Dive Brief:

• The differences between Apple iPads and Chromebooks in the classroom isn't just their significant price gap; it's also, Apple CEO Tim Cook says, that "iPads are set apart from the competition by their education-focused native apps and integration with school curriculum" while Chromebooks require constant web connections to access the suite of tools known as Google Apps for Educators (GAFE).
• One reason Chromebooks have cornered the K-12 tech device market is because of standardized testing, Cook implies, since "school districts needed to buy devices quickly, cheaply, and in large numbers" with keyboards in order to accommodate a move away from bubble sheets, Buzzfeed reports.
• In an Apple Store press event in honor of the Hour of Code, Cook told a third grade students from Harlem's P.S. 57, a school that has no computer lab, that "Coding is a really important language to learn — as important as English, someday."

Dive Insight:

Initially, iPads were the device of choice for classrooms, and as recently as 2012, Chromebooks account for just 1% of tech device purchases for educational use, Buzzfeed reports. Yet over the last three years, the proliferation of Chromebooks has been meteoric. They now account for 51% of market share.

Chromebooks "... also offer users access to Google's popular suite of tools and apps, which are widely used even in schools that don't use the devices," Education Dive reported last month. "The integration of the tools with the devices can help ease the hurdles of getting teachers and students used to a new system."