
Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools - dreemteem
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/spannermans-edublog/2011/05/chrome-will-bring-about-the-ict-revolution-in-schools/index.htm
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stephenr
_Finally with the instant-on Chrome-book the domain-logon palaver looks like
the anachronistic time goblin it is.

With auto-saving, no more losing of USB sticks, no more 12 min network
bootups, the ability to share files and fewer confusing features most of the
hassle of ICT in schools is eliminated._

Oh of course, a student waiting a few seconds to logon to a server is clearly
wasting too much of their time, and IT departments are just going to _love_
the loss of control over the devices they currently have.

"auto-saving" and "no more losing USB sticks" in the cotext of Google Docs,
means a complete lack of control over the backup of said documents, and
inability to work on said documents offline.

 _No software licences, no maintenance technicians (no viruses no, disk
quotas, no application/file servers, no software images)._

Because the web apps that a netbook uses, are mythical beasts that have no
licensing or maintenance requirements, and store data down gumdrop lane,
because they're powered by the good thoughts of Google users, not physical
servers?

~~~
wccrawford
Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be.
And they've got the infrastructure for it, too.

As for working offline, the offline-capable version of Mail, Calendar and Docs
is coming soon. <http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/11/offline-gmail/>

~~~
stephenr
_Google is a lot better at maintenance than any school sysadmin will ever be._

Not necessarily. Even Premium (i.e. PAID) Google Apps users have had issues
with feedback/error resolution with things like missing/corrupted docs, and
there is nothing more they can do. When I worked in the IT Dept. of a Tertiary
education institute, it was not unheard of for students/staff to contact the
department manager if they were not satisfied, or even write to the Minister
for the Education Department.

If they did the same thing under a Google/Netbook setup, there is nothing to
say the IT department (which will _STILL_ be required, they will just have
their hands tied behind their back in terms of what they can do) could do
_ANYTHING_ about the problem.

~~~
wccrawford
And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a
better success rate than Google at recovering the items?

Did you have a lower corruption/loss rate?

Google is huge, and a few problems are going to happen... And they'll be blown
out of proportion. Without actual numbers to show the reliability, your guess
is as good as mine about how reliable it is.

The fact that you can't get in touch with a Google engineer and hold them
personally responsible doesn't mean anything. The document is just as lost
either way.

~~~
stephenr
_And when things went missing or corrupted at the IT Dept, did you have a
better success rate than Google at recovering the items?_

Well we could tell the person, right then and there that we are working on it,
so they know their problem is being looked at, and we knew the details of our
backup schedule, because we controlled it.

Hell, for a simple "i deleted this by accident" problem, we could often
retrieve it with a rightclick before the disk was purged, and if it was
already purged or the document corrupted, we just went to the tape backups.

Can you tell me what Google's backup plan is? Do they even have backups for
the stuff in Google Docs/Gmail? Are those backups available to free users? How
long are old backups kept? What is the response time for a file retrieval
request?

* The fact that you can't get in touch with a Google engineer and hold them personally responsible doesn't mean anything*

it's not about holding an engineer personally responsible, it's about
transparency of the service. if you ask a (decent) IT department about their
backup schedule, they will probably tell you, happily, when files are backed
up and how long for, and how long it takes to retrieve them and how often
they're checked for consistency.

~~~
wccrawford
With Google, I don't have to care how often they are backed up, or when. If a
file is missing or corrupt, they deal with it automatically. I don't have to
notify them.

And if a file is unrecoverable, there's no point in contacting them.

It appears the only thing gained by having a local IT Dept is being able to
un-delete things you accidentally deleted. In this day and age, I solve that
by just not deleting things. Google solves it by having a 'trash can' concept
where you can undelete it yourself.

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trotsky
To what degree does chromeOS and google docs contribute to the google
intelligence/profiling that they do on every user for ad targeting? Does the
educational program opt out of it? Over a few years time would google be
developing a full profile of the student including what classes they took
when, and perhaps even how well they're doing through reading level analysis
etc? Is that kind of thing something we really want to push on our children?

