All good things must come to an end as they say and that seems especially true to free online services that work pretty well.
The Tech Department at my school has been using Slack to communicate internally, but to really keep commonly used files, IP addresses and other important information. We liked it because the search was so fast, it was so good and since it could keep 10,000 messages we really had kind of a working repository of important information that we could access on any device with an Internet connection. Ahhh-the good old days.
Changes
Slack has decided to change their free plan from 10,000 messages and 5GB of storage to unlimited messages and storage. What?! Why is that sooo bad? You may ask yourself.
Well the catch here is that it will only keep that data for 90 days and then it is deleted hidden. So our important PDF’s that we want quick access to will be gone (or as good as gone since we cannot search for them anymore) as well as all other notes, files and doohickeys that we deemed important at the moment.
It’s OK
I am not mad at Slack. They are a company and this will undoubtedly drive some users from the free version to the paid version which is really the point here. I knew it couldn’t last and when I saw the news break in mid July I wasn’t angry or disappointed but just a feeling something like this was inevitable.
Since we are a Google school we are switching over to Google Spaces. It seems to provide a similar service but it is not as fast or easy to get to. Everything just seems to take an extra click or two where Slack was much more streamlined.
It’s fine – we need to move our information out of Slack and into Google Spaces. We considered some other options, but this will do. While it may be a bit laborious getting specific files and information out of Slack we should be fine.
Slack was more of a convenience to help streamline our work. It was not an essential part of storing vital information, but a quick way to access it and to help keep us on the same page. Losing it stinks (a little) but we will survive – we’re strong that way.
I’ve seen this news story a few times this week and thought I’d weigh in. These are articles and videos about a video horror game known as Poppy Playtime. It is developed by MOB games, you can get it on Steam and it’s pretty popular right now. The gist of the game is that you are trapped in a toy factory and the toy Poppy is hunting you. You need to solve puzzles to escape. There is tension, poorly lit rooms, eerie music and noises and, of course, jump scares. Check out the trailer below.
There’s not a lot of blood or gore and I don’t think there is any real language either, but parents.com is sounding an alarm. They are saying that it . . . is . . . scary for children.
A horror game, designed to scare the player, may be scary for children. Hmmm.
Why do I care?
I think parents should know what games their kids are playing and decide if it is appropriate for them or not, but articles like this is plain old fear mongering. We’ve seen this before with Slenderman, Five Nights at Freddy’s and many, many more.
With a little bit of research (watching some YouTubers play the game) parents will know if it is appropriate for their kids or not.
The bottom line is do your own research and sit down and talk with your children or students about this game and see what they say. One thing I can be sure of, is that this game will not be the downfall of humanity or even the education system.
I saw this article on BBC and it made me a little angry – not going to lie. The title is How hologram tech may soon replace video calls. This article is posted on the BBC a reputable news site that is pretty respected around the world. This article was published in their business section.
The tech itself is pretty impressive. A person sits or stands in front of a camera with a white back drop and their image is beamed (with nearly no lag) to a 7 foot tall rectangular box anywhere in the world that shows the person in 3D. It looks good – check out their YouTube video below.
It’s neat right? So why am I angry with this article? Well it presumes that this technology may very well replace video calls. What a load of crap (sorry for the harsh language). This technology will never make it into mainstream businesses, homes and certainly not schools.
I am perturbed because it feels like the BBC is trying to get you excited about an idea that is not feasible (at least right now). They sound more like a commercial for Portl than an actual news report. They are more wowed with what it can do as opposed to what problems can it solve.
Sketchy
On top of all of that this company is pretty sketchy. When you head to the Portl website (https://www.portlhologram.com) and start to poke around you see some weird things. Like a new product called the M by Portl (https://www.portlhologram.com/m). They have a very nice video you can watch below.
What looks sketchy is the “Reservation” screen. check out the screenshot below.
You pay $100 to reserve one.
No timeline of when (if) it will arrive.
No mention or estimate of the final price.
No real tech specs (HDMI? USB-C?)
No tech computer requirements given.
Camera requirements?
What are the speakers used?
Privacy policy concerning their digital assistant?
So, your $100 gets you a spot in line and . . . ?
But hey, this company was highlighted on a reputable news source so we should trust that they are on the up and up.
Credit where credit is due
I am not saying this is vaporware. I know they made the Portl Epic (the big 7 foot tall booth). It works, it is pretty cool, but it does cost about $60,000 for the Epic and who knows how much for the M (if it ever ships or even ships with all those features). They did make it but it’ll never sell and certainly not to schools and certainly won’t be for everyone to use everyday.
My real problem
These articles present this vision of the future with emerging technology today, but they don’t talk about the feasibility of it. Why does it cost so much now? What will it take for the price to come down? Who else or how many other people are working on this type of technology (not something similar)? There is no questioning, no probing, just reporting what the company says. As a person who hears a fair number of sales pitches, this article feels like that and I don’t appreciate it from my news sources.
I was super excited with Magic Leap and everyone slurped up their sales pitch without even being allowed to see or try their project. Then when they did get to try it out it failed to even come close to the hype that was generated around it. This is the same thing and I just wish that
Sorry for the rant – I am just tired of good news sources either getting duped by dubious companies or simply pushing their dubious products on their readers.
There has been a lot of back slapping and congratulations being passed out to Microsoft over this video. Yes, it is good that they have made a device that can be repaired by just about anyone with a screw driver and parts on hand. It looks pretty easy to do as well. This is what I expected but I still have concerns and questions.
Parts
Where do you get them? Right now I bet the only company making these parts is Microsoft. This isn’t great. When there is no competition for certain parts, the people that actually sell said parts can sell them for whatever they want. Here are my predictions of what these parts will sell for (I hope I’m wrong by the way):
Keyboard & trackpad – $120 USD
Screen with lid – $120
Battery – $80
I’m not going to go further than that. Remember that Microsoft is going to sell this starting at $250. If the prices are even close to this, then repairing should be an after thought for schools that purchase them, or maybe a device is good for one repair and then call it quits. It would be easier just to buy a new device altogether if that is the case.
Separate parts?
In the video you see the technician remove the keyboard. Can you also separate the trackpad away from the keyboard? That would be very good for repairs. A trackpad is a lot cheaper if you can purchase just that part as opposed to replacing the entire keyboard assembly along with the trackpad. This is also true the other way too. Maybe the trackpad works wonderfully and you only need a new keyboard – can you purchase just that part?
Then there is the screen. Do you have to purchase the entire lid to replace the screen? The difference in price here can be pretty significant. A screen for a device like this should cost around $50 (give or take where you buy it from and the demand on the market). If you have to put the entire lid to replace the screen, then you are also replacing the following components:
Webcam
Microphone
Lid
Coaxial cables for the WiFi antenna
This stuff starts to add up and a school could easily be looking at $100+ for that part.
Bah Humbug!
I know I sound like Ebenezer Scrooge a week before Christmas, but these are concerns I have. I want the Surface SE to work, I do. Right now I think Chromebooks dominate without much competition out there, but I am afraid that Microsoft will inadvertently shoot themselves in the foot by making the parts unnecessarily expensive and difficult to get. Time will tell and despite the tone of this article I am optimistic, but I am also keenly aware that companies like money.
OK, Santa was good to me this year. I received a new boom arm and a new microphone. The boom arm is the Røde PSA+ and it is pretty sweet. The microphone though is what is really special. I;m not going to review it here because 1) I’m not a sound engineer and 2) there are literally tens of reviews out there for this product. I know tens doesn’t sound like a lot, but trust me – it is a bunch and it’ll give you a good idea if you want it for yourself. I’m here just to talk about the decision behind this mic.
What was I working with before?
Well let’s go waaaaaay back to the first episodes. Omar and I were huddled around a MacBook and were recording with its internal mic. It sounded like garbage.
Then I upgraded to a Blue Yeti. This is a USB microphone and it sounds pretty good.
One of the most beloved USB mics out there
Yeah this thing was great! It was especially great for voice overs and it was OK for podcasting. My wife got it for me as a gift and it cost just over $100 USD. The problems with the Yeti is that it picks up everything (air conditioner, people talking nearby, etc.) Lots of background noise made it into our shows. It also has a desk stand which is super convenient, but again, when someone bumps the desk or table, you hear that pretty clearly. Another issue is that it is a USB mic, what this means is I could only plug it into a computer and you can really
Then I “upgraded” to the Behringer xm1800s. Sounds fancy? Not really. This microphone is only sold in a 3 pack and costs a whopping $39 USD for all three, the carrying case, and the mic holders. It’s something you may find in a shady karaoke bar.
Cheap but sound pretty good for the price.
So why did I buy them? Well I had this bad boy and needed an XLR mic to plug it into.
You want a tank? This is a tank.
The Zoom H6 is a beast – I’ve raved about this thing here and there. This made podcasting remotely pretty easy – no need for a laptop and it was battery powered making it even more portable than ever before. Then I carry around those Behringers and picked up some cheap desktop mic stands and Bob’s your Uncle. I was set to go.
I used this set up for a good 6 years and it sounded way better than the Yeti. Here everyone had their own mic and everyone therefore sounded much better than crowding around a USB mic.
I finally replaced the Zoom H6 for the Zoom P4. It was cheaper, had soundpads and built in mix/minus which lets people on Zoom calls hear you and through your mic and your computer sounds as well. Overall it is better suited for what I wanted.
Ohhhh – what a nice piece of kit for podcasters
Shure MV7
So what does this bring to my set up that I didn’t have before? Well, this mic is both an XLR microphone and a USB microphone. That may not seem too special but it actually is pretty cool. When I podcast at home I use the Podtrak and plug it in via USB, but if I need to do a voiceover, I can toss this thing in my bag and use any computer I want. My iMac at school a spare laptop, it doesn’t matter.
I like the ability to be able to switch easily between XLR and USB. This allows me to work pretty much anywhere. Even when at home, if I need to do a voice over for a tutorial, all I have to do is plug the Shure into my computer and I’m off and recording. No need for a mixer, audio interface (which the Podtrak can totally do by the way) or any other go between like I needed with my Behringers. I just plug and go – its great!
Ami I set?
Yeah, probably. I still have the Behringers in case of in person group recordings or if students at my school need them, the Podtrak is great and I love the new mic and boom arm. I really can’t think of what to upgrade now. The mic stand, microphone and Podtrak are all built supremely well so they should last for a while. I think I am good to go for the next 7-10 years.
Notion is great for taking notes and it works even better when you know some basic shortcut keys. This helps you keep your hand on the keyboard and focused on the discussion, lecture or meeting you are in. Check out the short video above for some beginner tips.
I saw these both featured on freetech4teachers.com and thought I would try them out. Richard Byrne has a quick description and a handy video on how they work which is nice. You can view that video with this link.
These are both add-ons for Google Forms. They are not stand alone form makers, you have to add and then enable the add-on to make these work and I’ll walk you through and let you know how well they work (or don’t). I figured since the Form Ranger (part 1 & part 2) is a bit involved, then I would check to see if these simpler add-ons work just as well.
Choice Removal
This add-on will remove an option once it has been selected. There is no way to configure it to remove after a certain number has been selected. It is always set to one.
The first thing you need to do is create a Google Form. There are a lot of ways to do this which I won’t get into here and the process is usually pretty easy. Here is what mine looks like:
This is super bare bones and obviously, this will only work with Multiple Choice questions (it might work with a drop down, or checkboxes but I didn’t take the time to explore that).
Now I will get the add-on. To do this click on the three dots that are next to your icon, then select Add-ons from the menu.
A new window will appear – search for Choice Eliminator. Then click on it and go through the install process. It will ask you for permission to use this add-on and then you can go back to your form.
I may have to check out the Choice Limitadd-on
Now when you are back on your form, click on the puzzle piece near the top right hand side of the screen and select Choice Removal from the menu.
A tiny little box will appear, click on Configuration to get going.
When you do this a configuration pane will appear on the right side of the screen. Now, before it starts to work you need to click the little arrow next to the question and then turn on the Remove Choices feature.
Now it is nearly ready to go. The last option you may have is to have placeholder text when all of the options have been taken. To get to this click on the three-line menu and select Settings.
Type in whatever text you would like and then be sure to hit the Save button.
It works pretty well.
When testing, I was able to have more than one person select the same time. It happened when two people submitted the form at nearly the same time. It is rare, but I was able to do it. If I waited 15 seconds or longer and then tried to pick the same time, I got this error message:
OK – this worked pretty well. Does it work as well as Form Ranger? Well, if you want to limit only one choice and you’re not expecting a huge onslaught of submissions right away, then yes. Yes, this works fine.
If you need to reset the form, you can do it in the add-on settings. Click RESTORE ALL OPTIONS.
Choice Eliminator 2
This was the other option Richard selected. This one is a little different in that you can set limits. Much like Form Ranger, you can set limits with this add-on. Form Ranger is a bit involved and takes a little bit of time to set up, so can this work just as well? No – the short answer is no, but that may not be a deal breaker for some. Let’s take a look.
To get started, make your Google Form and then install the add-on (the exact same way as above).
Once it is installed, you will activate the Add-on by clicking the puzzle piece and selecting it (just like before).
Again, a little window will appear and you will need to click on Configure to get started.
Again, a configuration panel will appear on the right hand side, but there will be a “Note form the author” (that is a direct quote, please see the screenshot below.
Uhhh-not very reassuring here
OK – so I need to change my multiple choice question to a drop down – got it. I don’t have to retype it, I just change the question type and this is what it looks like now.
Now that is ready, let’s get into the settings from the configuration panel on the right hand side. It will probably be populated with From Responses 1 – leave that alone, then click the arrow next to the question that has the choices you would like to limit and click the box Limit Choices. It will think for a little bit.
Once it is done “Creating” go ahead and click the gear icon. When you do that you will see all the choices for that question and you can add limits to each one.
You will notice a green circular button in the bottom right hand corner. There are some nice options here. You can close the window, restore the choices (if you want to reuse the form), pull questions from the form (maybe you’ve updated it and need to add more limits or add a new question.
OK – lets start testing. Like before, I opened up the form in multiple browsers and tried to break the form. What I wanted to see is will it strictly enforce the limits like Form Ranger. The conclusion is that it is not too bad.
If someone picks the last available choice for a time and another person has the form open at the same time, they can obviously see the time. If there has been some time (5-10 seconds) between the first person hitting the submit button and the other person, they will receive this error.
Not too bad. I was able to consistently get it to break, but I had to be very fast. I think the drop down menu causes a slight delay in a person making the choice giving the form some time to update to see what is available or not.
Conclusion
I didn’t have a lot of hope for these two, but they’re not too bad. Again, I wouldn’t use this for parent/teacher conferences or setting up a sign up sheet for After School Activities where limits really mean something, but if you’re looking for an easy way to set up some office hours and want students to set up their appointments ahead of time – this could work.
The Verge has run this article twice this year and they just republished it with slightly different recommendations. So, I’ve written (now my third time) a quick articlethat you should ask your school, not just trust a blog (hey-this is a blog) to which laptop/device is appropriate for your child. The school will have recommendations that will support their curriculum.
What’s my problem?
If you notice the circled part of the article – it is a disclaimer that states that The Verge may get earn a commission if you click one of their links and purchase the product. That’s how that works. That is also how sites like the New York Times Wirecutter and Commercial Reports help to generate revenue.
I like The Verge and their content and those writers need to get paid and advertising and affiliate links help keep the lights on and those people employed. I like that.
The author (Monica Chen) early on does recommend that this is a jumping off point not the end all be all list.
So why would you title your article “What’s the best student laptop? We asked students“
It seems as though the answer is just a mouse scroll away.
The list itself
I also have issues with the list itself. I won’t dive deeply here. I will just make two points.
The recommendations for Elementary students has a Kindle Fire tablet for school. This is a bad idea.
First off, it does not have any Google apps. That means no YouTube, no Google Classroom, no Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets – you get the picture. There is a work around to get that on there, but how many parents are going to take that time when they can just purchase an iPad or Chromebook (two options that are on the list).
What this tablet does have is a great holiday price point, lots of videos that can be consumed. It is primarily a device for entertainment and is usually a big seller around the holidays.
The next is the list for middle school, high school and college students. Check them out below. The order is not all that important.
Do you see a MacBook Air anywhere on the list? Here is a link to The Verge review of the latest MacBook Air where Dieter Bohn proclaims:
And the fact that it starts at $900 USD – why wouldn’t you put it on the list?
Reminder – ask your school
Just a reminder out there people – ask your school. They will have recommendations and then go try them out yourself. One good thing about devices these days are the choices. There are a ton of choices and at a lot of different price point. You are sure to find something that matches your budget and your child’s needs.
I’m a little excited about this – not going to lie. I’ve always been intrigued with what certain online “containers” can offer. I love the idea of these containers keeping my digital life in order. Helping my categorize and organize important bits of information. While sites like Apple Notes, Google Keep and Evernote offered this type of organization I always felt they were all lacking.
Now I am introduced to notion.so. This isn’t a new company, its been around for the past 7-8 years, but it is new to me. Upon first looking at it, I was unsure what it was. Was it a Microsoft Office replacement? Was it an Evernote replacement? How about an easy database replacement? Well it does all of those things, but does it do them well enough to keep me here?
Getting started & price
Like most websites these days, you need to log in/create an account before you can start using it. Notion offers single sign-on (SSO) with Google and Apple accounts, you can also sign up with an active email.
The free account is pretty robust and what I will be using here. What is missing from the free account compared to others is you do not have access to version history (so no rolling it back several days) and there is no real-time collaborative options (again fine for just the individual) and there are some limits to how many individuals you can invite to your page(s) and a limit to 5MB file uploads. I believe that last one applies to the individual file sizes. I think you can have more than 5MB in total uploaded, but an individual file cannot exceed 5MB in size.
What can it do?
A lot!
When I first logged in, I was taken aback of what it can offer.
There are quick examples of what you can do with text (add checklists, collapsible blocks to hide or show info) and some basic formatting. At this point I am thinking that this is just a note taking app and nothing more. Then I watched some videos.
They offer an app that can create databases – offer lots of ways to input text (like using Markdown). The ability to embed PDFs, Google Docs, Word Docs – hell if it can be uploaded or is already online, you can probably put it on a page in Notion.
I quickly started to realize that this was not just a notetaking app. It was more. It could flex to be what you need/want it to be. Want an online grocery list? Done. Want a way to keep track of your contacts and keep notes on them? Done. Want a place for all your lesson plans/notes for a class? Done. How about a simple to-do list? Done. Need a place to manage projects and who is working on what? Done.
Not only was it powerful it works on anything that has an Internet connection. There are apps for Android/iOS devices, there is a dedicated app for Mac and Windows, but honestly, it works great in the browser on all of these devices anyway.
Layout
The layout is very simple. On the far left you can organize all of your pages. Below that is the option to create a new page and the majority of the white space in the middle is where you actually do the work. In the top right hand corner is where you share and your page options. Pretty straightforward.
Using it
This is not as straightforward. There is a learning curve here and I am going to be the first to say that I am far from fluent with everything you can do. Let’s start with these basics.
Blocks
Adding text
Formatting text
Adding images
Adding videos
Arranging your content
If you are a user of WordPress.com then you know what a block is. It is a piece of content. I honestly think that WordPress is trying to achieve what Notion has with its blocks. The blocks define what type of content you are adding. Is it text, images, header, video, lists, checkboxes? Those are all different block types. To see what Notion has to offer, just type a “/”
Yeah there are a lot of different blocks
Not only can you add all those types of blocks, Notion gives you lots of felxibilty with how it can layout on a page. For example, I can take 4 text blocks and place them side by side. Check out the GIF below.
The fact that you can layout just about anything, super easily in different columns give people a bunch of layout options which is something you do not see too often in services like Notion.
Adding text is pretty easy, you can just start typing in a new block – no need to have to pick a text block. What is also pretty fantastic is that you can convert the block to another type. So if it is a text block, you can change it to a todo list. When you move your mouse onto a blog you will see these six dots show up. You can grab and drag that block anywhere you want, but if you click on it, you get a menu that shows up allowing you to change the block type.
If you link websites, you get a little preview like you see below.
Videos can also be linked to or you can embed them. What’s cool here is that you can also arrange those links and videos into columns. Granted an embedded video looks pretty small, but maybe you don’t need the whole page for both.Overall – this is pretty easy, but if you know those shortcut keys – you can really fly with Notion. Here is a list of all the extensive shortcuts.
Databases
OK – now here are the big guns. The feature that I think really makes Notion stand out. It is the ability to create or to make it a database. Now granted, this isn’t going to replace a school information system or help you organize a conference of 400 people, but if it is a fairly simple need, this will work quite well. Let’s take a look at their database for a CRM (customer relationship management).
It’s like a contact list but much, much more. Since it is a database you can filter it (unlike most contact apps). You can filter it by last contacted, associations, just about anything you want. Also, since it is a database you can also add your own custom fields. For example, I wanted to add “Colleague” to Associations. I just open up the contact I want and in the association box type it in. That’s it. Now when I add a new person to my CRM, that option is available. Since it is a new field in the database, I can sort by it or create a new view.
There are a bunch of database templates you can chose from and what is great about all of them is that you can take it apart and customize how you want. It’s not a rigid framework where you have to learn how to be productive. You can find its weakness, add your own touches to it and make it your own. It is a pretty great tool.
Templates
Yes, Notion has a great number of templates to chose from, but that is not the only place to find them. There are plenty of people out there who have made their own that you can bring into your account and use as your own. Some of free, some cost money, it just depends.
Here is website that has an inventory management system template you can use. In short there are lots out there to chose from and a lot that you can pick from. Again, this goes back to how flexible Notion is for the end user. It really is up to you to decide how best Notion can suit your needs.
Sharing
This is as simple as you would think.
You hit the Share button in the top right hand corner, type in their email address and their level of access:
Full access (can edit and share – only with a Pro account)
Edit
Comment
View
They get an email and then have access to it nearly immediately – as one would expect. The weird thing is I invited myself with a different email account and it worked fine and I could edit and see those changes in real time.
If I had shared it with a bunch of people (I think the limit is 5 for a free account) then I couldn’t see who is making what changes in real time, but if I click on the block it will show me who made the last edit and when but not what that edit is.
One thing I like about it, is that there is no public link you can give anyone. A person has to be invited or at the very least have a Notion account. No anonymous viewers really.
Organizing your pages
This is super easy. You just drag and drop them. You can make new categories and drop them there and even reorganize them within. This could be handy when taking notes or making lesson plans and keeping it all organized by units or even units inside grading periods.
One thing I discovered is that if you drag a page to a database the page kind of disappears as you can see in the GIF above when I drag Just another page into the Travel Plans section. It just kind of goes away. Not sure where it goes or how to get it back but it is something to know about.
Using it with students
One thing you need to know is that most students will use Notion for taking notes. It certainly lends itself to this task and with its easy organizational and sharing tools a motivated student can make very good use of Notion.
One thing to keep in mind is that students should know how to take notes before using this. I cannot stress that enough. If you take your students and dump them into Notion and expect them to take good notes you will find a class that will quickly devolve. Taking notes on a laptop/device takes practice and skill. I personally prefer a notebook myself, but for there are certainly good arguments for taking notes digitally and being able to easily share those notes.
If students are not practiced note takers, then they will have trouble keeping up with with a discussion or lecture. They will become frustrated and that will certainly show in their attitude in class as well as their work, or they may be used to taking notes with paper and pencil. Taking notes electronically is a different beast. People can easily get caught up with the formatting or trying to fix small mistakes and end up missing important content. It takes practice and time.
On the other hand, if they are seasoned note takers, then Notion should be worth their time. The fact that it is easy to organize and even go back afterwards and organize and customize make it very powerful. The only drawback is that you cannot use a stylus with it. I don’t think that will make a huge difference for most, but it is worth noting.
I would consider using this with a high school class, maybe an older middle school group, but not much younger. There is just too much freedom here and that can lead to its own type of distractions.
Teachers using it
I mentioned earlier that this would be great for lesson/unit plans. They have a timeline template so you can layout your entire year here. Then you can even link your individual units to those timelines making it a good place to keep everything in one place.
Of course you can type up all your lessons with all its links and resources right here in Notion, then organize those lessons into units. It is super handy. It may be a little easier to use than a curriculum mapping software since it works on every device you can have.
It also makes it a lot easier to share those units with colleagues for cross curricular opportunities or for others in your department if you are working collaboratively on units.
Conclusion
I really, really like Notion. I think its upsides are nearly limitless, but with a tool that is this flexible and this powerful, I think it could intimidate teachers and students alike. I suggest people (like myself) ease into Notion. Don’t try to jump into the database stuff right away. Start with what tasks you are familiar with like a todo list or maybe taking notes. Once you get some shortcut keys down and get into the flow of what it can do and how it works I think you will like it too.
There are even workspaces for teams but I believe that is in the paid version. Give it a try, get comfortable with it and then introduce it to your students and see what they have to say. I am curious of what you think about Notion, please leave your comments below!
This has been coming down the pipe for a long time. It has long been known that Google Chromebooks are the go-to student devices for most schools (especially if they are running Google Workspace). I wrote a two part series that you can read here and here about it back in 2018. Interesting about those articles is that there is a lot of student feedback in there which is something you don’t normally see.
How did we get here?
Apple’s answer was creating a low priced iPad and while they are nice to have in a learning environment, if pushed comes to shove a laptop would be better. It is just more productive. Microsoft offered the Microsoft Surface Go. The problem is that it was running full on Windows but didn’t (still doesn’t) seem to have the power under the hood to actually pull that off in a convincing fashion. On top of that – it’s pretty pricey too.
When Microsoft made their new Edge browser on Chromium (what Chrome OS on Chromebooks is built on) many people felt that this would end up with a Microsoft Edge Chromebook like competitor. We kind of got it. This new Surface SE device runs a special version of Windows 11, so it isn’t running a version of Edge that runs the whole show.
So what is it?
It’s a $250 (USD) laptop that only schools can purchase to deploy to their students. Here is a picture of what it looks like.
It looks very much like a $250 Chromebook. Here are the highlights:
11.6″ display that has a resolution of 1366 x 768 (no touchscreen)
Intel Celeron N4020 or N4120 processor (like in a lot of Chromebooks)
64/128 GB of storage (something you do not see on Chromebooks at this price point)
USB-C, USB-A, headphone jack, Power adapter connection
Bluetooth
Windows SE and Microsoft Office for Education
When you purchase it you can have it auto-enrolled in your deployment program to make it very easy to get it up and running with students. This will also allow you to remotely manage it as well (push out/remove apps, extensions, bookmarks, etc.)
I’ve never managed Windows devices in a school, but it I would bet dollars for donuts that it is pretty similar to Apple or Chromebooks with what you can do with them (which is a lot).
Windows 11 SE
The SE probably stands for Student Edition though it doesn’t say that on its website. Like Chrome OS it is a cloud operating system. For Chromebooks this means that it needs to be online in order to do most things (browse the web, open Google Docs, etc.) That is probably the case here.
Though it looks like it will have a standalone Microsoft Office Suite installed, so as long as the document is also stored on the device, students should be able to work on them.
Unlike other versions of Windows, this version has no app store and students cannot install apps of their choice. They have to be pushed out it looks like. There might be a future update where students will have access to an app store that is populated with only school approved apps (Chrome OS has this option), but it is unclear right now.
You can only have two windows open at a time side by side. Regular windows will let you have Windows all over the place. This is probably a good decision, especially with an 11.6″ screen. As expected, students cannot create other accounts on here – this is very typical.
Windows 11 SE is also pretty stripped down, so a lot of features or programs that you will find in regular Windows will be absent. This, again, is probably a good thing. It will help keep students focused and without all those other programs taking up space, hopefully Windows 11 runs a lot more efficiently.What I like?
There is a lot to like here
If you are in a school district that runs Microsoft Office for Education, then this is what you’ve been waiting for. This is definitely a Chromebook alternative. It’s cheap, it’s managed by the school or district, it gets kids connected with just the apps they need and it’s repairable.
According The Verge, you should be able to easily get inside and repair screen, keyboard, battery, mother board (I am also assuming you could replace the trackpad too). This is huge for schools. It will allow them to do this repair work themselves and not have to outsource it. We’ve been using Chromebooks here for 4 years and we have never had to send a Chromebook out for repair. We either fix it or we replace it (the latter happens very rarely).
I like the storage options. Chromebooks at that price point you are usually getting only 32GB of storage – here you get 64. That is nice.
I also like that it is a Surface device. If you’ve ever used a Surface device, you know how well built they are. My Surface Book lasted me a good 5-6 years and I bequeathed it to my dear mother and so it is still going strong! I doubt these will last that long, but for 4 years – I bet they’ll last that long pretty consistently.
Questions I have
I still have questions about this whole venture though. Though it is very repairable, how easy will it be to get parts? This is a Microsoft device after all so will you have to go through them to purchase these parts? Chromebooks are great – you can get parts all over the place. No screens available at Stores A, B or C? No problem, let’s look at stores D, E and F. Also, since you can buy these parts from so many different vendors, the price of the parts is reasonable. You’re not going to find a $200 screen replacement for a Samsung, HP, Dell or Lenovo Chromebook. Though if you can only get the parts from Microsoft, you may have to pay more. We will see.
I wonder about Windows 11 SE – how well will it run? My guess is that it will run just fine out of the box and since schools will control what is installed and what updates are pushed out, I expect this thing to run . . . fine. I don’t expect it to be a blazing fast iPad but I do expect it to chug through its jobs consistently without too much of an issue.
A big question is what happens with these devices when a school is done with them? What we do with our Chromebooks is to de-provision them and then give them to the families. This means, that it is reset to factory settings, it removes all restrictions. It basically becomes another, regular old Chromebook you would buy.
With this – I don’t know. I think it can only run Windows 11 SE. This means no Microsoft Store. If it is deprovisioned, does it get Windows 11 Home? That would be sweet, but if not can it be used outside of a school environment? If not, this seems like a waste – even at the $250 price point.
Conclusion
If you are not a Microsoft school, then obviously don’t use this thing. I mean – why would you? If you are however – you owe it to yourself and your students to look at this as an IT option. We will know more later this year and certainly next school year when schools start deploying these bad boys in the thousands. Until then I’ll keep my ear to the ground and try report back what I hear.
What do you think of the Surface SE? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Technology in the Classroom 