Desktop Programming vs. Chromebook Programming

I was so excited to learn that LEGO had created a cloud-based programming environment for EV3 Mindstorms Robots. Every student in our district has a ChromeBook assigned to them in grades 3-12, so I imagined a lot of opportunity for kids to experiment with programming, even when we weren't meeting for robotics.

But not so fast...

Some of the exciting functionality of the desktop programming environment doesn't seem to exist in the ChromeBook version. Data wires, sensor blocks and math blocks are not part of the suite. What this means is the inability for students to experience concepts like amplitude, randomization and exponential changes in motor speed. It will also be difficult (impossible?) for students to conduct experiments since there are no sensor blocks.

So, while it's convenient to have the ability to program on the ChromeBooks in a pinch, we will be sticking to the desktop version for now.