https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z...

But I get it OP, you work with what you're given. I'm sorry I don't have any good suggestions.

Your point about tactility is solid too. flipping through pages is very different from swiping. With educational textbooks, you'd have to look at multiple pages at the same time (flipping back and forth quickly) to connect and understand a topic by referencing another topic. Same with being able to easily lay out multiple physical books in front of you.

1. Find older Intel Core Based Windows Laptops (at least 6GB of RAM) 2. Put ChromeOS Flex on them 3. Students will be sad it is still ChromeOS, but they will be happy it is like 3x faster.

I had an old Windows laptop laying around and I did this for my 80 yr old parents and they were super happy.

PCs for People is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bridge the digital divide (e.g. through sales of low-cost refurbished computers, internet access, and digital skills training).

They refurbish and sell computers to eligible organizations, including schools and offer bulk orders (6+ units) via email at "partner [at] pcsforpeople [dot] org".

If the order is 5 units and below, you use their publicly available online store link at pcsrefurbished.com/sales/salesHome.aspx

A lot of us resisted this at first, but then just kindof came to accept it, and it made it so we have a lot more capable machines to do development on than the laptops that we would have to recycle every couple years.

I know there have probably been a lot of "thin client" products/services in the education space in the past, but I think it might be time to try again.

Like another poster here, I think it's "sad" that kids are using laptops. Laptops have small screens and poor ergonomics.

A thin client setup with a good keyboard, mouse and monitor could be better and more affordable / future proof.

If anything is making them slow its the javascript bloat of modern webapps that could be doing more serverside.

This is a huge gripe of me and my wife. Growing up we all had desktops in the computer lab at school (elementary+) and you had decent size screens. Now kids pull up their little 12" chromebook in their classroom. Kids have eye strains, myopia etc...

They were an upgrade from the Mac LC II. I don't recall those having very big screens either.

15" and 4:3 was about as big as it got in high school. A computer on a table and we sat on a normal plastic school chair.

Everything old is new again, back to the days of using a single shared server for software development in timesharing setup.

Instead of Novell Netware, UNIX, VMS, AS/400,..., it is the cloud.

Curious if there's a way random people can test it.

The real problem is that chromebooks are designed to run web applications which you rely on and which have become more bloated over time.

The real question is what are the students supposed to learn on those laptops? Is it how to type? Use Google Docs? How to program?

A Chromebook has sufficient hardware to do all that. Heck, a 20 year old laptop is sufficient for doing that.

I'm 37, and remember learning how to type on wildly out-of-date Apple II machines in the mid 90s.

Maybe someone knows but you could try to upcycle to nixbooks.

https://github.com/mkellyxp/nixbook

I am currently using a refurb for personal use right now and I've been using it without any issues since 2023, not because I'm wanting for money but because you don't replace what hasn't broken yet.

That's really the attractiveness of Chromebooks. Students don't need more than a web browser for most things day to day. Heck, I don't need much more than a web browser day to day.

1) kids k-5 are using laptops 2) websites are so bloated today that browsing on a Chromebook is causing agitation

Otherwise I don't have anything topical for this post, but good luck OP

(EDIT: Actually, probably not better than paper. I remember a study that note-taking by hand produced significantly better scores than typing; moreover, drawing is easier on paper, and some assignments are better drawn. But laptops can still be useful, and some assignments (like coding) are better digital. So ultimately, I think laptops should be incorporated alongside pen-and-paper.)

For 2) I agree with the general idea (“static” websites should never be slow), but the aforementioned digital media includes some that can run on low specs. Worst case, you can give students PDFs of physical assignments (with form elements to put answers); but I’m sure there are some minimal websites with K-5 material.

Maybe for computer science classes, but even there I'd prefer to use shared desktop computers.

There is a lot of research that shows that the depth of understanding the material directly depends on the amount of effort you put in. Or that actually writing down things by hand increases the amount of recall.

And to add to this, it looks like fine motor skills also directly influence brain development and may improve the IQ. The association of higher IQ with better fine motor skills is now well-established, but it also might work in reverse.

There’s a big difference between “having a tool available” and “using it all the time for everything.”

We are not talking about replacing writing and reading on paper.

I was fortunate that my middle and elementary schools had computers. They weren’t used all day long. We used them to do things like learning typing skills and look up references on library computers. I remember using an old Apple II program (old even back when I was in school) in an applied technology class where we designed a car and tested its performance. Yes, before 9th grade. The whole class was kind of like an introduction to some engineering concepts, which involved a rotation of different stations we would go to where we did some interactive assignments. It was both fun and inspiring, and, dare I say, a computer was involved.

I’m now just remembering that we even learned BASIC programming in 8th grade!

One of my most fond memories of middle school was a mock publishing competition where students wrote essays and stories and pitched them to other groups of students acting as publishers with a budget. I remember using interesting fonts on the titles of my typed out stories to try and stand out and market myself.

Later in high school (admittedly, after the grade 9 cutoff you prescribed, more on that later), we used them in a multimedia class to learn to do basic graphic design as well as writing proper business letters to request permission from magazines to use their covers for a multimedia project. (Of course, with fair use, we didn’t have to ask, but the whole point was to learn to properly contact and communicate with business professionals).

I can’t imagine what it would be like if my school didn’t have the funding to have these tools available to teach what we now know are essential life skills. I probably wouldn’t have ended up making well above median income in the technology industry.

I think your 9th grade cutoff is particularly silly. You can start subjects like algebra before high school. You really think there are kids doing formal classes like programming and digital design/art before high school? Go look into some of the curriculum course list for some of the top middle and high schools in the country.

And why exactly is this bad?

> There’s a big difference between “having a tool available” and “using it all the time for everything.”

Not really, when the tool ends up just pushing everything out.

> We are not talking about replacing writing and reading on paper.

Yet this is EXACTLY what has already happened. A lot of laptop kids literally can't write. Not even in block letters.

> I was fortunate that my middle and elementary schools had computers.

That's the thing. You had computers for CS classes. I had a somewhat similar experience, starting with ZX-Spectrum. I think this is actually great, especially if you start with something basic like Apple II.

But you did not have them on your desk at all times. You had to learn math and language by actually writing things in a physical notebook with a pen.

> I think your 9th grade cutoff is particularly silly. You can start subjects like algebra before high school.

Why the heck do you need computers for algebra?!? School-level algebra is something that is literally better done without any calculating tools.

> You really think there are kids doing formal classes like programming and digital design/art before high school? Go look into some of the curriculum course list for some of the top middle and high schools in the country.

Formal classes with desktop computers that STAY IN CLASS after the lesson are fine. Having access to a computer _after_ school is also fine.