The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education How processor performance affects teaching and learning COMMISSIONED BY INTEL® PREPARED BY CLARITY INNOVATIONS, INC. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education Table of Contents Less Waiting, More Learning with Intel®-powered Chromebooks 3 Choosing the Right Chromebook for Learning 3 Test Devices 4 Conclusion 4 The Value of Time Saved 5 Overall Test Results 6 Classroom Test Scenarios and Outcomes 7 Educator Professional Learning Scenario 7 Digital Storytelling 8 Middle School Classroom Scenario 9 Interdisciplinary Public Service Announcement Project 10 High School Classroom Scenario 11 Science Project on Modeling and Simulations 12 Appendix 13 A. Device Specifications 13 B. Test Results 14 C. Scenario Testing Details 17 D. Average U.S. Teacher Salary 22 – 2 – Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education Less Waiting, More Learning with Intel®-powered Chromebooks The need for affordable and sustainable technology solutions that improve learning outcomes and better engage students has led many U.S. educational institutions to implement widespread device adoptions. Based on CoSN’s Annual Infrastructure report, 59% of high schools and 63% of middle schools report that 100% of their students have access to non-shared, or 1:1 devices.1 In order to equip students and teachers with the tools they need to be successful, many school districts have chosen Chromebooks as their preferred student device. Recently, Google* reported that in Q4 of 2018, 21% of all notebooks sold in the U.S. were Chromebooks and that last year alone, the number of monthly Chrome OS* users who had Android* apps enabled on their devices, grew by 250%.2 In the past, Chromebooks were only able to run Chrome web apps, G Suite for Education* add-ons, and brows- er extensions, limiting their usability as compared to other devices and operating systems. With the addition of Android app support, Chromebooks are a much more powerful option for K-12 education. These apps can enhance student and educator experiences by adding new and practical uses for the Chromebook.3 Due to the increased ca- pability of Chromebooks that support Android apps and devices with more powerful configurations including faster processors and increased memory and storage, more and more schools are looking to refresh their deployments of both student and teacher devices with the latest generation of Chromebooks. Choosing the Right Chromebook for Learning Selecting the right Chromebook for students and educators can be challenging given the ever-increasing number of devices and configuration options. In order to help educators separate the wheat from the chaff, Intel® com- missioned Clarity Innovations to evaluate four commonly selected Chromebooks and test their effectiveness at completely common learning and professional development scenarios. As part of our testing, we selected typical applications used in K-12 such as G Suite for Education along with a variety of Android apps. We found that devices powered by Intel® technology allow educators and students to complete learning tasks using educational Android apps faster than devices with MediaTek* or AMD* processors. 1 CoSN 2018-2019 Annual Infrastructure Report 2 What’s new in Chrome OS? A faster, simpler, and more secure environment for Web and Android developers retrieved from Google Developers Blog 3 Android apps for Chromebooks: The essentials retrieved from Computerworld – 3 – Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education Test Devices We identified four Chromebooks from a variety of device manufacturers to test based on the three lesson scenar- ios we developed. Included below the image of each device is the manufacturer name and model number of the processor. Complete details on the device specifications are available in the appendix. Acer* Chromebook Dell* Chromebook 11 Lenovo* 300e HP* Chromebook 14 Spin 13 3100 Intel® CoreTM i5 Intel® Celeron® N4000 MediaTek* 8173C AMD* A4 Conclusion When it comes to teaching and learning, one of the most valuable resources in any classroom is time. During the adoption process, purchasing low cost devices may seem like a good deal; however, the hidden cost of lost learn- ing time can have detrimental effects to both students and educators. Chromebooks with processors powered by Intel® technology save important teaching and learning time by reducing delays and allowing students and educa- tors to spend less time waiting for the processor to keep up with a learning task. However, when testing the processing time for using Android apps to complete more complex tasks like creating and exporting video projects and building and exporting 3D models and simulations, we discovered great differ- ences in processor speed and learning time saved. The table below illustrates the total learning time saved over the four-year life of the device by using a Chromebook powered by an Intel® processor. – 4 – Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education The Value of Time Saved Calculations below are based on middle and high school teachers employing similar learning scenarios as those outlined in this report, twice a week in five separate classes for 30 weeks. Total learning time saved is based on comparison with the slowest device. See Appendix D for additional details on average U.S. teacher salary. AMD A4 Intel® Celeron® N4000 Intel® Core™ i5 Educator Professional 629.2 seconds 320.5 seconds/day 119.0 seconds/day Development Scenario Total learning time saved 25.7 hours/year 42.5 hours/year (as compared to the AMD device) Over the 4-year life of the device 102.8 hours 170 hours Value of time saved $ 3,034.65 $ 5,018.40 Middle School Scenario 241.9 seconds 145.7 seconds/day 114.2 seconds/day Total learning time saved 8.0 hours/year 10.6 hours/year (as compared to the AMD device) Over the 4-year life of the device 32 hours 42.4 hours Value of time saved $ 944.64 $ 1,251.64 High School Scenario 243.6 seconds 207.7 seconds/day 128.1 seconds/day Total learning time saved 3.0 hours/year 9.7 hours/year (as compared to the AMD device) Over the 4-year life of the device 12 hours 38.8 hours Value of time saved $ 354.24 $ 1,145.37 – 5 – Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education Overall Test Results The learning scenarios we developed and tested were created to realistically simulate what most students and educators experience when using technology in and out of the classroom. Most lessons require the use of a web browser for access to information and research, as well as simple collaborative authoring tools like those offered in G Suite for Education. As the complexity of the learning scenario tasks increased – such as through video editing or 3D object modeling – the value of the more powerful processors had a significant impact on the time it takes to complete a lesson. Intel® Celeron® AMD A4 MediaTek 8173C Intel® Core™ i5 N4000 Educator Professional 629.2 secs 481.2 secs 320.5 secs 119.0 secs Development Scenario Middle School Scenario 241.9 214.6 145.7 114.2 High School Scenario 243.6 235.7 207.7 128.1 – 6 – Copyright © 2019 Clarity Innovations, Inc., All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. The Right Chromebook for K-12 Education Educator Professional Learning Scenario Digital Storytelling The following sections outline typical K–12 learning Aimee Sampson is a middle school social studies scenarios that compare the classroom experience teacher who is using her spring break as an excuse to for educators or students using devices with the four develop her digital filmmaking skills. She would like to featured processors. The learning scenarios include institute rich, project-based learning involving digital storytelling in her classroom, so she takes a MOOC educator professional learning, middle school cross (Massive Open Online Course) on digital storytelling. curricular mathematics and humanities, and high Aimee is hoping to help her students develop short school science. Each scenario explains the educator films for digital platforms. or student tasks involved in the activity and then gives the outcomes and highlights of our test results, in Aimee opens the course in the Chrome web browser and logs in. She creates individual, new tabs for all of addition to the functionality differences and the timed the course materials and discussion board. For this results for performance. For step-by-step test proce- particular lesson, Aimee is exploring how to assemble dures and all timed-test results, see the Appendix. all of the elements (text, images, narration, music, and video clips) to create the final version of her digital sto- rytelling project. She uses the Chrome web browser to open Pixabay* and complete searches for copyright free image assets to add to her title cards. Aimee downloads At a Glance multiple images to her device and then opens Adobe Grade Level: Classroom Educator Photoshop Express and uploads the images into the Subject Area: Professional Development program where she can use image manipulation, such This scenario focuses on online educator profes- as text, shapes, and filters to create title cards. sional development to enroll in an online course, collaborate with colleagues, and learn the process Aimee is collaborating online with a colleague—an of video production in preparation for creating English teacher named Steve—via Google Docs.