Educational Use - Apple/Google/Microsoft?
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**Question 1)**Picture the scene, you are a school that is looking to review the use of technology in the classroom (i.e. defining future digital strategy). Let's consider you are looking at the age group 5 to 12 (Primary1 to P7). You may require that parent purchase devices in the future. You will also be possibly issuing to teachers etc. Taking all things into consideration, i.e. devices, usability, platform, the eco systems and tooling/services of the companies, Would you go for a) Microsoft + Surface b) Google + Android (using Galaxy Tabs/Notes and/or possibly Chromebooks) c) Apple + iPad (+ keyboard) My thoughts were with Google+Android, because a) Devices generally cheaper, b) syncronised platform across web/tablet/phone c) product spectrum of underyling services and platforms d) more open platform Question 2) What are your immediate thoughts to this statement: "We have carried out a very thorough process of due diligence with regard to choosing a preferred device. We tested 9 different devices across 14 members of staff with others joining in. Drop-in sessions, informal meetings, research at other schools, a formal online response and surveys of staff and pupil use of devices all helped to inform our final preference, which is for iPads, supported as needed by keyboards. Our aim is that the whole school will be wireless enabled by this autumn. Staff will be equipped with iPads in order to research and develop their use in the classroom and their support for the curriculum over the next school year. Some class sets will be available for testing material with teaching groups." Note: this is as a result of my kids school issuing the statement in Q2 (which was part of a larger email). My kids already have android tablets and chromebooks. I'll be fkd if i'm buying iPads.:mad:
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
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**Question 1)**Picture the scene, you are a school that is looking to review the use of technology in the classroom (i.e. defining future digital strategy). Let's consider you are looking at the age group 5 to 12 (Primary1 to P7). You may require that parent purchase devices in the future. You will also be possibly issuing to teachers etc. Taking all things into consideration, i.e. devices, usability, platform, the eco systems and tooling/services of the companies, Would you go for a) Microsoft + Surface b) Google + Android (using Galaxy Tabs/Notes and/or possibly Chromebooks) c) Apple + iPad (+ keyboard) My thoughts were with Google+Android, because a) Devices generally cheaper, b) syncronised platform across web/tablet/phone c) product spectrum of underyling services and platforms d) more open platform Question 2) What are your immediate thoughts to this statement: "We have carried out a very thorough process of due diligence with regard to choosing a preferred device. We tested 9 different devices across 14 members of staff with others joining in. Drop-in sessions, informal meetings, research at other schools, a formal online response and surveys of staff and pupil use of devices all helped to inform our final preference, which is for iPads, supported as needed by keyboards. Our aim is that the whole school will be wireless enabled by this autumn. Staff will be equipped with iPads in order to research and develop their use in the classroom and their support for the curriculum over the next school year. Some class sets will be available for testing material with teaching groups." Note: this is as a result of my kids school issuing the statement in Q2 (which was part of a larger email). My kids already have android tablets and chromebooks. I'll be fkd if i'm buying iPads.:mad:
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
I'd have a serious think about whether or not you really want to buy *any* of these things. My son used to go to a school where someone bought the students some iPads. They ended up being used as glorified e-readers for textbooks. There are much better/cheaper platforms for this kind of thing. I have yet to be convinced that there is a compelling case for tablets in the classroom.
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**Question 1)**Picture the scene, you are a school that is looking to review the use of technology in the classroom (i.e. defining future digital strategy). Let's consider you are looking at the age group 5 to 12 (Primary1 to P7). You may require that parent purchase devices in the future. You will also be possibly issuing to teachers etc. Taking all things into consideration, i.e. devices, usability, platform, the eco systems and tooling/services of the companies, Would you go for a) Microsoft + Surface b) Google + Android (using Galaxy Tabs/Notes and/or possibly Chromebooks) c) Apple + iPad (+ keyboard) My thoughts were with Google+Android, because a) Devices generally cheaper, b) syncronised platform across web/tablet/phone c) product spectrum of underyling services and platforms d) more open platform Question 2) What are your immediate thoughts to this statement: "We have carried out a very thorough process of due diligence with regard to choosing a preferred device. We tested 9 different devices across 14 members of staff with others joining in. Drop-in sessions, informal meetings, research at other schools, a formal online response and surveys of staff and pupil use of devices all helped to inform our final preference, which is for iPads, supported as needed by keyboards. Our aim is that the whole school will be wireless enabled by this autumn. Staff will be equipped with iPads in order to research and develop their use in the classroom and their support for the curriculum over the next school year. Some class sets will be available for testing material with teaching groups." Note: this is as a result of my kids school issuing the statement in Q2 (which was part of a larger email). My kids already have android tablets and chromebooks. I'll be fkd if i'm buying iPads.:mad:
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
I totally agree with you. In addition, you implied by "open" but did not actually mention, that, in order to do any relevant programming, everyone will now be required to purchase relatively expensive Apple computers for home use. In my mind, Apple is more evil than Microsoft. One of my sons recently bought an iPhone, because all of his school friends have iPhones. He has been very disappointed that he can't get free music anymore and the screen size is too small. Both of my sons want to learn Java programming, and I suggested Android phones would be a good demonstration and practical use platform. When I asked the iPhone owner about this, he asked about installing OSX on our spare generic Windows/Linux computer, but after we looked into the requirements for a Hackintosh, decided that he would simply need to use his old Android phone for demo purposes. Hopefully, when his two-year iPhone contract is up, he will go back to Android. On another note, the other son and I have Amazon Kindle Fire readers, which, though supposedly Android, are a little bit closed app-wise, so there is still a bit of a problem there. To me, "proprietary" has always just been a code word for evil control and not in the customer's best interest.
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**Question 1)**Picture the scene, you are a school that is looking to review the use of technology in the classroom (i.e. defining future digital strategy). Let's consider you are looking at the age group 5 to 12 (Primary1 to P7). You may require that parent purchase devices in the future. You will also be possibly issuing to teachers etc. Taking all things into consideration, i.e. devices, usability, platform, the eco systems and tooling/services of the companies, Would you go for a) Microsoft + Surface b) Google + Android (using Galaxy Tabs/Notes and/or possibly Chromebooks) c) Apple + iPad (+ keyboard) My thoughts were with Google+Android, because a) Devices generally cheaper, b) syncronised platform across web/tablet/phone c) product spectrum of underyling services and platforms d) more open platform Question 2) What are your immediate thoughts to this statement: "We have carried out a very thorough process of due diligence with regard to choosing a preferred device. We tested 9 different devices across 14 members of staff with others joining in. Drop-in sessions, informal meetings, research at other schools, a formal online response and surveys of staff and pupil use of devices all helped to inform our final preference, which is for iPads, supported as needed by keyboards. Our aim is that the whole school will be wireless enabled by this autumn. Staff will be equipped with iPads in order to research and develop their use in the classroom and their support for the curriculum over the next school year. Some class sets will be available for testing material with teaching groups." Note: this is as a result of my kids school issuing the statement in Q2 (which was part of a larger email). My kids already have android tablets and chromebooks. I'll be fkd if i'm buying iPads.:mad:
Dave Find Me On: Web|Facebook|Twitter|LinkedIn
Folding Stats: Team CodeProject
Surface is too expensive for school use, I guess, though I would certainly prefer that over the other two for my personal use, because of the robust self-healing NTFS. My friends and relatives are throwing their Android devices away, because, as they say, they don't know how to handle errors that started to be rather frequent after a year of use. So, what's left here as an acceptable choice is iPad.
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Excellent! Was this educational software exclusive to Android?
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. ~ George Washington
No, it was PC-based software, called Flowol (sorry, couldn't remember the name yesterday). Flowol[^] It is limited, but did a good job as far it is went and piqued his interest, which made me happy. I'd really like to see something like that (but more sophisticated) run in the browser, so it could be freely available regardless of platform.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.