The 90% Tool

Any carpenter knows there is no such thing as a tool that will do 90% of the work you need to do….not a sawzall…nor a leatherman. However, in school technology, there is a tendency to select a tool because it can do everything, when an option for a tool that does 90% of the work may be a more cost-effective option. That tool is the chromebook.

The analysis for hardware cost is straightforward. Purchase enough of the 90% tools for 100% of the students and enough of the other tools for 10% of the students. Assuming higher initial cost and a longer useful life of the more expensive devices, the worst case scenario predicts the hardware will cost 10% more annually, and the best case scenario saves 40% per year. However, there are significant additional costs that tip the balance more clearly to the chromebook. These include software costs, initial setup/management costs, and that virtually all of the work done on it is in the cloud. How often does tech support have to ensure that everything is off a laptop or workstation desktop before it is reimaged? Lifespan of the 10% tools will also typically increase as their use will be limited to the tasks for which they were required (eg., CAD/CAM, high end publishing/photo-editing).

An commonly voiced challenge to using the chromebook is that you cannot do everything you need to do using cloud-based tools. There are distinct advantages to using tools that are entirely cloud-based. Most of these are device agnostic, so the work that a student does may be done on other tools that may be available (libraries, home, etc.). They are increasing in capability and function, and this is a trend typical of disruptive innovations like the transistor radio and the cell phone. Two convenient software tools for student-level work include WeVideo and Scratch, both of which are now entirely device independent.

Another commonly voiced challenge is that you need to have internet access to use a chromebook. The challenges for home internet access are important for states to solve, as they represent serious socioeconomic inequity issues. Be that as it may, chromebooks can use basic Google tools without the internet, and they can sync up when internet access is available.

A corollary to the 90% device tool is the 90% software tool. The number of students who need to learn more than that basics of photo-editing is small, yet many schools will purchase site licenses of the tool. The same may be true for text editing and presentations, where the tendency to over-enhance the key messaging techniques is commonly referred to as powerpointlessness. Perhaps the most important of all of the commonly available free tools, the spreadsheet, which is used so infrequently that it is a disservice to our students. Careers in science, engineering, and technology require basic analytical and data skills for which a foundational stage is using spreadsheets.

Although the chromebook is only the most recent step in a progression of new and powerful tools over the past decade (iPads, netbooks, cellphones), for the majority of our schools, using cloud-access devices and software will be more cost-effective and enable schools to better take advantage of future advances in cloud-based resources.