Google is offering public school teachers its Samsung Series 5 Chromebook for the bargain price of $99.
Teachers can register on DonorsChoose.org by Dec. 21. From there, anyone can choose to help fund the purchase, and once enough funds are pledged, the Chromebooks are delivered.
These small netbooks typically retail for around $500 (a price CNET says is too high), but a new version costs only $249. Either way, for under $100, the computer is a steal.
The Chromebook's specs are very good at this price. It has a 12.1-inch screen with a 1200 by 800 pixel resolution, a dual-core Intel Atom N570 CPU clocked at 1.66 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of flash memory. It also has a built-in webcam, an SD card slot, a micro-VGA port with a VGA adapter, and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Chromebooks have several drawbacks when used in the home that might be assets in the classroom. They're mostly plastic, which should be more durable with little hands.
They're web-based meaning they were not designed to download and store files or to install programs. The case is sealed, making both upgrades and tampering difficult.
Chomebooks are built for simplicity and multiple users. They take less than a dozen seconds to start up, and its data is stored in the cloud.
Students won't be able to use typical school staples like Microsoft Office, but now that Google has offline versions of its productivity suite, like Google Docs and Gmail, they shouldn't miss them too much, especially younger students.
A quick browse of the DonorsChoose site shows that most teachers are buying a few of the computers to use in the classroom, with an entire class sharing laptops that stay at school (the maximum purchase per teacher is 30 computers). That means most students won't be taking a computer home, just using it for a few hours a day in class.
That makes the low maintenance Chromebooks even more ideal for strapped school systems, and over 1,000 school already use the laptops in class.
Check here to see if you or someone you know qualifies for the Chromebook discount program.