Android Apps on Chromebooks (& Acer R13 review)

Touch on a Chromebook? Android Apps on a Chromebook?

As a Christmas present I decided to buy (ie. give myself!) the latest Acer Chromebook offering, the touchscreen, convertible 13", 4GB RAM, 1080p. As it is yet to be released in Australia, eBay was my friend, along with a US to AUS power adapter.

With my education hat on, I thought I'd review the 2 main features that are of interest to schools....touchscreen & Android Apps (Google Play Store).

Look a bit familiar? MacBook Air anyone?

Volume control (handy to have on the side when being used as a tablet)

Ports: USB C port (next gen power and data transfer), HDMI, USB 3.0 & MicroSD)

Speakers on either side at the front.

Laptop mode

"Watching movie" mode

Tent mode!

"Look...I'm a tablet" mode

Play Store & Android Apps 

The Play Store on Chromebooks is in beta and therefore the Chrome OS had to be changed from "stable" to "beta" in order for it to be available. It then appeared as a pinned app on the shelf for easy access. When adding apps from the Play store they appear among your existing collection of Chrome apps, with no distinguishing label to know which are Chrome and which are Android. E.g. I added the Socrative Android App and the icon appears identical to the Socrative Chrome app- not ideal. I had a play with a number of apps and found that most open in a small window only a fraction of the size of the screen (see below):

Brain Dots- a puzzle game (Play Store App) crashed when I tried to maximise the window.

Scratch Jr  (Play Store App) could be maximised but has no functional benefit over the Chrome App.

Magisto (Play Store App) could not be maximised in landscape mode but if you flipped to tablet mode and held it in portrait, it could be resized to fit the screen. But again, there is a web version of Magisto that has better functionality anyhow.

It is clearly in beta mode and these Android apps have not been designed for Chromebook resolution and even warn "This app may not work when resized". Many Android apps I would be tempted to use in upper primary/early secondary have web based (or Chrome App) equivalents that are superior to use with a screen & keyboard. Examples of Android apps that are best left to the Chrome versions include G Suite (Classroom, Drive, Docs etc.), WeVideo, Scratch, Khan Academy, Socrative. 

So when might Android/Play Store Apps be desirable?

If we turn our attention to junior school apps that are designed for touch & low level literacy (e.g. simple counting, handwriting, letter and sound recognition) then Android apps on a touch Chromebook become a rather appealing offering. Particularly when you are then comparing directly with an iPad, the dual functionality is a real game changer. The fact that a touch screen/convertible Chromebook could act as tablet when required and yet be readily flipped to become a fully functioning laptop as students learning needs progress gives it excellent credibility as an education device. 

Handwriting app opens in small window but can be resized when device is in tablet mode and portrait (see below for how it looks when it's full screen)

A human body app (above) would have no web/Chrome equivalent and therefore only accessible through Play Store and touch devices.

Another consideration is the greater push for coding and robotics often requires the use of a specialised iOS or Android app (e.g. Spheros). These robotic devices would be a perfect example as to why a touchscreen Chromebook with Android compatibility would be a very suitable device for primary schools. As currently our Grade 5/6 students have non-touch Chromebooks and therefore need to access tablets/iPads in order to work with app specific robotics.

To touch or not?

As I've discussed, much of the everyday work done by students in middle/upper primary & secondary (G Suite, web browsing, multimedia creation) is better suited to web-based (Chrome) apps and therefore I don't feel that touch would be used widely, if at all. On the other hand, if you are planning for the future of Chromebooks and the compatibility with the Play Store, then touch is crucial. Android apps are obviously designed for phones and tablets and therefore to operate with a mouse/touchpad would generally be futile. In junior years, when keyboarding is a foreign concept, the ability to integrate touch apps as they learn to type, would be of great benefit...how many times have you seen a little Prep student reach out and touch a laptop screen only to realise it's not like their iPad at home! So in short, if you intend to use the Android Apps, then touch is a must. If you intend to just use Chrome, then touch can be left off your wish list. 

Where's the camera?

Yes, there is obviously a built in web cam on this device (selfies anyone??) but if we are considering replacing iPads then how can a student walk out to the school garden to photograph a ladybug for her minibeasts investigation if the camera is only facing back at the user. So when this device flips to tablet mode there is not a camera facing away from the user! Sort this out please Acer and other manufacturers competing for the school $$$. I like Lenovo's current Chromebook N22 model as, although it's not touch, it has a reversible camera to allow students to take photos facing away from themselves. 

Where to from here?

With the addition of the Google Play Store, undoubtedly more manufacturers are going to enter the touch & convertible Chromebook market. So far only Lenovo have dabbled in the market with their Thinkpad Yoga Chromebook (not really available anymore from my quick search) and this Acer model R13 (only available in the US). I'm looking forward to student-centric designed Chromebooks (rugged casing, waterproof keyboards) with touch and convertibility being prevalent and bringing pricing to a point where schools can jump on board.

What Android apps (that aren't available on the web/Chrome) are you excited about having access to with the new Play Store Chromebook compatibility?

Love to hear your thoughts, opinions, experiences regarding all things aforementioned....leave comments below :)

For the record, here are some links to the Acer Chromebook R13 I reviewed:
Laptop Mag Review
Ebay seller

Google Forms in Schools

Google Forms are an often underused element of the Google Apps for Education suite. Here I will share 3 different examples that I have played with in my primary classroom.

Student Peer Feedback
As part of our oral language curriculum, students present fortnightly presentations to the class on a range of topics. There are a number of elements that we have focused on and following on from just having teacher assessment, we created as a class, the following Google Form as a peer assessment rubric. Students (with 1:1 devices), would complete the survey following the presentation, providing immediate feedback to the presenter.
*I initially created the template and then each student would create a copy, and share their link on the day of their talk. This way the feedback was only viewable by the presenter (owner).



Student Pre and Post Assessment
Thanks to Anthony Speranza (check out his great blog here) for inspiring my interest in this incredibly powerful use of Google Forms. At this stage I have only just scratched the surface, creating a pre-assessment (that will also be used as post assessment) for a 5/6 "Fractions" unit. Using Flubaroo add-on, the test is graded immediately and allows targeted teaching from the very beginning of the unit. Following the unit and with the pre and post data, effect sizes can be calculated. If this interests you, please read Anthony's blog and his slides from his presentation at ISTE 2014- it goes into great detail and truly outlines the power of Forms for a whole range of assessment- pre, post and formative.



Staff Feedback
A quick and easy way to gather feedback from staff is to design a form that can be emailed out with the click of a button. At the beginning of this year, new to my role as ICT leader and new to the school, I designed the following Form to get a snapshot of staff competencies, attitudes and uses of ICT.



I'm sure these 3 ideas are only scratching the surface of Forms and how they can be used in the school setting. Please leave comments and share any thoughts and ideas of how you have or could use Forms to enhance teaching and learning.

Awesome Google Facts and Figures!

Source: BestComputerScienceDegrees.com

Encouraging Higher Order Thinking Skills

The concept of "Googleable vs Non-Googleable" questions was mentioned to me many months ago but I again stumbled over the reference to this brilliant concept.

Thanks to Ewan McIntosh for this insightful read:
http://notosh.com/lab/googleable-vs-non-googleable-questions/

Here is an example I conjured from a from a Year 6/7 unit on Ancient Mediterranean History I taught this year:
Googleable Questions
Who was Julius Caesar?
Did lions really kill Christians in the Colloseum?
How far and wide did the Roman Empire spread?
When were the pyramids of Eqypt built?
What food did they eat in Ancient Greece?
....you get the point!

Non-Googleable Questions
Why were killings of Christians allowed in Ancient Rome and wouldn't be allowed in 2013?
Which ancient society's legacies (inventions) have had the greatest impact on modern society?
Why are modern buildings not built in such a decorative manner as they were in ancient times (e.g. Greek Acropolis etc.)?

You can start to see why the internet itself is not innately a tool for deeper thinking, but it relies on the teacher to structure the unit appropriately. Use the internet for sourcing information and build upon that to reach that higher order thinking that we all strive for in our classrooms. Gone are the days of "integrating ICT" purely on the fact that students are using a search engine to retrieve information. The unit above could include an assessment in the form of a blog that students post their persuasive arguments and allow comments and rebuttal from their peers.

Presenting with Glogster (Module 5)

An exciting, engaging and super easy to use tool for presenting projects is Glogster!

*make sure you visit the EDU Glogster, not the glogster.com

Glogster is an online, interactive way to create project posters. Posters come to life by combining text, pictures, audio and video. Completed Glogs can be embedded into Google Sites (watch the how to video here). Another plus is that you can login with your Google account, therefore no separate password required (you will need to choose a unique username).

Teaching Ideas:

*Perfect for presenting projects (SOSE, Science, History etc) because it allows text, images, video and audio.

*As there is design elements in Glogster you can also assess visual art and technology if you set up the rubric and assignment focus on presentation as well as content)

*Present autobiographies.

Here is a quick one I whipped up myself & embedded into blogger: