Microsoft and Apple used to be dominant forces in K-12 education but Google’s Chrome OS overtook both by mid-last year, gaining more than 50% of the US market sparking a major rethink of what students need.
According to FutureSource, Chrome accounted for exactly half of all device shipments to K-12 schools in the United States, displacing all other operating systems. Windows was at 22%, Linux at 19%, Mac at 6% and Android and iOS barely rating. It says that globally Windows is still on top with 43%, Mac at 4% and Chrome at 20%.
Microsoft has struck back at Chrome with its launch of Intune for Education which presents a range of new (from) US$198 Windows 10 notebooks, three-in-ones (360° hinge), and two-in-ones (hybrid tablets) from Acer, HP, Lenovo and others specifically designed for a kid-proof environment.
It has paid close attention to one fundamental shift – the move from pencils, paper, and books to stylus and glass learning. Recent studies have revealed that these changes require different teaching methods — pedagogy — as students are forced to use their heads more to visualise instead of rote learning or diagramming.
{loadposition ray}Part of that is making the use of a stylus on glass as close as possible to the feel of pencil on paper. Apart from the now extinct Samsung Galaxy Note7 that nailed this, the experience of writing or drawing on glass slates has been lacking.
Windows Ink Anniversary Update has fixed many of these issues. It enables students to write on their device, create sticky notes, draw on a whiteboard, and merge their analogue thoughts with their digital device.
Integrated into apps like Office and Microsoft Edge, students can draw on the Web and annotate their documents, digitally, with Windows Ink. Studies indicate students learn better by writing – for example, diagramming before solving a science problem can lead to 36% higher scores. With Windows Ink, students can do mathematical equations, compose music, and keep their notes organised.
Intune also allows for shared hot-desking – a classroom of devices is set up once, and students insert their own USB into the device that contains all the permissions needed. It largely removes the need for tech support.
It also supports closed “school app stores”, remote management of devices, School Data Sync (matches devices to school roosters) and more.
Part of the reason Chrome is so popular in the US is the low cost, ubiquitous, high-speed access to the Internet and education cloud resources. Australia has dropped from 30th to 60th in global speeds and accessibility, according to a report from Akamai.
And the issue is exacerbated as average pupil numbers for both the 9404 primary and secondary schools are around 500 and 190 of these have more than 1200 students. Regardless, that is a lot of bandwidth when students in K-12 log on pretty much at the same time onto the cloud. Many rural and remote schools stiil only have cripplingly slow statellite or ADSL access.
Microsoft’s counter to Chrome is that the bulk of the work can be done off-line and costly bandwidth can be reserved for research instead of cloud-based apps. Google will counter with more offline capability for Chrome.
And Office, specifically Word and Excel, is still the gold standard in enterprise on Windows and Mac so using it at school makes sense. Employers have a reasonable expectation that students will know how to use Office programs.