As soon as I received the device from CDW-G, I was eager to get started. It took me a few minutes to find the stylus – under the keyboard. I popped it out, and immediately went to Cursive (cursive.apps.chrome) to try it out. I think I type faster than I write, but sometimes, I love just jotting notes down for referencing later. I see how this could be useful when at a meeting – when the clicking of keys can be distracting, for example.

I next went to docs.new and started typing. I love the keyboard on the Acer 714 Spin – the keys are soft and effortless to press, and it took no time at all to get used to. The 14″ wide screen is beautifully clear, but it will take a while for me to get used to having a touchscreen display. When I use my Surface laptop, I always forget it has a touchscreen – and I rarely use that feature.

The Acer 714 Spin comes with one HDMI port, a headphone jack, a USB-A slot, and two USB-C slots. I think the HDMI port is going to help when I am in a classroom setting, if the TV isn’t outfitted with a Chromecast. Most of our schools have TVs with both: Apple TV and Chromecast for teachers and students to share screens. I typically teach in the Makerspace classrooms (since I choose to teach two classes at a time), and I will have to see if our TVs and projectors in those rooms are programmed to work together on the Chromecast side.

The Acer 714 Spin allows me to use my home’s Wi-Fi 6E, which is supposedly faster to connect to. I will have to check if the district APs have 6E enabled. Weighing in at 3.06 pounds, the Acer 714 Spin is about the same weight as my 13″ MacBook Pro. It also has the same amount of storage as my MacBook Pro (256gb). Since I try to save everything to Google Drive, I am not sure what I will do with that extra storage.

I am the Director of Information & Instructional Technology at Union School District in San Jose, California. I am first and foremost a teacher – I have both a multiple subject credential and administrative credential, and I am the only administrator in the district who regularly teaches in the schools in our districts. (I teach Genius Hour on Fridays to 5th graders for six weeks at a time.)

Since the invention of Chromebooks and Google Workspace (G-Suite; GAFE; and all the other iterations that Google has used), I have been a huge fan of Google in general. They simplified the process of procuring inexpensive and, many times, free tools for students and teachers. That said, I do not work for Google, and I do not gain financial or any other benefit from Google being a fan-girl of their education and technology tools.

While attending a Google presentation with CDW-G and Amplified IT in Sunnyvale in October 2022, I saw some of the newer offerings of Chromebooks for teachers. I played around with the enterprise level Acer 714 Spin at that event, and I decided to order one and see if I could truly give up my Macbook Pro, my Microsoft Surface, my iPad, my Dell PC, and my Mac Mini – and only use a Chromebook as my primary and only device. I will basically blog this journey as I say what challenges and benefits I will face using only the Acer 714 Chromebook to do my daily work.