RESEARCH PAPER: Choosing Chromebooks for Education

A broadening trend in K-12 education is the use of Chromebooks, driven by digitization of educational tools and materials. The heart of Chromebooks, Google’s Chrome OS, is a free operating system, which is maintained and updated by Google over the cloud and helps lower acquisition costs for school districts. According to Google, Chromebooks give “students, teachers, and administrators a simple solution for fast, intuitive, and easy-to-manage computing. Chromebooks provide access to the web’s education and collaboration resources.” You can download the paper here.

Executive Summary
Research
Background
Usage
Pain Points
Why Chromebooks for Education?
The Chrome OS Hardware Ecosystem
Testing Methodology
Testing Results
Page Load Test
Chrome Connectivity Diagnostics
Battery Life on Video Playback
3D Graphics
WebGL Samples
Biodigital Human
Project Metis Solar System
Video Performance
VoiceNote II
Google Docs Suite
Office Online
System Average Power Consumption
Charge Time
Interpretation
Conclusion
Recommendation
Glossary
Table 1: Chromebook Specifications
Figure 1A: Biodigital Human Rendering on ARM-Based Chromebook at Maximum 1280x800 Resolution
Figure 1B: Biodigital Human 3D Rendering on x86-based Chromebook at Maximum 1366x768 Resolution
Figure 2A: Project Metis Solar System 3D Rendering on ARM-based Chromebook at Maximum 1280x800 Resolution
Figure2B: Project Metis Solar System 3D Rendering on x86-based Chromebook at Maximum 1366x768 Resolution

Companies Cited

ARM
ASUS
Dell
Google
Intel
Khan Academy
Microsoft
Rockchip

Patrick Moorhead

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Patrick founded the firm based on his real-world world technology experiences with the understanding of what he wasn’t getting from analysts and consultants. Ten years later, Patrick is ranked #1 among technology industry analysts in terms of “power” (ARInsights) in “press citations” (Apollo Research). Moorhead is a contributor at Forbes and frequently appears on CNBC. He is a broad-based analyst covering a wide variety of topics including the cloud, enterprise SaaS, collaboration, client computing, and semiconductors. He has 30 years of experience including 15 years of executive experience at high tech companies (NCR, AT&T, Compaq, now HP, and AMD) leading strategy, product management, product marketing, and corporate marketing, including three industry board appointments.