The Digital Divide Starts With a Laptop Shortage (nytimes.com) 125
A surge in worldwide demand by educators for low-cost laptops has created shipment delays and pitted desperate schools against one another. Districts with deep pockets often win out. From a report: A surge in worldwide demand by educators for low-cost laptops and Chromebooks -- up to 41 percent higher than last year -- has created monthslong shipment delays and pitted desperate schools against one another. Districts with deep pockets often win out, leaving poorer ones to give out printed assignments and wait until winter for new computers to arrive. That has frustrated students around the country, especially in rural areas and communities of color, which also often lack high-speed internet access and are most likely to be on the losing end of the digital divide. In 2018, 10 million students didn't have an adequate device at home, a study by education nonprofit Common Sense Media found. That gap, with much of the country still learning remotely, could now be crippling.
"The learning loss that's taken place since March when they left, when schools closed, it'll take years to catch up," Ms. Henry said. "This could impact an entire generation of our students." Sellers are facing stunning demand from schools in countries from Germany to El Salvador, said Michael Boreham, an education technology analyst at the British company Futuresource Consulting. Japan alone is expected to order seven million devices. Global computer shipments to schools were up 24 percent from 2019 in the second quarter, Mr. Boreham said, and were projected to hit that 41 percent jump in the third quarter, which just ended. Chromebooks, web-based devices that run on software from Google and are made by an array of companies, are in particular demand because they cost less than regular laptops. That has put huge pressure on a supply chain that cobbles laptop parts from all over the world, usually assembling them in Asian factories, Mr. Boreham said. While that supply chain has slowly geared up, the spike in demand is "so far over and above what has historically been the case," said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst at the NPD Group. "The fact that we've been able to do that and there's still more demand out there, it's something you can't plan for."
"The learning loss that's taken place since March when they left, when schools closed, it'll take years to catch up," Ms. Henry said. "This could impact an entire generation of our students." Sellers are facing stunning demand from schools in countries from Germany to El Salvador, said Michael Boreham, an education technology analyst at the British company Futuresource Consulting. Japan alone is expected to order seven million devices. Global computer shipments to schools were up 24 percent from 2019 in the second quarter, Mr. Boreham said, and were projected to hit that 41 percent jump in the third quarter, which just ended. Chromebooks, web-based devices that run on software from Google and are made by an array of companies, are in particular demand because they cost less than regular laptops. That has put huge pressure on a supply chain that cobbles laptop parts from all over the world, usually assembling them in Asian factories, Mr. Boreham said. While that supply chain has slowly geared up, the spike in demand is "so far over and above what has historically been the case," said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst at the NPD Group. "The fact that we've been able to do that and there's still more demand out there, it's something you can't plan for."
Laptops? (Score:4, Insightful)
If they're going to be used at home anyway, why do they need laptops rather than desktops?
Re:Laptops? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the laptop comes with integrated monitor, keyboard, and pointing device. Additionally, they're significantly easier to inventory when the computers need to be returned.
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Because the laptop comes with integrated monitor, keyboard, and pointing device. Additionally, they're significantly easier to inventory when the computers need to be returned.
Form factor doesn't matter at all when total cost is the difference between having hardware, and not having hardware.
Get inexpensive desktops. Make them inexpensive enough that you're not worried about the extra cost of maintaining inventories and/or returns.
Yeah, I'm looking at you, Google/Amazon/Apple/Microsoft. You fuckers have stolen enough of our taxpayer money as trillions flow through offshore tax havens. You've got zero reasons to be bitching about such a request to fund this.
Re:Laptops? (Score:5, Interesting)
Get inexpensive desktops. Make them inexpensive enough ...
Inexpensive laptop: EUR 280 (chromebook), EUR 450 (Windows 10).
Basic desktop (without peripherals): EUR 500 (basic box with Windows 10), EUR 250 (DIY small form factor with soldered, fanless CPU, no OS).
Monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables: EUR 120.
Webcam, headset: EUR 50 (cheap USB webcams don't exist anymore).
A low-end desktop is more expensive than a low-end laptop. A low-end desktop tends to have a bit more CPU power and a bigger screen than a low-end desktop, but I don't think you really need either of those for school.
Re: (Score:3)
Get inexpensive desktops. Make them inexpensive enough ...
Inexpensive laptop: EUR 280 (chromebook), EUR 450 (Windows 10). Basic desktop (without peripherals): EUR 500 (basic box with Windows 10), EUR 250 (DIY small form factor with soldered, fanless CPU, no OS). Monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables: EUR 120. Webcam, headset: EUR 50 (cheap USB webcams don't exist anymore).
A low-end desktop is more expensive than a low-end laptop. A low-end desktop tends to have a bit more CPU power and a bigger screen than a low-end desktop, but I don't think you really need either of those for school.
Go put in an order for 500 million desktops. Then see where the price lands.
I'm not trying to be overly ignorant here, but I am seriously questioning whether or not children ages 5 - 10 can learn remotely with little more than a Raspberry Pi's worth of hardware. Let's be realistic here. You're building a box to run a browser on. They could likely get away with a tablet.
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You haven't priced out
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I thought the low end desktop got bumped out by NUCs and the like.
$140
https://www.newegg.com/intel-b... [newegg.com]
$30 for an 8gb ddr4 2400 SODIMM, $30 for a 256gbB SATA SSD, and you've got a system for $200.
But still no keyboard/mouse/monitor/speakers/camera/OS (can't just download chromeos, sadly), so point taken there.
Sam
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Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Webcam?
Microphone?
How would a student interact with the teacher?
Public school K-12 education isn't just visiting an endless series of seemingly-random websites
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No idea. Probably because laptops are more like a "book". Getting everyone a low-end desktop system would probably have been easier and cheaper.
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Before school reopened I got into Wally world and bought an HP Ryzen 3 laptop for three hundred bucks. The only way you could build a competitive desktop for less would be to use garbage components. And it came with a year warranty which you also wouldn't get with your garbage component PC. Most of the parts would have a ninety day warranty, if that. It's got a 14" 720p display, came with 4GB RAM, and a 120GB SSD, and has 2x USB3 and one type C port. I added another 4GB for about twenty bucks. And it's fast
Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
And it came with a Win10 license, something that could cost someone over $100 for a self-built computer.
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Getting everyone a low-end desktop system would probably have been easier and cheaper.
Getting, and managing the PC, cables, monitors, keyboards, and mice would not be cheaper or easier... and people generally prefer laptops because of the form factor and portability. There's a reason why laptops have taken over the market, and desktops are relegated to gaming rigs.
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Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Ask the retailer if they have the 1,500 devices your local district needs, then ask yourself, how long will those $89 tablets last in the hands of elementary school age children?
Sounds like "false economy" to me.
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Do you know how much Geek Squad makes on just setting up desktops for the nitwit's in this country?: There isn't a school district in this world that has the has the manpower to walk some Arts Degree or Business Major parent through plugging in the color-coded-only-fits-one-way peripherals. Then you have scenarios like in my office where a user calls up in a panic because their computer "just stopped working" when in reality their toddler ran off with the HDMI cable to the monitor. No, you want everything i
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Walking them though signing into wifi is painful enough. Lost/damaged power bricks are a constant issue.
Have to say a local cable company was great, they let us (small private school) register the mac address of all our chromebooks to auto login to their SSID.
and the local cable company force rented gateways (Score:2)
and the local cable company force rented gateways at $10-$15/mo for hardware that costs under $100
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because the SSID is from those and they are fleecing people it relates?
Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Because the math or a English teacherâ(TM)s job isnâ(TM)t to be teaching IT troubleshooting? Especially remotely where a non-functioning machine means a kid effectively isnâ(TM)t in class?
Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Get over yourself. Parents want their fittest grader to learn, see their teacher, not spend a day trying to figure out how to set up a desktop - let alone find space to dedicate to the desktop.
Everyone isn't tech savvy, and we're talking about kids from 5-18 years old, for half of them your asking the parents to figure out the computer.
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Flexibility (Score:1)
Plus, when things return to normal, students will want to take them to the library, science lab, coffee shop, etc.
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Desktops would cost more. Chromebooks are like $120
A lot of kids are just sitting somewhere like a kitchen table and don't have a place to set up a desktop computer - particularly those with a few siblings.
Cost (Score:2)
Desktops cost more than chromebooks, but less than most tablets and laptops, which is what most school system I've seen are buying. You can put together a cheap desktop for around $250 retail. Dell sells cheap desktops at Wall-mart for $150, + $100 for a decent monitor. You could probably go cheaper than that buying in bulk at an educational discount.
So, if the options are a laptop, a desktop, or nothing - schools are opting for nothing? School is important until it is inconvenient?
Re: Cost (Score:2)
I didn't believe your claim, but it's true - refurb Dell Core 2 Duo optiplexes with keyboard/mouse/monitor running windows 10 for $110:
https://www.walmart.com/search... [walmart.com]
That's amazing - but you still need wired Ethernet and a webcam, and webcams are even harder to find than chromebooks!
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I picked up Samsung Chromebooks for my kids at $220 each. They're really kick ass computers. There's no way I could build a comparable desktop for that price. I use a company issued $2500 Macbook Pro for work but I'd have no problems getting my work done with one of these chromebooks,
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I agree. I picked up a cheap Chromebook a few years ago when my old Macbook Air became unusable due to software "upgrades". It runs rings around the Macbook. Does everything I need. (I don't game)
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In town, there were none to be had! Walmart had a blowout deal on some and said they had 2 in stock, but when I got there - nope, inventory error. I found the exact same model on craigslist from a guy demanding twice the price. Hoarding.
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The display, keyboard and mouse are all packaged together with a laptop and it eliminates a bunch of support issues, such as the wrong input being selected on the monitor.
Plus, my district is planning on students carrying the chromebooks between classes when they return to in-classroom learning.
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Re:Laptops? (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially from families who are in need the Laptop is probably still a more affordable option overall.
1. PC+Monitor+Keyboard+Mouse combined is about the same price as the lower end laptops.
2. A problem with poorer homes is often the lack of space. Having a desk for a PC, that is also in a quiet place for a child to do their schoolwork is difficult. A laptop can be moved to a different room, or even outside, or in a library or other location.
3. Problems that need repair, just means brining a small laptop vs a whole PC box. If they are bringing it to their Schools IT to get it fixed, the Child can bring it on the school bus.
4. It is personal. A PC is often shared with the family, (due to space) So if there is more than one child they all can be working on schoolwork vs trying to share time with the computer.
5. More uniform, a PC is easy to add stuff onto it. Normally this is a good thing... A really good thing. However if you are going to support a lot of people, it makse support really expensive. Rich Uncle Joe gives you his old High End Video Card, because he got a better one, which of course now crashes the PC.
Laptops opposed to PC make more sense, overall is more affordable to tax payers and more beneficial to the students.
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Laptops opposed to PC make more sense, overall is more affordable to tax payers and more beneficial to the students.
While I can follow your logic, I'm not so certain you're accounting for the most obvious variable when handing a laptop to a child.
Perhaps a far more rugged tablet, would last a lot longer. These mini-humans are capable of destroying damn near anything that comes with a "lifetime" warranty. Ask any parent.
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cat breaks laptop [youtube.com]
this one destroys an ultralight with a single bite [videoman.gr]
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I didn't forget that.
However if the Laptop is replacing say 4 textbooks (costs $100-$300) each, and we assume a good number of these books will be lost or destroyed by students even a slightly higher Laptop destruction is still cheaper than replacing books. As well many schools would probably charge the student or their parents for the damage at a particular point.
Re: Laptops? (Score:2)
Textbooks last a decade, school computers/laptops not as long. I don't care that you have a Core 2 Duo laptop at home running Linux, handing a daily-use laptop to a different 4th grader year after year wears out the hardware.
where do you place the DESK top? (Score:3)
if youve ever been in a working class household, the kids don't have their own desk. They usually work at the dinner table or awkwardly from the couch.
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If they're going to be used at home anyway, why do they need laptops rather than desktops?
Because carrying your computer away from home even if that's where you use it *most* simply sucks.
Be flexible (Score:2)
If a district has supply issues, it seems a pretty easy matter to prioritize them towards households that do not have alternatives and to ensure each household has at least one. My kid would much rather use his personal laptop, but the school rules strongly discourage that. All it takes is a simple rule change to drop the demand.
After chromebooks, the next "shortage" will be parents that can not afford Internet having lost their jobs. Already, my district is supplying mobile hotspots to some families, and
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There are challenges to using personal devices in a school building. Our district wifi has a content filter which limits browsing to approved sites. The internet (and intranet) can only be accessed by devices that are managed by the district. That management includes virus protection and the ability to apply updates and monitoring tools. So a simple rule change could put the entire district network at risk of any number of challenges including malware, ransomeware, etc. Most IT departments have gone to grea
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...a simple rule change could put the entire district network at risk of any number of challenges...
That is the classic I.T. vs Business dilemma, isn't it? I.T. wants consistent design, long-term stability and prefers stasis over misstep. The business tends to prioritize "getting the job done, now" and is willing to take more risk to earn a bigger reward.
When faced with the choice of postponing the school year due to chromebook shortages or allowing people to use their home PCs for distance learning today, I am pretty sure which one the school boards would chose.
Re: Be flexible (Score:2)
They aren't in a school building, that's the point.
what about ADA issues like I need an bigger screen (Score:2)
what about ADA issues like I need an bigger screen, I can use an mini laptop I need an bigger one then 12" mini chromebook , etc?
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You do the same thing you do with the other aspects of their education. Just like you set up a IEP for a child that needs an customized approach to learning, you issue kids with an ADA issue a larger laptop, or a monitor to plug into the laptop.
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If you need a bigger screen, you can just plug one it to the Chromebook. I use mine like that all the time with two monitors.
Re: Be flexible (Score:2)
The issue is the districts don't have the chromebooks in-hand to prioritize distribution.
There are three basic groups of students:
Those with internet access and their own devices.
Those with internet access and no suitable devices.
Those with neither internet access nor a suitable device.
And, I suppose, a fourth group that has suitable devices but no Internet, but that seems unlikely to be very common.
Among those four groups the priority is for special needs students, then those with access but no devices.
Re: Be flexible (Score:2)
After chromebooks, the next "shortage" will be parents that can not afford Internet having lost their jobs. Already, my district is supplying mobile hotspots to some families, and to daycares.
The issue is those that never had internet access at home - the major ISPs have agreed to not cut internet service for non-payment during the pandemic, remember?
Leverage the community maybe? (Score:3)
I've got a bunch of old laptops sitting cupboard. I'm sure a lot of us have.
Set up a server, and we'll download and install the distro of your choice...in fact, turns out this already exists...
https://www.computerswithcause... [computerswithcauses.org]
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except....the article specifically says chromebooks are in short supply..
This isn't a fundamental limitation... (Score:3)
This isn't a fundamental limitation, this is just a matter of the supply chain adjusting to a massive shift in demand. I'm sure that everyone in the ChromeBook business is ramping up to satisfy demand as fast as they can.
It reminds me of the toilet paper situation when people staying home caused the demand for 'consumer' toilet paper to increase 40%, while demand for 'business' toilet paper dropped correspondingly. They're different products in different packaging distributed through different channels, and it took a few months for the supply chain to shift capacity, and now there aren't shortages of toilet paper.
So I'd expect that for a while the price of Chromebooks would inflate based on demand, because schools standardize on Chromebooks not just based on price, but also on manageability, so they make sense to use even if they cost the same as a low-end 'general purpose' laptop - viruses, games, etc., are much easier to restrict on Chromebooks, and that's a real savings, too. And, yes, schools with more money will be more able to buy them. And since it's actually a supply limitation, getting more money to poor schools won't help them, it'll just drive the prices up more and the better funded schools will still win out.
Which makes me wonder - is there a way to convert older Windows laptops into chromebooks? That'd in effect increase the supply, and there are tons of old laptops that aren't useful running Windows but which would be fine running ChromeOS.
Re: This isn't a fundamental limitation... (Score:2)
It reminds me of the toilet paper situation when people staying home caused the demand for 'consumer' toilet paper to increase 40%, while demand for 'business' toilet paper dropped correspondingly. They're different products in different packaging distributed through different channels, and it took a few months for the supply chain to shift capacity, and now there aren't shortages of toilet paper.
Why didn't anyone suggest selling commercial toilet paper holders to homeowners?
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Commercial toilet paper rolls are intentionally huge so they're great in office buildings, but don't fit into home dispensers. There are consumer-sized rolls for small businesses that will fit into home dispensers, but commercial toilet paper is also very low quality, which most consumers don't want. So, oddly, at the same time that people were flipping out about not getting toilet paper, you could easily buy boxes of 200 rolls from Walmart (which sells to small businesses) that were never out of stock. And
radio (Score:3)
I would have thought lack of internet was more of an issue
Mail the kids printed learning packages, have them tune into a local radio station to hear their teacher talk through the material, follow with an audio conference call Q and A session.
Re: radio (Score:2)
Radio time costs money, is one-way, audio-only.
You might as well have the teacher teach geometry into a tape recorder and have students pass around the cassette...
Sneaker nets work in worker utopias like Cuba and other second-world countries where people lack internet access at home.
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One problem is that if you try that in about two-thirds of the U.S. states, you'll have people screaming about how our country doesn't need socialism. The screaming sound you hear afterwards is the entire education system train going off the rails.
That said, what I think folks are missing is that every student who is getting no education now was already getting a poor education even before the pandemic. This just made the disparity even more devastating. The problem really needs to be solved, and it ide
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Not really socialism, because these programs are operated by cell phone companies rather than the government (for whatever reason). They're country-wide programs, although from what I understand other states don't promote them as heavily. I'm also willing to believe that these company's programs are also getting battered by a huge increase in demand.
I think they are probably being paid for by the Federal Universal Service Fund, which is a government-mandated fee that everyone with a phone pays into, largely to pay for providing service in poorer communities and providing discounted or free service to people who can't afford it. So the cell phone companies might operate the programs, but I don't think they're paying for them.
Laptop? (Score:2)
Can't that be a desktop? Maybe it's cheaper...
I still see 11-14 inch chromebooks for about $100 (Score:2)
Why the school districts don't start mothballing schools and buying chromebooks to distribute (with hotspots if needed) I guess I don't understand.
Maybe schools don't really care about students?
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If you don't think that teachers make a difference, that might work. Many students would disagree.
Being rich is better than being poor (Score:2)
Most of TFA can be summed with: "being rich is better than being poor". Which is an unarguable truth.
What NYT derives from this — always — is that the government must step in to redistribute the wealth.
Note the "redistribute" — a vegetarian synonym for "rob" or "steal".
Never mind that, in the last 60 years of the "redistribution" efforts, the per-pupil cost of education in the US has quadrupled (inflation-adjusted) [ed.gov] — while the resulting quality remained same (at best), or worsened..
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Most of TFA can be summed with: "being rich is better than being poor". Which is an unarguable truth.
What NYT derives from this — always — is that the government must step in to redistribute the wealth.
Note the "redistribute" — a vegetarian synonym for "rob" or "steal".
Never mind that, in the last 60 years of the "redistribution" efforts, the per-pupil cost of education in the US has quadrupled (inflation-adjusted) [ed.gov] — while the resulting quality remained same (at best), or worsened...
You'll note that nowhere in here was a solution. The folks on the right don't have answers. They just have complaints.
We all know what's wrong with the education system. A lot of right-wingers thought that mass consolidation of school systems would save money like it does in the corporate world, not realizing that those savings only materialize if they are accompanied by the mass layoffs that occur in the corporate world, and only if they result in fewer people being able to do the same work. In educati
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Private schools are the solution.
For the people who can afford it. That's not a solution. And no, vouchers don't solve that problem. The folks on the right economically will tell you that as soon as governments start providing a standard base income to everyone, folks will just raise prices to take into account the added income. And they say the same thing about government scholarships and grants for college education. In what universe would the cost of education at K-12 private schools not similarly increase to accommodate the availa
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You're conflating the question of "who does it" with "who pays for it". It can still be taxpayer-sponsored — fully or in part (robbing Paul to pay for Peter's children) — without being government-run. The two are orthogonal... Indeed, the vouchers idea [edchoice.org] shows, how this can be done in practice. 15 states offer it now, as does District Columbia.
No, they show how it can be done in a very limited fashion for a very limited percentage of the students. See also my previous comment about what happens to the price of services when you give away free money.
It is a solution — somehow competing supermarkets manage to provide food "to those, who can afford it". Competing movie-studios come up with entertainment "for those, who can afford it". Competing construction companies provide homes "for those, who can afford it". Competing auto-makers supply cars "to those who can afford it".
All of the above are fine with you, only the schools offer a service, that must be government-run, because someone may not be able to afford it...
Because education is a fundamental part of creating a next generation who are capable of doing something useful and productive, rather than just living on the taxpayers' dime.
A decent computer can be had for $1000. Even if you replace one every year (and my kid just got a used chromebook from her school, which was sold for less than $500 new), that still leaves you with the per-pupil cost-increase over 3.5 times!
And you're entirely missing the point. I'm not saying that the Chromebook is the reason that schools cost more. I'm saying th
Hybrid Computer for Students (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems like the school districts just need to be a little more imaginative
Take a Raspberry Pi, secure it with 2 sided tape to the back of a monitor, and give the students a keyboard with a trackpad. If buying in bulk, you could probably get a manufacturer to include the power supply for the Pi on the monitor.
Install ChromeOS so it is easy for the schools to manage and then give them to the students
Just a quick search was about $205 USD, but I am sure you can do it for cheaper in bulk or if really searching
24.99 Keyboard & Mouse
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/l... [bestbuy.com]
115.99 Monitor
https://www.amazon.com/Elecrow... [amazon.com]
11.99 Case
https://www.amazon.com/Raspber... [amazon.com]
37.50 pi 3 b+
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P... [amazon.com]
9.95 power cable
https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit... [amazon.com]
4.85 16 GB
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk... [amazon.com]
Total: $205.27
Plus you do not have to worry about the manufacturer deciding not to support your Chromebook any more
Additional Plus, for students with special needs they can include a larger monitor.
Re: (Score:2)
Or if you want the Pi 4:
$99.99 Pi 4 Kit
https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit... [amazon.com]
24.99 Keyboard & Mouse
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/l... [bestbuy.com]
115.99 Monitor
https://www.amazon.com/Elecrow... [amazon.com]
Total: $240.97
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Chromebooks are cheaper and you don't have all those wires, cards to plug in (failure points).
(I've been using a Pi 4 as my main computer for a few months, it works great but there are wires all over the place.)
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed that this would have more wires, require the school district to assemble (so more work for them), and would not be as seamless as a Chromebook. However, the issue is that school districts can not purchase Chromebooks right now according to the article. This would be a low cost way for school districts to provide a functional computer to students when they can not purchase a Chromebook.
Also, I am sure if one was doing a large order, for a school district, they could have the monitor shell replaced so
Re: Hybrid Computer for Students (Score:2)
That's a lot of stuff to drop off at a third graders home for their parents to figure out.
And where will they place this collection of parts? Not every student has their own desk in their bedroom.
And you can buy a chrome box for special-needs students that works exactly the same as a chromebook with a bigger monitor or other required technology.
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>That's a lot of stuff to drop off at a third graders home for their parents to figure out.
Agreed that the school districts would have to assemble everything before giving it to the student. But, this about having something affordable vs nothing, so I would hope they could get some parents from the PTO to volunteer to help.
> And where will they place this collection of parts? Not every student has their own desk in their bedroom.
Should not be too unwieldy since the Pi would be secured to the monitor.
Apple? (Score:2)
Wait I thought Apple declared the computer dead and that all students will be able to do 100% of everything they need on a cheap iPad! I'm shocked, SHOCKED I tell you that it turns out this isn't the case.
Actually in all seriousness my wife's school tried the whole iPad thing. They considered it in the same way the economy considers the 2008 financial crisis, a blip that set back a bunch of students for years to come. ... Sadly the school is now MacBook central, well sadly for the wife, she can't stand the
Re: Apple? (Score:2)
Cheap iPad? You crack me up...
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Cheap iPad? You crack me up...
With the educational discount you get a new iPad for $200. Marginally more than the cost of a TI-84+
Gov't Funding for Education (Score:4, Interesting)
To those of us in other countries (such as here in Canada), it's surprising how schools are funded in the US. Each district draws from its own local pool of money. Schools in wealthy neighbourhoods are well-funded. Schools in poor neighbourhoods are not.
One would think, perhaps, that in today's world education is something of a basic right. But in the US, there is such a strong knee-jerk reaction against "socialism" that the idea of gov't funded education (or healthcare) for everyone is considered somehow radical and dangerous.
Wake up America. The cold war ended years ago. You can stop being terrified of the communist boogeyman. (Unless you're thinking of Putin personally ;). Much poorer countries are doing a much better job at providing for their citizens than you. It's really a shame.
Re: Gov't Funding for Education (Score:2)
Schools in wealthy neighbourhoods are well-funded. Schools in poor neighbourhoods are not.
Wrong.
School funding is largely accomplished through the state, not 'neighborhoods', and states set baseline funding levels across the state, directing larger amounts to poorer district to meet minimal levels.
In NJ, where I used to live, we had Abbott Districts (google it) - the poor districts had some of the highest funding levels, the lowest graduation rates, and poor academic performance. My district - a 'wealthy' district was 94% funded by local homeowners, while Abbott districts get more than half thei
Re: Gov't Funding for Education (Score:2)
To continue, the issue here isn't money/funding, it's order delays - to place an order the means you've moved past the funding issue.
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My district - a 'wealthy' district was 94% funded by local homeowners, while Abbott districts get more than half their funding from the state.
It's not a question of what proportion of funds come from local homeowners versus the state. It's about the total amount. A district could get 99% of its funding from the state and still not be "well funded" in the sense I'm referring to. In your example, I would wager that the district with local funding from wealthy residents receives FAR more funding per student than the state-funded district. Which is the way rich people want it to be. They don't want good funding for education across the board paid by
laptops schmatops (Score:2)
Or use books (Score:2)
Is it really that hard to do remote learning on a shoe string budget considering schools NEVER invested in remote learning in the first place. All this "technology" school districts have spend $$$ on and you can't even do remote learning.
You have cell phones, you have tablets, you have meeting software, you have drop box and google docs. You have a plethora of tools to interact with students, provide assignments,
Forgot one word... (Score:2)
A surge in LAST-MINUTE worldwide demand by educators for low-cost laptops and Chromebooks -- up to 41 percent higher than last year -- has created monthslong shipment delays and pitted desperate schools against one another. Districts with deep pockets often win out, leaving poorer ones to give out printed assignments and wait until winter for new computers to arrive.
They likely didn't order their chromebooks and laptops during the last school year, they waited until July/August to place their orders...
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If they can't have PCs let them have Macintoshes!
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My office disposes of a class-room's worth of (4-5 year old high end engineering) PC's every 6 months, I'm sure many other billion-dollar companies with offices in most cities do. Why are these machines not ending up in schools, they're far more capable than the garbage-tier chromebooks, and most aren't even that worn. Those machines range from 12" discrete GPU-less clerical staff laptops to 17" laptops with 3000 series Quadro's in them.
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Just a guess, a school would want a class and preferably the entire school on all the same model, not a hodgepodge of different machines with different capabilities and maybe different OSes.
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Bingo ... you got it. Many schools won't even accept donations of used equipment, because the cost of supporting and maintaining a heterogeneous fleet of hardware in the hands of schoolchildren and non-tech-expert teachers vastly outweighs the benefits. My childrens' district purchases hundreds of identical machines every few years to replace the previous fleet ... and then they donate the old fleet to non-profits or dispose of them, because no other schools want the "old" fleet due to support and mainten
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The schools aren't really concerned about the machines' capability. I expect they would prefer machines that are just capable enough to run their lessons via a browser,, and nothing else.
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One of the local recyclers here does at least some refurbishing and reselling of equipment they take in. You can see some of their inventory at their website at https://techdiscounts.org/ [techdiscounts.org].
They even have a retail store (maybe not open now) where you walk in and browse what they have. Which is good for laptops, since you can pick out one that looks like it spent most of its former corporate life sitting on a desk belonging to an employee that had no real actual need for a portable.
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iPads are actually pretty good to centrally manage now. Can choose to lock things out, only use certain apps, kiosk modes, etc. All from web interface by serial number. Though I mostly deal with Google chromeboxes (not so much chromebooks), I'd say about same things you can do with Apple.
Place I work for is still 95% Windows and Google web based email/drive for storage/meet/chat and other apps. The 5% is chromeboxes and some iPads floating around.
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Apple used to own the education market. Chromebooks have taken over with low cost, easy management and education specific tools. Hard to beat this combination.
Our local schools have been giving all students Chromebooks for a few years. My daughter manages them and it's easy to swap out damaged, lost or defective units. Just login the new student and they're up and running.
Re: Apple can fill the gap with ARM macs lower pr (Score:2)
The laptop form factor is much better than the tablet one for education. A real keyboard is a must, and a detachable Bluetooth one is not as good.
Re: Apple can fill the gap with ARM macs lower pri (Score:2)
intel mobile chips are wrapped in a $20 bill. it blows away any margin advantage there is to an ARM SoC.
the display, memory, flash, and hardware are together a much larger portion of the price. and presumably Apple wouldn't cheap out enough on any of those and therefor can never win in a race to the bottom.
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Re: Let them eat Raspberry Pi! (Score:2)
FFS the Raspberry Pi is not a meaningful replacement for a chromebook!
As a reminder, to match the capabilities of chromebook hardware, a raspberry pi owner needs to supply:
A case;
A power supply;
A keyboard;
A mouse;
A webcam w/ microphone;
An HDMI cable;
An HDMI monitor;
And an SD card pre-loaded with an OS image.
Once all the above is collected together, at a cost in excess of most modest chromebooks, it all needs to be cobbled together and requires a dedicated work surface so that the user can avoid having to mo
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Access to modern learning technology is only a part of the problem. There is a whole other sets of issues in play, that put poor people at a disadvantage.
If you were to swap all the kids from an underfunded city school, with an overfunded suburban school. The students from the suburban school will still probably do better than the students that came from the City school. While the later would probably be doing a bit better and the former would be doing a tad worse, but a child's education is far more th
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There needs to be a much larger effort towards breaking the poverty cycle. It isn't about giving people freebees, while someone is working their butts off. It is about trying to give people a platform where they can succeed.
Yes, this.
Nobody wants to talk about the real factors because that'd be deemed Racist. If you are truly a racist you'd have to be overjoyed watching everyone ignore the real issues that are keeping people down.
Re: Joke's on the rich kids (Score:2)
Why are city schools 'underfunded'? Isnt that where everyone pays the highest taxes, attracts the smartest people, and has the highest-density population, reducing transportation and myriad other costs?
People in suburbs, in my experience, pay thru the nose for their local schools, why aren't city dwellers equally supportive of their schools?