More Colorado schools turning to iPad to improve education (Denver Post)
Math that moves: Schools embrace the iPad (New York Times)
On tablets in the classrooms - are they really a necessity? (Manila Bulletin)
Digital Textbooks (Curmudgeon [not so much about tablets, but what we can do with them])
At one level, I get it. iPads are easy to use, have great battery life, are reasonably affordable, and have that Apple-ly shiny goodness that other people (but not me - sorry, Steve) seem to love so much. But if you have $500 to spend to put technology into a student's hands, why not buy a cheap laptop?
Let's do a comparison between an iPad, Chromebook, and budget laptop:
iPad:
- Price: $499
- Fast enough for HD video playback
- 10 hour battery life (to Apple's credit, this appears to not be exaggerated)
- Front and rear camera
- Instant on, simple administration
- Input device: (Usually) fingers
- No flash, some Google Docs limitations
Samsung Chromebook:
- Price: $429
- Fast enough for HD video playback
- Up to 8.5 hours of battery life
- Front camera
- 10-second boot, instant resume, simple administration
- Input device: keyboard and touchpad
- Not a "real" notebook, limited to browser apps
ASUS Eee PC 1215B-PU17-BK (Some companies just can't name products, can they?)
- Price: $437
- Fast enough for HD video playback
- Up to 8 hours battery life
- Front camera
- Slower boot, probably more complicated administration
- Input device: keyboard and touchpad
- A full-fledged computer, with all its benefits and hassles
In a recent conversation I had with Darren Yung on Google+, he said he'd rather have iPads for students than notebooks, citing administration hassles with the notebooks and the problem students have logging in. I've seen that personally - students forget passwords, leave caps lock on, or find other ways to not be able to log themselves into the OS. Darren also lamented the slow boot time of notebooks. He did, however, wish iPads worked as well with Google Docs as notebooks do.
So here's my argument: Logins are a hassle, but even if the OS has no login process, won't students still have to login to Google to get to Docs? In that case, the Chromebook and iPad seem pretty even. Also, notebooks are slow to boot. I agree, but I'm sure I couldn't type very quickly on an iPad, and the time lost typing would more than cancel out the time spent waiting for a notebook to boot.
I know there's more to this argument, but I think given the needs and wants described by Darren, I'd lean towards the Chromebook, with perhaps a carefully-yet-simply-configured (use auto login, for example) notebook coming in second. (This surprises me, as until now I had all but dismissed the Chromebook as a viable option.) I know I'm biased in two ways: (a) I taught in high school and now I'm a PhD student, so typing while reading web pages or PDFs is probably my primary academic computing activity, and (b) I'm not a fan of Apple. For (a), I'd like to personally see computers vs. iPads in the hands of elementary students to see which is more effective, and for (b) I'd feel the same way if we were talking about Android tablets. Now, because Apple imagery causes a religious reaction in the brains of Apple fans, I'm sure some readers will feel like I've just told them that they're praying to the wrong God, but hopefully even the most devoted followers can find my points reasonable.