Lenovo Introduces Rugged ThinkPad Chromebook for Schools

By Lenovo Education
In Digital Curriculum, EdTech, One to One Learning, Professional Development, Technology Trends
Tagged with: Chromebook, classroom technology, Hardware, k12 technology, Lenovo, ThinkPad X131e, X131e Chromebook

Lenovo today announced the ThinkPad X131e Chromebook — a fast booting, highly customizable laptop PC built with rugged features for the daily rigors of K-12 education. The ThinkPad X131e Chromebook simplifies software and security management for school administrators and provides students and teachers with quick access to thousands of apps, education resources and storage.

Throughout the course of a typical school day, students’ laptops are often subject to extreme wear and tear. To help school-proof them, the ThinkPad X131e has rugged features including a rubber bumper around the top cover and stronger corners to protect the system in the case of an accidental drop. The hinges and hinge brackets are also strengthened to last more than 50,000 open and close cycles.

“The ThinkPad X131e has proven to be very successful in education environments,” said Jerry Paradise, executive director of product marketing, ThinkPad Product Group. “With the rugged features we added to the X131e, we’ve seen reduced failure rates in the field. This is a huge benefit to schools and students. We’re pleased to be able to offer this hardened ThinkPad Chromebook as a great computer for schools.”

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X131e Chromebook, provides students, educators, and IT administrators with an intuitive, easy-to-manage, and rugged laptop for all their computing needs right out of the box. Using Google Apps for Education along with thousands of web apps in the Chrome Web Store, students can easily create documents, edit spreadsheets, view multimedia videos, create slide show presentations and view PDF files.

Students can use the low-light webcam to communicate with students in other schools across the world or just across town. They can also easily connect via WiFi and Chrome’s fast start up gets students online instantly. With HDMI and VGA ports, students can present their reports to the class with a projector or big screen TV.

The 11.6-inch X131e laptop features an Intel® processor, a 1366×768 HD LED anti-glare screen, and three USB ports. At less than four pounds1 and battery life for the entire school day, students can easily carry the laptop between classes without the need to recharge.

Recognizing that one laptop doesn’t fit all, especially when it comes to schools, the ThinkPad X131e offers a number of customization options including custom colors, asset tagging services to help keep track of devices left on the school bus or in the classroom, and school logo etching to make every device unique to each educational institution2.

“Chromebooks are in use today by more than one-thousand K-12 schools, and they make an ideal one-to-one device because they’re more cost effective, easier to manage and maintain than traditional laptops or tablets,” said Caesar Sengupta, director of product management, Chrome OS, Google. “Lenovo has a great reputation in schools for making durable and reliable laptops, so we’re excited to partner with them to introduce the ThinkPad X131e Chromebook.”

As millions of students in education institutions across the country continue to use Google Apps for Education, administrators need a system that is easily manageable but also provides the layers of security required to safe guard a school’s ecosystem. In conjunction with Chrome’s built-in protection, Chromebooks allow schools’ IT teams to manage security and scalability through one dashboard. This allows IT professionals to configure and manage devices all from one place, saving time, resources and money rolling out multiple computer images.

For the always budget conscious educators and school administrators, Chromebooks cost less than most high end tablets and according to the IDC, require 69 percent less labor to deploy and 92 percent less labor to support3.

The ThinkPad X131e Chromebook will be available starting February 26th via special bid volume pricing starting at $429. Interested K-12 institutions should contact their Lenovo Sales Representative.

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Internet 2.0 in Schools

We live in a highly connected world, and the use of the internet and public networks extends downward into lower age groups, even to 8 and 9 year olds. Kids in primary schools today have effectively grown up in a connected world, and going to school cannot be a return to 1990 if the learning environment is to be effective. If we look to Internet 2.0 for the schools, it’s consists of a combination of more school centric content and integration of web based resources into the curriculum.

In order to work well, moving to Internet 2.0 requires making a few changes at the same time so that there is no negative impact on learning and to mitigate confusion. The goal is consistent steps of improvement, not a massive “jump shift” from one year to the next. In addition, while fundamental new technology that changes the game like the “Star Trek Classroom” is nice, the budget realities make this an unlikely outcome.

One of the biggest problems facing next generation access in the school is the issue of budget. It’s also where we need to start thinking outside the box. Going to some sort of “sponsored” model is the most common, and potentially it can be very attractive. Selling “ads” increases the opportunities for revenue enhancement. Imagine a two month ad cycle for a store that sells prom gowns during prom season. This approach does require someone to work with local businesses, and can be a member of the PTA as a volunteer. Grants are also available, but harder to come by. If the budget can be augmented by just $10,000, it makes a big difference.

While we’ve seen some really cool examples of new uses of the internet within the schools, there is more that can be done. With so many students looking for activities that will attract colleges, consider ways for them to bring their web creativity to the school. One local school here has “web shows” every day with interviews of a student athlete, the first chair in the band, and even a student that has made an impact in the community. And another place that I think creativity can be brought to bear is on the school’s website. Does yours look the same as it did in 1990?

One of the best ways of ending hours of Facebook is to have the students use their computing tools for other tasks and drive focus there. This is where curriculum that leverages the internet can make a difference. This shouldn’t become a case where a teacher spends hours finding resources, but start with a task or knowledge set and have the students showcase what they’ve found. Let’s not determine the outcome before we start.

Re-thinking the role, usage, and value of the internet in primary schools is possibly the single biggest challenge facing educators today. This blog is not meant to provide every possible change or new approach that can be delivered in the concept of Internet 2.0. There are also some very useful functions that can be built in like location sensing, and the use of chat/skype/Facetime and other tools that enhance collaboration.

However, if we start from the perspective of how we find some budget, what new things are possible, and how to enhance learning, it’s a good start. And never bite off more than you can chew. Small incremental improvements, on a regular basis, are the way to go.

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4 BYOD Considerations for Elementary Schools

Among the top trends in commercial IT these days is the issue of how to handle Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) which occurs when personally owned smartphones and tablets are used within the organization’s commercial applications and systems. This creates many substantial security and data management issues that are keeping IT staffs awake at night.

For an elementary school, the problem is no less daunting. Many sixth-graders have their own phones, and the smartphone is basically ubiquitous in high school. Couple that with an increasing number of tablets — primarily in more affluent districts at this time — and you have the same BYOD issue in primary education, but with many different twists.

A good place to start is looking at the issue of whether or not BYOD exists in your school. And the answer is easy, it’s yes. Your school may try to stop it, but face it, students are already using personal smartphones and even tablets no matter how strict the rules. So the questions become, when do you admit it, and how do you take advantage of it?

The answers aren’t easy.

First, there needs to be allowance for personal use during the day. At lunch or study halls makes the most sense. Prohibition doesn’t work, and ends up taking staff resources away from more valuable supervision or other activities. Striking a balance between personal use and educational use is essential.

The second aspect of the BYOD problem is what happens when some students have the devices, and some don’t. How does a school plan a curriculum with that level of uncertainty? There is also the problem of status and some students feeling inferior. For these and other reasons, I think we now have to look at BYOD as an extension of traditional infrastructure, not a replacement for it. For example, BYOD might eliminate shared use, or allow individual work on a project versus working only as a group. This however will change going forward as the devices do become more common.

Number three is network access. This is one of the most interesting ways to get some control over BYOD, but without a lot of resources. The school’s WiFi network should be opened up like a Starbucks hotspot, but with a simple log on that provides the same filtered internet capability found in wired networks. Of course a student could use the cellular solution, but with better service levels, the school based network can win out.

The final aspect I want to blog about today is opening up the classroom software and curriculum to BYOD devices. If BYOD devices are to be truly useful, they need to exist inside the software infrastructure of the school, and can’t be walled off. This does create software license issues that need to be examined, and teachers need to increase the creativity around how to add in the BYOD devices to their teaching style and curriculum. However, having truly virtual classrooms or 24/7 access to class applications is a huge gain. This is also an element that needs strong and documented policies to prevent any inappropriate communication or interaction.

BYOD is already here in the K-12 space. The option of ignoring BYOD is not just short sighted, but it misses the opportunity to move the EdTech solutions forward.

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Tracking Cloud Adoption in Schools [Infographic]

Originally Posted by Corey Murray, EdTech Magazine

With the rise in mobile computing and increasingly crowded servers on campus, the question has always been when, not if, schools would eventually move to the cloud.

That inevitable migration so far has been fairly tentative, with administrators launching pilot projects and limited deployments, allowing teachers and students to dabble in the possibilities — and identify potential trouble spots — without making a full-on commitment.

But, if this latest infographic from the writers at Online Colleges is any indication, that commitment is coming — and soon. In two years, it is estimated that K–12 schools will allocate an average of 17 percent of their total IT budget to cloud-related services. Five years out, that projection jumps to 27 percent, and skyward from there.

Want to learn what makes the cloud so appealing? Check out the infographic below, which contains information about the trend toward cloud computing in K–12 and higher education. (Disclaimer: prices listed in this graphic subject to change.)

View the original post on EdTech Magazine

View the original article here

Tracking Cloud Adoption in Schools [Infographic]

Originally Posted by Corey Murray, EdTech Magazine

With the rise in mobile computing and increasingly crowded servers on campus, the question has always been when, not if, schools would eventually move to the cloud.

That inevitable migration so far has been fairly tentative, with administrators launching pilot projects and limited deployments, allowing teachers and students to dabble in the possibilities — and identify potential trouble spots — without making a full-on commitment.

But, if this latest infographic from the writers at Online Colleges is any indication, that commitment is coming — and soon. In two years, it is estimated that K–12 schools will allocate an average of 17 percent of their total IT budget to cloud-related services. Five years out, that projection jumps to 27 percent, and skyward from there.

Want to learn what makes the cloud so appealing? Check out the infographic below, which contains information about the trend toward cloud computing in K–12 and higher education. (Disclaimer: prices listed in this graphic subject to change.)

View the original post on EdTech Magazine

View the original article here