A decade ago, Google launched a small pilot program with a handful of schools. Council Bluffs in Iowa and Fon du Lac in Wisconsin were among the first to use Chromebooks. Today, Chromebooks are as essential as a backpack for students learning in the US and in places like Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Sweden. As we celebrate our 10th birthday, we take a look at how far Chromebooks have come in the classroom and announce new features for educators and students.
From pilot program to 40 million
Google employees brought the first Chromebooks to US schools for a pilot program in 2010, and it was found that students, teachers and educational leaders immediately loved how fast, simple and secure they were – three principles we still adhere to today. And with the rapid introduction of the Chrome Education Upgrade, which unlocked advanced features in the operating system, Chromebooks quickly became a hit among schools and IT administrators for their sharing capabilities and ease of management at scale. With Google Admin Console, school administrators were suddenly able to manage devices remotely, fundamentally changing the computing model for schools from “computer rooms” to “shared carts” and, currently, assigned Chromebooks for most of students, because hundreds of thousands of devices can all be managed by a single person.
Chromebooks expanded globally, scaling in partnership with manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. More recently, NEC and Sharp began building Chromebooks for Japan’s education market, making Chromebooks the No. 1 device in K-12 education globally over the past year. To open up possibilities for note-taking, digital reading, art, filming video reports, podcasts, and early learning apps, Chromebooks are now available in multiple form factors, including convertibles, clamshells, and tablets, and come with stylus support and touch screen functionality. And to increase access, Chromebooks now come with multiple connectivity options, including WiFi and mobile broadband. Today, there’s a device for every student and a growing ecosystem of apps for students and teachers alike—more than 40 million worldwide—with the Chromebook App Hub offering engaging apps and new lesson ideas.
Chromebooks were created to be the foundation for teaching and learning, no matter where you are. And in 2020, as schools pivoted to distance learning, we’ve worked hard to improve the video conferencing capabilities of old and new devices to run Google Meet and Zoom, and introduced new features like Zero Touch Enrollment to help administrators enroll remotely. and send devices to students and teachers at home, and extended support for automatic updates to eight years, so devices remain secure and equipped with the latest features for years to come.
