Ian Key's Blog
Changing the world, one rant at a time!
A Chromebook In College: Extra – Discussions
16 months ago
Along with posting here, most of my readers will have found my blog through the google group Chromebook Central.
In the last few days I have been receiving email left, right and centre about people discussing using chromebooks in education which is excellent!!
So this post is really just to give the rest of you a read of whats going on, how people have replied and my views too, feel free to join in the discussion on the group in the link above or in the comments here!
Also, a member of the group asked me to record what apps i use, what tasks i’m doing and what my battery is like at the end of every day at college, so starting tomorrow, i will be posting as I go!
So the discussion begins:
- Google Docs has no feature for citations or other complex documents
- Google has no solution for podcasts
- Large PDFs can be tricky to manage
- Some wireless connections are dropped from time to time
- Formatting can be messed up when converting to google docs
This only a very small part of the discussion and I really would encourage you to go and read the whole thing.
I personally have not come up against any problems -yet- that I couldn’t overcome with a little bit of fiddling and searching. With anything new, chromeOS will have its kinks to be worked out, but as new OS’s go, I think google really hit the ground running.
If I do find any problems, you guys will almost certainly be the first to hear about them!!
Thanks to everyone that has been participating in the group and everyone who is reading my posts. I never thought it would be as popular as it has become!
Ian
A Chromebook In College – Part 3 – All about the Apps
16 months ago
While the chromebook itself is a great laptop (people at google will come after me for calling it that) and chrome is a great browser, the selection of ‘Apps’ for it really set it apart from other browsers.
Yes other browsers can use the applications at they are just HTML 5 websites but the way that chrome makes them available is what I think makes the difference.
The App screen under the new tab area sets everything out really well and the ability to move them around and now even name the pages of apps has made it even better! I now have a page for college apps, other apps and games.
Apps I can’t live without!
1. Google Docs
I think experiencing all that google apps can do is what finally pushed me in the direction of a chromebook.
The word processing application feels natural to use, if I may dare compare it to that of Microsoft word, its familiar but that little bit different. Microsoft really missed its chance but I doubt even if they had beaten google to it, it wouldn’t have been as good as it is today.
The Spreadsheets are also great, a formula helper that is in the app would be nice but for those who know how to use them, it is a great application. I’ve not had a chance to fully test the presentation app but from seeing some of the presentations that have come from it, it looks great!
The forms are something I wouldn’t be without, to churn out a great looking survey that can turn your results into a chart or table with a few clicks is invaluable. To anyone that hasn’t used it, i suggest you at least give it a shot!
- For the next two weeks I am trailing my Office Administration class on Google Docs to see how they get on! -
2. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is another one of those apps that just works. My whole family use it and it really helps keep us organised and I use it as well for my college classes, assessments and other things. The reminders are good too as they work with my phone!
3. Springpad
Springpad is an app I found not long after I got my chromebook. As soon as I started using it however, I instantly fell in love with it.
While not always 100% intuitive, the fact you can organise your notes and tasks into different notebooks and tag all your notes makes searching for them when it comes to revising or tests etc. A must for all students!
4. Scratchpad
Scratchpad is another note taking app I use all day every day. In its minimal form it floats over any window for any note taking / copy + pasting. I use this for the report research Im doing. It also syncs with google documents in its own collection so it keeps everything organised.
I generally keep a scratchpad window open all the time just in case.
5. SlideRocket
Sliderocket is a fantastic and refreshing change from Microsoft Powerpoint. Think more Keynote for Mac, but on the web! The interface is easy to use (some may say cluttered but I think everything needs to be there!). Sliderocket can import a powerpoint presentation or a presentation from Google docs allowing everything to work together. The ability to search for media like youtube videos and pictures through the app is a nice addition and you can store your media there for future use, there is around 250MB of space to use without having to upgrade anything. The basic plan (free) has only minor limitations,the only notable one is to show a presentation it has to be done online which isn’t really a problem today as to get to it – you have to be online anyway!.
Notable Apps:
MindMapr – A fantastic mindmapping app (free)
Wunderlist – A great to-do list app that works across web,windows,mac,iOS (free)
Prezi – Another presentation app with a difference, using zooming and panning it makes some impressive presentations (free but with limitations, better accounts free for students)
To wrap up, if anyone wants to ask anything or wants me to cover anything in my next blog, comment on my post either here or on google+ or email me. I’m always happy to help!!!
Ian
A Chromebook In College: Part 2 – My Series 5 Chromebook
06 months ago
While sitting in my office admin class is probably not the best time to be writing this I thought now was as good a time as any to start putting my chromebook through its paces.
The first thing that goes in the chromebooks favour is its weight. During high school I lugged my laptop around with me and that would make my bag as heavy as I could stand with that in it alone, never mind the mass amounts of books I had.
The next good point about my chromebook is its size. I’m not going to run off the exact size but I know my chromebook fits comfortably in my bag and takes up the same space or less than my notebook (an actual paper one!) This has been a godsend as I never know just when I will need to do something, find something or get that bit of college work for my next class done while sitting in the canteen.
As our college has a large wi-fi network, which it plans to expand to the whole campus soon, I have no need for the 3G that’s built-in when at college, I’m always on the wi-fi and at home I am the same. I occasionally use the 3G when I am out as I put my orange sim into the sim card slot and it works perfectly!
Battery life I think was the biggest deciding factor about buying my chromebook. As I sit here, at 12:25 pm, having been on my laptop for well over an hour, I have just over 6 hours of battery left, enough to have me going long after I return home. Other laptops like my macbook had a decent enough battery life but not enough to see me through the day which made taking my laptop pretty much pointless as I had to choose carefully which classes to use it in.
Some say that because the chromebook is designed for the web (or as in google’s fantastic ads for the chromebook, it IS the web) the chromebook is only for use around the home or at work but no where in between. I beg to differ, at no time, even before working out my phones sim card worked in my chromebook, have I felt my chromebook was useless. While I think offline apps are going in the opposite direction from where the chromebook is actually trying to go, apps like springpad and scratchpad have been indispensable to me over the past few months.
Ill talk more about my app choices next time!
Overall my samsung series 5, as a machine, is excellent.
Ian
A Chromebook In College: Part 1
26 months ago
Chrome is a well known web browser made by everyone’s favourite search engine, Google. Chrome runs on about 25% of all web connected computers running today, the other 75% to rivals like Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox.
I myself am a complete convert starting originally in Internet Explorer back when Windows 98 was the big operating system at the time, then I turned to Firefox then with the purchase of my macbook I used safari which I fell in love with… Then chrome came along and it happened all over again.
Google took Chrome a step further and have since released the Chromebook, a new idea in computing focusing completely on the cloud. They market the chromebook not as a laptop, but as the web itself. Sure companies have dabbled in cloud computing before but so far no one has made anything that worthy of a lengthy description. Google started by releasing a few thousand chromebooks called CR-48 to beta testers to have accelerate the process of making chromebooks a public product.
After getting my place at college this year I turned to the chromebook as my computer of choice and purchased the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. Without a doubt, this is the computer I have been waiting for; quick, light and focussed on the web. Before I purchased my very own chromebook I set myself a task, and that was to live completely on the web for a month. No desktop applications, no nothing, just google chrome. At first I was like “oh ill use ‘Things’ to record that” but then remembering I was web only, I set out to find an alternative.
Over the next year I will be posting regularly about the ups and downs of using my chromebook in college and maybe after next summer, I can convince others to go chromebook too.
Ian