Best Deals for Students Before Christmas

If another article on what to buy at Christmas is just too much, consider the taxpayer or perhaps even the students. Yes, I'm talking about school technology purchases of which I've been doing my share lately. I'm looking on cyber Monday at deals: Chromebooks are on sale for $299. That is an amazing price for a machine that really uses class time efficiently, (8 seconds to boot up) slims down the learning curve (one browser, one interface, no complex operating system) and from an IT standpoint is a dream. But until recently, schools were expected to go with the lease option that is still at a whopping $20 per machine per month. (keep in mind that includes summer months) Google has recently offered a purchase plan that, well, just can't touch the deals online. Currently, schools can purchase a WiFi Chromebook for $449 each with 1 year support. Additional support for years 2 and 3 come at a price of $5 per month per unit. The math is elementary. $449+($5x24) =$569. That is almost twice the price of an Acer Chromebook I can purchase right now as an individual.
So what is Google giving us as educational institutions we can't buy elsewhere? The appeal for the leased model is the management of the Chrome browser using SMS and of course continual support. From what I can tell, IT can lock down the homepage and deploy Chrome store apps with the Chrome deployment and use current Active Directory users profiles. After a quick browse of Chrome Apps in the Web Store I found I could accomplish these tasks with a few apps on each Is Google's expertise worth the high price tag? I'm willing to view this device as I tend to do with my own home tech purchases. It will be obsolete in 3 years so i'd consider it a consumable item. Either that, or petition Google to bring the price in line with other mobile devices for students.

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