As Google’s Chromebook continues to make its mark as one of the best-selling laptops out there for schools, more and more cities want to hop on the bandwagon. Recently, the tech-giant finds that it has gained another ally: The New York City Department of Education.

The NYC CIO has signed on with Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education “as part of their approved and supported [from an IT standpoint] tools for this school year,” said an article on TechCrunch.com. “They’ve also built a guide to help teachers in their district get started.”

“Part of what makes New York City unique is its diversity,” said Hal Friedlander, Chief Information Officer, New York City Department of Education in a blog post on the Official Google for Work page. “Each of the five boroughs has a rich mix of people and cultures, which is reflected across the more than 1 million students at over 1,800 schools. While some see this variety and scale as a challenge in offering technology for schools, I see it as a benefit. In NYC, we have more schools innovating, more schools piloting technology and more schools leading the charge in finding the right tools for teachers and students.”

With NYC on its side, Google can “reach another 1 million plus students, across 1,800 schools more easily," said TechCrunch.com.

“Over the last year, we saw more and more schools using Google Apps for Education,” Friedlander said. “After evaluating it centrally we decided to add Google Apps to our list of approved and supported tools for NYC schools this year.”

Friedlander said that there were “a number of that factors drove this decision.”

“First, a number of schools were already using Google Apps for Education. Second, since Google Apps doesn’t require special technical skills, schools were able to customize the tools to meet their specific needs.”

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Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor