Octopus Overlords

My 6th years old daughter is going to start school remotely. Mostly the class will be using zoom. Since I am also working from home, she can't use my PC to join her class.

Which is better? Using a chromebook (like Asus Chromebook Flip C214) or get a cheap iPad?

My daughter is very familiar with iOS/iPadOS since she has been using iPad/iPad mini since 1 year old.

Right now she has an old iPad air are starting to break so need to be replaced if she is going to use iPad for remote learning.

Depends what the school uses/recommends.

Either should be fine for Zoom, comes down to whether they used google classroom or whatever.

Right now either should work fine, but as she gets older and has to produce written work beyond simple sentences, a chromebook is a more productive tool.

Where I teach, our ipads rarely get used for anything other than web browsing or running simple apps. The only time I use them in my classroom is when students silently read. My chrome cart on the other hand, gets used daily by my students.

Of course, I teach 7th grade but I've seen similar usage patterns teaching younger students in my school district.

Definitely Chromebook. They're more versatile than an iPad, with enough functionality to almost be like a full laptop, at are especially good if your school uses Google Classroom. The full keyboard came in handy even for our kindergartener's work because a lot of it was website-based; not all websites play nice with a touchscreen, and for some it's just easier to type on a keyboard. We also bought a cheap bluetooth mouse rather than relying on the touchpad all the time, and it's much better (helping a 6yo drag & drop on a touchpad can be tough). I think the Chromebook has helped our youngest (6yo) develop some general computer-use skills, and it's what our older two have been using in school for a couple years anyway. iPads/tablets are nice, but I really don't think they're best for school work.

IPads are acceptable for consuming content. They are not, on their own, acceptable for creating content.

The schools for our kids are using chromebooks I the classrooms for a while now. For the upcoming year, they have advised, if you can purchase a chromebook, please do, otherwise they will provide one.

Several chromebooks are designed with students in mind, features like drop resistance and spill resistant keyboards.

the school is using lenovo 100e I went with a lenovo 300e, becuase it flips around to tablet mode.

But, because of so much remote learning going on, this biz is selling out everywhere.

My daughter's school system transitioned to Chromebooks from iPads due to cost and durability. She's used one for a couple of years now and it's worked out very well. I think the keyboard was really useful for various assignments and with the iPad unless you shell out some cash you're stuck using the iPad keyboard which I think would become tedious for assignments requiring a lot of typing.

From looking on internet, seem like Zoom doesn't work that well on chromebook.

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:04 am From looking on internet, seem like Zoom doesn't work that well on chromebook.

Zoom doesn't work well on anything and really ought to be avoided for the reasons explained here:

I can't force the school not to use Zoom.

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:07 am I can't force the school not to use Zoom.

Perhaps not, but you can formally request in writing that your teacher/school consider not exposing your child's privacy to an advertising-based company with an atrocious track record of security flaws that puts them at risk of being hacked and harrassed by strangers and exposed to obscene imagery. They may not be aware some security researchers consider Zoom malware and "fundamentally corrupt."

Especially considering safer, more privacy-focused free and open source alternatives are available (e.g. BigBlueButton and Jitsi Meet) that really aren't difficult to use at all.

To use an American proverb, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

Anonymous Bosch wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:22 am

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 3:07 am I can't force the school not to use Zoom.

Perhaps not, but you can formally request in writing that your teacher/school consider not exposing your child's privacy to an advertising-based company with an atrocious track record of security flaws that puts them at risk of being hacked and harrassed by strangers and exposed to obscene imagery. They may not be aware some security researchers consider Zoom malware and "fundamentally corrupt."

Especially considering safer, more privacy-focused free and open source alternatives are available (e.g. BigBlueButton and Jitsi Meet) that really aren't difficult to use at all.

To use an American proverb, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease."

So you're agreeing she can't force the school to not use Zoom

wonderpug wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:37 am So you're agreeing she can't force the school to not use Zoom

Indeed. Then again, perhaps if she's a technically-gifted student with a propensity for social-engineering and deploying ransomware…

Anonymous Bosch wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:54 am

wonderpug wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:37 am So you're agreeing she can't force the school to not use Zoom

Indeed. Then again, perhaps if she's a technically-gifted student with a propensity for social-engineering and deploying ransomware…

Ender's Game taught me that if your school offers you a device with technical vulnerabilities, you're probably expected to exploit those vulnerabilities as part of your evaluation.

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:04 am From looking on internet, seem like Zoom doesn't work that well on chromebook.

Not sure why, my son uses it daily in a Chrome browser, and that's what a Chromebook essentially is.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:56 pm

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:04 am From looking on internet, seem like Zoom doesn't work that well on chromebook.

Not sure why, my son uses it daily in a Chrome browser, and that's what a Chromebook essentially is.

There are report of performance issue with some chromebook including on Asus Chromebook C434 which is more powerful than the Asus Chromebook C214 that I considered.

So we're considering picking up a couple of Chromebooks for the twins (age 6, entering first grade). Chicago Public Schools are going to use Google classroom for whatever remote learning occurs for next year. So far we've had them use a combination of my laptop and their Fire tablets for school stuff, but that's not going to cut it for next year. We want economical (have to buy two of them) plus reliable (6 year olds). Any suggestions as to particular makes or models? I've never dug into the Chromebook world before, so this is new territory for me.

I would keep an eye on the refurbs at woot.com.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 21, 2020 3:01 pm So we're considering picking up a couple of Chromebooks for the twins (age 6, entering first grade). Chicago Public Schools are going to use Google classroom for whatever remote learning occurs for next year. So far we've had them use a combination of my laptop and their Fire tablets for school stuff, but that's not going to cut it for next year. We want economical (have to buy two of them) plus reliable (6 year olds). Any suggestions as to particular makes or models? I've never dug into the Chromebook world before, so this is new territory for me.

i did a lot of research recently, here is what I ended up with

the lenovo 100e is the consumer version of what our school is using. its drop resistant, and the keyboard is water resistant. has the camera you need and long battery life, and small and lightweight, so it fits in kids backbacks

the lenovo 300e is more expensive, but it flips around into tablet mode, so its good for the younger crowd. This is the one I purchased.

there are protective cases available for both of these.

I wanted the one I got to be close enough to the school model so there would not be any problems.

I also discovered that low price chromebooks are mostly sold out, I guess with everybody needing one this year, the stock is gone. I had to buy mine through a reseller that bundled it with an SD card for a crazy mark up, but it was that or nothing. I wish you better luck than me.

That was super fun.

The Lenovo 300E sounded like the way to go, so I hopped onto Amazon and found someone selling them with good reviews and a solid price. I ordered two and patted myself on the back for getting on it right away so I didn't have to worry it. The delivery date was out a couple of weeks.

I was excited when I got the notice that the shipment would be arriving in the next few days - quicker than anticipated. When the box got here, I thought it was a bit light. I opened it up and there was only one in there. I messaged the seller via Amazon and the next day they responded saying they were sold out and would refund me the price of the second one (which they promptly did).

So back to Amazon, but it was harder to find the same model this time. I eventually found one that looked very similar - it had more RAM, but the twins wouldn't notice that difference I figure, and it cost a bit more. I pulled the trigger. It arrived a few days later, and I thought it seemed odd unpacking it. Turns out I'm an idiot, and while I compared all the specs, I failed to notice that I bought the Lenovo 300E for Windows instead of a Chromebook. D'oh!

So I returned that, and now I couldn't find a Lenovo 300E anywhere on Amazon, on Lenovo's site, at Best Buy, or pretty much anywhere I looked. I went to the Dell site and was going to order the Dell equivalent, and then I noticed that the delivery date was in February (I did a chat to confirm that this date was accurate and was told it was). I eventually was able to find the Acer equivalent of the Lenovo 300E (for a notably higher price). I ordered it and it arrived today. I unboxed it and turned it on, and it works!

So the twins will have different manufacturers, but they're functionally the same. I imagine one or the other will complain that they wanted silver or black (or whichever one they didn't get), but that's pretty much life.

Whew buddy, you got it just in time, nothing like getting the last one on Amazon.

My son's school issued Dell Chromebooks to all students this year. He's supposed to bring it to school daily, he had one home school day last week and just used it for the 30 minute Zoom session.

Jeff V wrote: ↑Mon Aug 24, 2020 7:52 pm My son's school issued Dell Chromebooks to all students this year. He's supposed to bring it to school daily, he had one home school day last week and just used it for the 30 minute Zoom session.

Your school system is lucky. Major shortages of laptops and Chromebooks are hindering e-learning plans. I know that CPS (Chicago Public Schools) are trying to get everyone who needs one access to a Chromebook, but we wanted to make sure we had our own so we didn't have to potentially take one of the limited number of CPS Chromebooks.

Our two oldest started using Chromebooks for school a couple years ago, so we actually bought them their own before starting 5th grade. We didn't realize at the time that the middle school loans every student a Chromebook when they hit 6th grade, so our girls now have school-provided laptops in addition to the ones we bought. This worked out great when COVID hit in the spring because we now had extra Chromebooks for our youngest to use for kindergarten.

Fast-forward to widespread remote learning, and the school is now asking anyone who has other options available to return school-owned Chromebooks so they can give them to families who can't afford their own. We decided to return the two we have, but that put us back to two computers for three kids. I spent the last week shopping for a new Chromebook for my 6yo, discovering how limited supplies are now. Fortunately, I was able to find a decent Lenovo through a third-party seller on Amazon and only had to pay $30 over MSRP... and it will be delivered later today.

It's crazy though...hard to find a Chromebook, printers are in short supply, and even IKEA had limited stock when we went looking for furniture to put in what has become our home classroom. Everyone needs the same resources for remote learning, and there's nowhere near enough to go around.

too bad Linux netbooks aren't still a thing.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 3:19 pm too bad Linux netbooks aren't still a thing.

Indeed, and unfortunately Chromebooks provided the simplest and easiest way to set up a nifty Linux netbook in the beforetimes.

disarm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:11 pm Our two oldest started using Chromebooks for school a couple years ago, so we actually bought them their own before starting 5th grade. We didn't realize at the time that the middle school loans every student a Chromebook when they hit 6th grade, so our girls now have school-provided laptops in addition to the ones we bought. This worked out great when COVID hit in the spring because we now had extra Chromebooks for our youngest to use for kindergarten.

Fast-forward to widespread remote learning, and the school is now asking anyone who has other options available to return school-owned Chromebooks so they can give them to families who can't afford their own. We decided to return the two we have, but that put us back to two computers for three kids. I spent the last week shopping for a new Chromebook for my 6yo, discovering how limited supplies are now. Fortunately, I was able to find a decent Lenovo through a third-party seller on Amazon and only had to pay $30 over MSRP... and it will be delivered later today.

It's crazy though...hard to find a Chromebook, printers are in short supply, and even IKEA had limited stock when we went looking for furniture to put in what has become our home classroom. Everyone needs the same resources for remote learning, and there's nowhere near enough to go around.

We saw a pretty great desk at ikea, but could not figure out how to get it delivered. The delivery button just doesn't appear to exist, only option on the website was buy now and pick up in store. Whelp too bad, I guess its a not-quite-so-great desk from amazon.

Jaymon wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:44 pm

disarm wrote: ↑Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:11 pm Our two oldest started using Chromebooks for school a couple years ago, so we actually bought them their own before starting 5th grade. We didn't realize at the time that the middle school loans every student a Chromebook when they hit 6th grade, so our girls now have school-provided laptops in addition to the ones we bought. This worked out great when COVID hit in the spring because we now had extra Chromebooks for our youngest to use for kindergarten.

Fast-forward to widespread remote learning, and the school is now asking anyone who has other options available to return school-owned Chromebooks so they can give them to families who can't afford their own. We decided to return the two we have, but that put us back to two computers for three kids. I spent the last week shopping for a new Chromebook for my 6yo, discovering how limited supplies are now. Fortunately, I was able to find a decent Lenovo through a third-party seller on Amazon and only had to pay $30 over MSRP... and it will be delivered later today.

It's crazy though...hard to find a Chromebook, printers are in short supply, and even IKEA had limited stock when we went looking for furniture to put in what has become our home classroom. Everyone needs the same resources for remote learning, and there's nowhere near enough to go around.

We saw a pretty great desk at ikea, but could not figure out how to get it delivered. The delivery button just doesn't appear to exist, only option on the website was buy now and pick up in store. Whelp too bad, I guess its a not-quite-so-great desk from amazon.

TTIWWP - or at least links!

The Ikea Pahl desk looked good, because its height adjustable. Height adjustable for school age children, the height adjustable desks on amazon all seem to be adult sit/stand adjustable.
We also thought the Vimund Chair looked good.
These are both for a small sized 5th grader. But with me not able to find a delivery option, and no desire to visit an actual Ikea these days.

Instead, I just picked up an affordable desk and will use an extra chair I had Since its all adult sized, I also got a Small Ottoman as a foot rest.

Couple of Whiteboards an Undertale Mousepad, will pick up some office supply stuff like markers, cheap shelfs, pencil holders, an old fashioned school type wall clock. I think we may be ready for a full year of home schooling.

Thanks. How do you like that desk chair you had extra? I'm looking for one and don't mind spending a bit more if it lasts and is comfortable.

oh I don't like it, I hates it. I hates it tremendously. Thats why its extra. But the kid didn't seem to care. Perhaps its due to much smaller butt size? I really like my Sorina from Staples but don't take my word for it Office Chair Thread