Ever since COVID-19 caused schools across America to shut down in March 2020, learning has taken on a whole new look for students, teachers, and parents nationwide. For the first time in our history, schools took their curriculum online and quickly pivoted the typical classroom learning model that has been in place for centuries to take place 100% online, all in a matter of just a few short weeks!
These unprecedented events were not without their hiccups, as teachers all over the country quickly discovered that there is a vast difference between in-person learning and remote learning- and students and their parents quickly realized that there is a learning curve when it comes to completing and submitting assignments online, as well as interacting with teachers and classmates via videoconferencing apps like Zoom.
Amid all this change and upheaval, there was also the question of what to do for students who did not have access to a computer at their home. Fortunately, as a number of schools already have invested in classroom sets of Google Chromebooks, they were able to quickly assess the needs of their students and check Chromebooks out for at-home use for remote learning.
What makes Chromebooks the go-to laptop computer for schools all over the nation? For starters, they’re simple to use. Kids as young as kindergarten age can use them with ease to log into their remote lessons. Their plug-and-play nature and easy access to the internet via the Google Chrome browser makes them a favorite of students of all ages- not to mention their parents and teachers!
Additionally, since many schools nationwide are using the Google Classroom app to organize online learning resources for students across all grade levels, it helps that the Chromebooks come equipped with all of the Google apps- including Classroom- for easy access. This makes it convenient and easy for students and parents to find the correct learning modules specific to their students’ classes. Since a student can remain logged into Google Classroom for extended periods of time, there’s no need for children to have to remember their password each time they need to log on to Google Classroom, eliminating the hassle of complicated setup for parents of younger school-age kids. All a child or teen has to do is open the Google Classroom app, put on their Chromebook headphones, and they’re ready to put in a day of remote learning without much assistance from their parents, regardless of their young age!
Perhaps one of the main reasons Chromebooks have cemented their place as the preferred school laptop computer for remote learning is their low, affordable price. Chromebooks are available for purchase at a fraction of the price of a Mac or PC laptop, yet offer all the capabilities students need to effectively learn remotely. For this reason, schools are more able to afford large quantities of Chromebooks, meaning that they are able to lend more of them to students for home use.
Though the Google Chromebook has been around for several years now, they have been more instrumental than ever in the lives of school-age children and teens, thanks to how they have enabled students to learn remotely during the COVID-19 crisis. Thanks to the affordability, ease of use, and security of these remarkable devices, kids all over the country were able to successfully finish out the 2019-2020 school year.