealand's Ministry of Education to provide all state and state integrated schools in the country with Chrome Education licenses. The three-year agreement goes into effect on November 1 next month. From a report: "Starting on November 1, as part of an agreement with Google and the New Zealand Ministry of Education, all state and state-integrated schools across New Zealand will be able to start claiming Ministry-funded Chrome Education licenses to manage new and existing unmanaged Chromebooks. The Chrome Education license was developed to make device management in schools a breeze, so that teachers and students can focus on what's most important -- teaching and learning. Equipped with the Chrome Education license, schools can utilize essential education features to better support the many ways Chromebooks are used in the classroom," says Suan Ye, Head of Google for Education, Australia and New Zealand.
Either way they are being screwed.
What is this garbage?
Hell, even the Surface hardware feels uninspired these days
Why is some lame Microsoft-hating blog being linked to instead of the original source?
https://www.blog.google/outrea...
Nothing in the statement from Google says this is an exclusive switch to only Chromebooks. This is just the government saying that they'll pay for special education licenses to manage Chromebooks for schools that want it. Probably because schools have been buying Chromebooks because they're the cheapest option, and now the school systems are having issues managing them. Obviously the government wouldn't be blowing money on these management tools if they weren't having issues with the Chromebooks that needed to be addressed. What I want to know is if the schools already bought Chromebooks, and Google has tools the manage them en masse, why is Google *charging* schools to use this tool? Google already has made money off the Chromebooks - they've already been purchased. This expenditure doesn't directly help the students. It's not buying more hardware, or more educational software. It's just to try and keep the Chromebooks running right. You'd think Google, with their billions, would provide these tools for free to any educational organization that wants it.
But this has to be spun as an anti-Microsoft move by New Zealand.
Better known as 318230.
As someone who works in NZ schools this is totally sensationalist. Windows 10 and intune management liscences have been paid for under the same kind of deal for years. It is good they are now doing the same thing for chrome os. There are a lot of chromebooks in use but there is also a lot of Windows and Mac too. The article and writeup are very bias as per usual.
You sing praise of Chromebook as if Google is a saint.
Not the same. Microsoft was a monopoly, and their Windows is still a monoculture, with many applications that run on only that platform.
ChromeBooks are different. Almost everything is done in the browser, and can also be done on a Windows laptop or MacBook. There is no lock-in.
Give a kid a Windows PC and they learn how to use Windows.
Give a kid a ChromeBook and they learn how to use the Internet.
Yeah, I found it weird New Zealand would choose Google given their strong attachment to personal privacy.
As a born and bred New Zealander, I have no idea where you get that idea from.
The average Kiwi knows absolutely nothing about computers, and the people who made this decision will be no different. They want it to "Just Work".
As with any sale this size though, it's usually about the kickbacks
There won't be any kickbacks. Check out the corruption perceptions index. We are either 1st or 2nd in the world for corruption.
This may be because of the many schools who demanded parents buy iPads. The pushback was pretty strong, and I know several people who told their kid's school to get stuffed when told they would have to buy one.
"I have to say, it's a perfect device for most people. It "just works", and they don't have to have a degree in comp-sci to manage the thing."
Yeah, just do all your computing, shopping, and interacting with the world using a device built by an advertising company that wants to monetize you. What could possibly be undesirable about that.
"Yeah yeah someone ALWAYS points out that they can't use one because of UberCadSuperSimulationPublisherLatheController 44.0, but those people are a minuscule minority"
No they aren't. They want to work on a powerpoint or spreadhsheet using exactly the same software they use at work. They run a small business and need some accounting software. They bought a logitech harmony universal remote and want to program it, they want to play some random steam game.
"When that generation of kids gets to be adults, they'll keep using ChromeOS."
For a while it was all ipads ipads ipads, every student gets an ipad, and schools couldn't buy enough ipads, and then the schools discovered they weren't really all that great for education after all. And now home users are finding between their smartphone and their laptop the tablet isn't that useful there either, and the next great thing is now becoming a niche -- still useful and definitely has a place but we didn't get rid of all our computers for them in the end.
Chromebooks are the new tablets which were the new netbooks... maybe they'll take hold... or maybe they'll be ultimately found to be too limiting too. The jury's still out. For me... as lousy as windows 10 is... chromeOs is not an improvement.
Chromebooks are JUST netbooks with a fancy bios, running a proprietary linux.
Nearly EVERY model of chromebook can be completely liberated from Google's hungry clutches. For no added cost above the hardware itself.
A fun activity that this supposed IT teacher could do?
"OK class-- Today, first thing, we are liberating our chromebooks. After that, we will discuss the script used to accomplish this noble goal in detail, and what it does. Tomorrow, we will install a proper operating system."
See also, MrChromebox.tech
Not the same. Microsoft was a monopoly, and their Windows is still a monoculture, with many applications that run on only that platform.
Every general purpose operating system provides a native ABI unique to that operating system generally not compatible with other operating systems.
What you are saying is no different from asserting iptables won't run on Windows so Linux is a monoculture.
ChromeBooks are different.
Almost everything is done in the browser, and can also be done on a Windows laptop or MacBook. There is no lock-in.
Using a dumb terminal does nothing to prevent lock-in it simply punts the issue.
Give a kid a Windows PC and they learn how to use Windows.
Give a kid a ChromeBook and they learn how to use the Internet.
At least the Windows kid will have learned something they can use later in life.
Nobody looking to be hired for any job writes "I can use the Internet!!" on their resume.
What Windows skills would even be worked on? Students are using web-browsers for everything. They aren't learning OS-related skills, even if they're taking Computer Science courses. And this is a good thing - why would schools teach that, unless it's some kind of trade school?
I am an ex-programmer teaching High School students because I'm rich and fuck working as a programmer past the age of 32. My former school ran Chromebooks, my current school runs Windows. It's all $250 laptops. Functionally the OSes are the same, only Windows has constant weird errors with the Wifi not working, and has shit where students have an assignment to do and then 1-3 of them (out of a class of ~30) have Windows wanting to upgrade the OS and taking 30 minutes to do it.
It's such a problem that I actually keep a few old computers running Linux in the corner of my classroom. Students may not even know what Linux is after using it several times, because for the large majority of end users you just click on a web browser and away you go.
I've also seen a few people saying school should be all pen and paper. These people are morons.
What will happen once with greater enablement in their children, the people realize the privacy implications of their decision?
Are you unaware that the latest Windows is also a privacy shit show? I'm sure even an Apple device is reporting *something* back to Cupertino. The only option to not be spied on these days is to install GNU/Linux or similar. That said, having privacy from some megacorp isn't a primary or even secondary need for "education devices"
The requirements are probably more like:
Cheap so it doesn't really matter if a kid fucks it up. Some idiot in this thread listed "cheap" as a drawback, yet it's a primary need for these devices. Cheap also leads to weaker hardware; guess which OS will suffer the most on weak hardware (Clue: it's not one of the *nix derivatives)
Needs to be locked down so a kid won't fuck the OS up and require IT support (even locking down the OS requires IT support if you're on Windows)
Automagically uploading to a server so a virus can't eat the homework, while still allowing offline work that will automagically upload later on when it has a network connection
Collaborative work: Google docs has been collaborative for years, so no mailing around different versions of a doc. The group just edits the doc locally and sees everyone else's update in real time. I'm sure MS Office would have copied this feature by now but honestly who gives a fuck about the product that did it second
And to the people claiming that these kids will be disadvantaged when they join the work force, you've got it backwards. The megacorps try and get people to use their products as kids so that they turn into adults who expect/use the same products in their work place. For example, the university I attended had free licenses of Office, Visual Studio Pro, Visio etc provided by MS to the IT students, as a means of locking us into their way of doing things (If you've already got Visual Studio then you're at least going to try writing your code in C# and your teachers know that they can expect you to produce and submit your work using the provided tools
Privacy implications compared to what?
Cloud is the only practical option, as the funding isn't there for anything else, and they are all as bad as each other. That cancels out in the comparison.
Maintenance wise Chromebooks win hands down. Logically it is the only choice they could make.
The kids who are capable will have another computer anyway.
First, it's a school laptop so the expectation of privacy is probably minimal to start with.
Secondly, Google doesn't monteize personal data without permission (e.g. asking to use your photos on Google maps, opt-in on personalized advertising), and has special educational accounts for children that are even more restricted. Remember that you normally can't even get a Google account to use a Chromebook unless you are of legal age to agree to it in your jurisdiction.
By the way, if you have evidence that Google is using personal data it does not have explicit opt-in permission to use then I'd love to see it. I will file the GDPR complaint personally, all you need to do is show me the proof I need.
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