New Chromebooks, features and controls for educators

Chromebooks are a popular choice for K-12 classrooms because of their collaborative, accessible and sustainable features. And with automatic updates for 10 years and zero reported ransomware attacks to date, they’re reliable and secure devices for both students and teachers.

15 new Chromebook models are launching this year to give students and teachers even more options. And we’re introducing new Chromebook features and controls to make it even easier to teach with and manage them at scale.

New Chromebooks and tools for educators

Educators need high-power devices to lesson plan and teach in (or out of) the classroom. We recently announced Chromebook Plus, a new Chromebook model with AI features built in, like customizable backgrounds and Adaptive charging, and others like offline File Sync. And we’re launching 15 new Chromebooks in 2024, including six for Advanced Use and nine for Learning Anywhere — with many made from post-consumer recycled materials and that are more easily repairable.

In the coming months, we’ll also launch updated editing tools in Screencast, like the ability to trim at the sentence level, add and remove paragraph breaks, add chapters and titles to the transcript, display chapter titles in a video, and more.

More connected educational tools

We’re working to connect tools to save teachers and their students time — starting with Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education. Say a student wants to check their upcoming events in Calendar or their assignments in Google Classroom. Soon, they’ll be able to see all of that information in one view, right from the ChromeOS home screen.

Last year, we launched the Google for Education App Hub, which showcases great apps that work with Google for Education tools. The App Hub is coming to more countries and languages soon, featuring apps that integrate with add-ons, student-information-system sync and app licensing. Speaking of, we’re adding new partners to our app licensing program, like Bloxels, Padlet, ThingLink, SnapType and Texthelp.

New accessibility features

Engaging with educational content online is essential for learning — but a lot of web content isn't considered accessible. In fact, according to a Google internal study, 360 billion PDFs (making up 12% of all PDFs) don't work with screen readers today. Now, with the help of AI, a built-in Chrome browser feature on Chromebooks will help screen reader users extract text from PDFs using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). We’re bringing the same functionality to ChromeOS.

Reading mode is also getting new features in the next year, like integrated OCR, read aloud and line focus, where ChromeOS will highlight the lines as the text is read aloud.

We’re adding new, natural-sounding text-to-speech (TTS) voices to ChromeOS, too, which can improve reading comprehension (Cunningham, 2011). You’ll find these voices in Text-to-speech voice settings on ChromeOS in the coming months.

Easier and more secure device and account management

Chrome Education Upgrade helps admins manage their fleets at scale, with more than 1000(!) different policies available in Google Admin console. Now, we’re adding new pages like the device hub with smart notifications and centralized fleet information, revamping the device details page, and expanding group-based policies. We’re also working to bring AI-powered capabilities to Admin console to make fleet management even easier.

Last year, we announced data processor mode for ChromeOS to give schools even more control and transparency over the personal data sent to and processed by Google. Since it launched, approximately 1,500 schools throughout the Netherlands have opted into data processor mode. We’ve seen increased interest from admins in countries across Europe, so we’ll make data processor mode available to all European countries — starting with Norway, Belgium and Denmark — later this year. We’re also adding new features, including a switch to turn off all Optional Services, and more Essential Services under the new mode, so admins can more easily decide what features their students can access.

Phone and tablet management with endpoint management solutions

Many schools use other device solutions and are looking for ways to manage those devices alongside the rest of their fleet. So today, alongside our existing Chrome Education Upgrade that manages Chromebooks, we’re adding Endpoint Education Upgrade to help manage Android and iOS devices. Endpoint Education Upgrade provides advanced account and device management controls to help keep school data more secure.

This add-on bundles advanced admin and security controls in Google Workspace for Education Standard and Plus, which includes advanced endpoint management. This lets admins control what can be installed on a device, who can log into it and where it can access data. And when devices are lost or stolen, admins can set up Admin rules to alert them, locate or identify their last use using audit logs, prevent devices from being used with Context-Aware Access, and remotely wipe them with advanced mobile management.

Customers can purchase Endpoint Education Upgrade licenses for $5 per user, or via a per-device model that will roll out later this year, through their current Google Workspace for Education reseller and select channel partners. Express interest in this form to get notified when these are available.

The impact of Chromebooks on the classroom

We’ve just published a global study with Forrester that determined schools will get a 223% ROI with the purchase of Chromebooks and use of Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. Read the full report and learn how Chromebooks will impact your institution.