Learning, teaching and creating digitally made easy with Wacom and Chromebook

Wacom continues to expand its efforts to support the education sector with the necessary solutions and services to create teacher and student-friendly technology for the digital classroom. As a next important step, Wacom announced today that its One by Wacom pen tablet is the first Wacom device to be fully compatible with Chromebooks and holds the Works With Chromebook certification.

To help teachers and students to get the most from using a Wacom pen in education, Wacom is building a library of content consolidating all information on Wacom for Education with Chromebook and launched a Teachers for Teachers support network.

And to meet the wide-ranging requirements of the education sector, school administrators and institutional buyers now have access to all Wacom products through one point of contact – from stand-alone tools for teachers and students to integrated solutions for schools and institutions.

“Digitalisation has great benefits for the education sector. But it has proven to be challenging,” says Faik Karaoglu, Executive Vice President of Wacom’s Branded Business.

“As a pioneer of digital pen technology, Wacom is committed to providing teachers, students and administrators with reliable, sustainable and easy to use solutions. The new compatibility with Wacom pen tablets and displays will make creating, working and teaching digitally as natural and intuitive as possible and offer users more possibilities to work with their Chromebook.”

Wacom and Chromebook take digital learning to the next level

The digital pen is a powerful tool in education. It allows teachers and students to incorporate natural handwriting for note-taking and annotation and lets them solve math problems, draw diagrams and explain themselves visually as intuitively online as they would in class on the blackboard.

STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) especially benefit a great deal from the use of a digital pen.

Combining a One by Wacom pen tablet with the advantages of Chromebook offers students and teachers a valuable upgrade to their existing set up and provides schools with a worry-free solution – be it on premise, in hybrid scenarios or for teaching and learning from home.

Together they work with a wealth of online educational tools, so that teachers and students can easily connect, interact, and collaborate from different locations and across multiple devices in real-time.

Chromebooks give students, teachers and administrators a simple yet powerful solution for fast, intuitive, and easy-to-manage computing at a low total cost of ownership.

And even though recent Chromebooks are often enabled with pens that work on their built-in screen, users now have an option to attach a simple accessory in case they want to upgrade or complement their Chromebooks with dedicated pen input on a separate surface other than the main screen.

Wacom is therefore working with Google to expand compatibility to include additional Wacom devices and bring more pen tablets and displays to a growing group of Chromebook users.

One for easy beginnings

The One by Wacom pen tablet makes going digital easy as it connects seamlessly with any Chromebook featuring USB-A and the latest Chrome OS version.

It is ready to use out-of-the-box and requires no drivers and no software. The responsive, ergonomic, pressure-sensitive pen gives users a natural way to write, sketch, draw or edit content on the Wacom pen tablet connected to the Chromebook.

The pen is battery-free and works without charging exclusively on the surface of this Wacom device. It is lightweight, perfectly balanced and comfortable to use for hours. The experience immediately feels familiar – like pen on paper or marker on a whiteboard.

One by Wacom and Chromebook also offers a great start to explore digital creativity with a growing number of drawing, painting and photo editing applications created especially for Chrome OS. One by Wacom is fully supported by Celsys’ recently launched CLIP STUDIO PAINT drawing software for Chrome OS.

“Clip Studio Paint for Chromebook includes all features and offers the same capabilities as the Android, Galaxy, Windows, macOS, iPad and iPhone versions,” says Celsys President Kei Narushima.

“While our long-time collaborator Wacom joins the Works With Chromebook certification program, Celsys is working towards Chromebook support for Wacom devices to provide a smooth creative experience for all digital creators. With the foray into the Chromebook space, the alliance between Clip Studio Paint and Wacom is further enhanced.”

One by Wacom is now compatible with Chromebook, Windows and Mac OS devices. It uses a proprietary Wacom technology exclusively for the dedicated tablet surface and works independently from, and will not interfere with, on-screen pens based on the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI)* pen standard that either comes with the Chromebooks or can be purchased as accessories.

One by Wacom pen tablets come in two compact sizes and is available at the Wacom eStore and select resellers with recommended retail prices starting at $97.99 for the small version and $146.96 for the medium size pen tablet.**

Support and solutions from teachers for teachers

Wacom is committed to give teachers, tutors and students the tools and solutions they need for engaging online classes. Its vast network of local partners means customers can refer to local support in many languages.

In addition, Wacom will launch its new Teachers for Teachers initiative, a network to connect teachers and communities for support and exchange experiences. To make the transition to online teaching as smooth as possible, Wacom collected a wealth of information and helpful tips on its dedicated Wacom for e-learning pages and partnered with five leading educational software applications.

Collaboard, Explain Everything, Kami, Limnu and Pear Deck offer powerful interactive whiteboarding, video tutoring and online collaboration tools as learning and teaching shifts to the digital classroom.

They are fully compatible with Chromebook and now part of Wacom’s dedicated education software bundles available for the One by Wacom, Wacom Intuos and Wacom One pen devices.

*Wacom has been a USI member from the beginning and supports its direction

**All prices in EUR and GBP are recommended retail prices incl. VAT.

Chromebook is a trademark of Google LLC.