Tablets in Education

There are more and more schools are engaging in eReader and eBook programs, but how do they decide which kind of tablet they want to use, as there are so many out there. There are so many factors that will affect the final decision.

One of the top reasons is the economic advantages, no matter is Nook, Kindle, iPad or other tablets, they all offer digital books. Compared to traditionally printed textbooks, online textbooks can drop the cost of a textbook by 50% or more, and eliminates the problem of lost or damaged materials. Ultimately it saves school a good amount of money on textbooks.    

Almost all the tablets offer digital books, then what other factors that affect schools decision. I find out one of the reasons why some schools choose Nook is because of its support.  In the article, "Our Nook Adventure", the author thinks Kindle is a better device, however, she still chose Nook, because of its support. Barnes & Noble provides 3 separate trainings the librarians and goes to schools for hands on support. In contrast to Barnes & Noble’s hands on support, the Amazon is astonishingly ignorant or indifferent, according to the post, Why we don't Purchase Any More Kindles at the Unquiet Library. The experiences of the librarians tell me that not only the tablet itself but also the customer service that come with the purchasing will affect schools’ decisions.

From the post Clearwater High Gets Their Kindle, I can see that Kindle’s lightweight, remarkable legibility, Text - to- speech feature, holding more than a thousand digital books as well as bringing great saving for schools are important factors that lure schools to by it. As mentioned in the post, the prices of the digital books are cheaper and students can buy insurance to cover damage or loss of the Kindle. Overall buying Kindle can benefit school with huge amount of textbook savings. iPad has all the features mentioned here, but why do some schools still choose kindle? Partially because its cheaper compared to iPad, another reason is that Amazon offers more book titles.

Even though iPads are more expensive, there are still so many schools that choose iPad.  Why? There must be something more than just economic reason. Multimedia creativity and a wide array of apps might be on the top list reasons. iPad integrates the reading, writing, and arithmetic literacies with display visual literacy and critical thinking. The article, 55 Ways to Use an iPad in the classroom., shows how many different and interesting ways that iPad can be used in the classroom. For instance, students can use iPad to practice math skills with Super 7, and to take note with SoundNote. The teachers can use the ShowMe to keep track of students’ learning. I downloaded the ShowMe app and use it to create some videos about how to write Chinese characters. Here is one of links, ShowMe. It is a great app. Teachers also can use Socrative Students Response System to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games. Another app GoClass might be very useful for teachers. It is for creating short lessons and delivering them to students.  In another article iPads Only Algebra Course, the school who implemented an entirely iPad-based Algebra curriculum saw how students dramatically gain in engagement in learning. The iPad application gives students step-by-step animated instruction, instant feedback on practice questions, the ability to writ, record, and save notes and access to more than 400 videos tutorials. Teachers can monitor performance via Wi-Fi, with real-time, student-specific feedback.