My 8 year old 4th grader talks often about how he loves working on the Chromebooks at school...so much so that he's offered to use the money he's saved to purchase one for himself.

It's been at least 3 years since I purchased any type of computer and at that time Chromebooks weren't really a huge part of the market.

For him to use for his school work for the next several years, would it be best to purchase a Chromebook or a standard Laptop Computer?

What specs should I pay close attention to when purchasing either?

Thanks for any and all help, opinions, and advice!

TripleB

Chromebooks are cheaper and the data is stored on the cloud. But the creepy factor is Google tracking.
Caught tracking school data after promising not to

We got dd10 a Chromebook on Black Friday. It was cheap ($99) at Best Buy and we thought that it would be a great introduction to the responsibility that comes with owning a computer.

The other night I downloaded some of her chorus music onto it so she could practice. This morning, we cannot find this music. Frustrating!

So, there are pros and cons to the Chromebook. I don't mind her taking it to school or worry if she accidentally bangs it around but it is annoying that things are stored on the cloud and there is no one easy way to click and find something that was saved.

I am sure that if I had had more than 3 minutes to look I could have found the music but trying to get dressed and run out the door on Monday morning at the same time was not conducive.

My 2e DS is on the waiting list for school AT - he supposed to be getting a chromebook sometime soon. He dragged my old laptop back and forth for a while but it was just too heavy so now he just uses it at home and uses one of the class's chromebooks (admittedly it is an old heavy laptop).

Our school has everything on google so even when he is using the laptop he is going through his google account.

Specs I would care about are
- weight - assuming he is going to be transporting it back and forth and depending on what age your school system starts having kids move from class to class
- durability - I'm actually kind of amazed that my laptop survived what I can only assume he put it through
- battery life - one of DS's biggest complaints about the laptop is that it didn't last the day and it was a big pain to have it plugged in (his class has all of the desks in the middle of the room far from any outlets).

I'm sure there are more but that would be my starting point.

My random thoughts:

Our middle school has chrome books, and both of my dds use Google Drive to upload/save/etc classwork. One dd uses an iPad in class but her teacher has the students keep all their docs on Google Drive. I also use Google Drive myself on various projects. Our experience with Google *Drive* (not the chromebook itself, but with storing and using files on Google Drive) has *not* been all that great. It's an easy way to share, and files are auto-saved while working, which is nice, but my dd has had school files disappear - enough times that she now is careful to download everything she creates on Google Drive so she has an extra copy in case her teacher can't find her final copy when she is ready to grade it (several times the copy that is available to grade when the teacher is ready to grade isn't the same "final" copy my dd left on the drive). This has happened with other students in dd's class as well, and I've found that when working with other people where I'm trying to upload files to Google Drive to share, everything will look a-ok after I've uploaded, but when the other person logs on from their computer they can't always see the files I've uploaded even though they are shared into the files/folder. Sometimes I log back in to check and can't see my own files... so I reload them... log back in a few hours later and voila! Two sets of the same files Soooo... for me, I like the comfort factor of saving work on an actual laptop or iPad.

Re spaghetti's notes about sharing files between MSOffice software and Chrome apps - I don't work on a Chrome so I can't speak directly to it, but our family uses Macs at home as well as iPads, Chrome and iPads at school, and I've been able to easily open up the Chrome-generated Word format files in Pages on my laptop and my kids transfer text docs between the Chrome/Google Drive and their iPads easily... so I'm guessing their must be a way to do this without too much pain. Not sure exactly how the Chrome-to-PC would work, but Google Drive (export to Word/Excel format) to Mac(Pages/Numbers) works a-ok both ways.

It's just making sure you don't lose anything on Google Drive that's been an issue for us

polarbear

I guess here is what I don't understand.

If my son can use Google Drive from a laptop, what's the big draw of the Chromebooks..other than that's what they use in his school as well as at the middle school where I teach?

I asked him and he said that Chromebooks were usually faster, usually cheaper, and didn't have as many problems with virus'. Not sure if this is the case or just something he's using to try and sway me towards a Chromebook

Thanks for all the input so far!

TripleB

I think your ds is spot-on re the reasons, with economy being the big factor - Chromebooks are less expensive, and Google is most likely making deep discounts for schools. FWIW, if you asked my kids, who've had experience with laptops, Chromes and iPads - they'd choose the iPad any day, for all sorts of reasons. They are not particularly fond of the Chromes.

polarbear

I move back and forth between GoogleDocs, etc. and Office regularly, without any particular inconvenience, but do know that our students, who are in an all-Chrome environment, have occasional complaints about documents disappearing, as well. Though most lose more documents IRL, so an all-Chrome environment is a net improvement for them!

The other issue is that, without internet access, it's pretty much a $100 doorstop.

And yes, Google For Education has steep discounts on Chromebooks and apps.

iPads still have better AT options, though.