android for schools

bdoo

Hi,

Second level teacher here, we are going to start the transition to a portable device for use with ebooks etc for students from next September.

There is no shortage of salespeople shoving iPads down my neck but I have an open mind and want to make a good choice in terms of cost and reliability etc.

I also want to be sure that the device isn't just instead of books but that it's used to enhance learning in other ways.

Any experience / advice you could give regarding apps etc or other issues that would make the android tablet suitable / unsuitable?

briggy

Google Nexus 7 would be good. Small and fast.

PogMoThoin

bdoo wrote: »

Hi,

Second level teacher here, we are going to start the transition to a portable device for use with ebooks etc for students from next September.

There is no shortage of salespeople shoving iPads down my neck but I have an open mind and want to make a good choice in terms of cost and reliability etc.

I also want to be sure that the device isn't just instead of books but that it's used to enhance learning in other ways.

Any experience / advice you could give regarding apps etc or other issues that would make the android tablet suitable / unsuitable?

Bualadh bos, about time someone had some sense.

Simi

Nexus 7 is easy on the wallet, but a little on the small side.

Things move fast in the world of tablets though so if you don't need them until next September, I'd wait and ask again next March/April for a recommendation.

bdoo

Simi wrote: »

Nexus 7 is easy on the wallet, but a little on the small side.

Things move fast in the world of tablets though so if you don't need them until next September, I'd wait and ask again next March/April for a recommendation.

Yeah I expect a big move alright but it's the platform o want to figure out I suppose at this stage.

Like I said with apple there's no shortage of people who claim that they will transform the world. And their marketing crowd know how to push them for the education market. Personaply I think there's an element of snobbery with iPads but I haven't ruled anything in or out yet.

Android is less well marketed for education and I can't find lots of info on it on the internet. Talking to other schools, most have gone iPad.

racer1

bdoo wrote: »

Simi wrote: »

Nexus 7 is easy on the wallet, but a little on the small side.

Things move fast in the world of tablets though so if you don't need them until next September, I'd wait and ask again next March/April for a recommendation.

Yeah I expect a big move alright but it's the platform o want to figure out I suppose at this stage.

Like I said with apple there's no shortage of people who claim that they will transform the world. And their marketing crowd know how to push them for the education market. Personaply I think there's an element of snobbery with iPads but I haven't ruled anything in or out yet.

Android is less well marketed for education and I can't find lots of info on it on the internet. Talking to other schools, most have gone iPad.

Windows tablets will be out soon also. I would think the issue with the ipad is that it's a locked down ios. Unlike android where you can buy from outside the play store. I'm no expert but I would think you will need to factor in cost also.

bdoo

Definitely cost really is the big one.

The reason im asking now is because we need to give parents the heads up cost wise fairly soon in fairness to them.

Can't go springing this stuff on them in March or April!

I suppose cost is one of the things that has attracted me to android, that said I know that a win8 tablet which is affordable is probably not far away.

I'm not hung up on the device and I'm not hung up on sticking with the same device for each year group either.

I have an android phone but no tablet of any description and to be honest I can't afford one at the minute thats why I said I'd pick the brains of android users.

Any suggestions for apps etc that may be of use? I appreciate any feedback guys. Thanks to those who Have replied already.

Just to say again my motivation for promoting this change is that I think we can do so much more with technology than just lighten school bags, videoing experiments, sharing notes and assignments and other stuff I haven't even thought of yet.

Kids use the most up to date technology everywhere except school, that's bad, no wonder they're bored zzzzzz.

multimate

as far as i no most secondary school ebooks are only available for ios. you could also do a scheme to rent for say 20 a month for 12 months and get a small profit. (nexus 7 200 price)

multimate

if android you could also give option of this etc. for poorer people http://www.dealextreme.com/p/tm7022-android-4-0-tablet-mid-w-7-capacitive-wi-fi-tf-slot-and-mini-usb-black-1ghz-8gb-115316?r=70374682
http://www.mcbub.com/item/7--AllWinner-Android-4-0-Tablet-PC-512MB-RAM-4GB-McPad-F1-Capacitance-screen-WIFI-Camera-Black--CP147739--147995/

areyawell

Android definitely. They have flash, cheaper and have more customization.

Solair

You can browse the Android and the Windows app stores on a web browser (unlike iOS store) if you want to search for apps.

https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/store

multimate

Solair wrote: »

You can browse the Android and the Windows app stores on a web browser (unlike iOS store) if you want to search for apps.

https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/store

For iphone just use itunes

Peregrine

Androids should be the better option for all reasons mentioned above. I'll also add that iPads break really easily. Now let's face it, a school full of iPad user students..a good bit of them will shatter their screens in a month. Androids tend to be well tougher, Nexus 7 too.

multimate wrote: »

as far as i no most secondary school ebooks are only available for ios. you could also do a scheme to rent for say 20 a month for 12 months and get a small profit. (nexus 7 200 price)

The availability of ebooks on Android at the moment could be a worry since everyone jumped on the iPad wagon much to my bewilderment.

And students are only in for 9 months

waynegalway

Hi

I teach at 3rd level and I've used an iPad for almost 2 years for teaching.

Before I go any further, I should say that I'm not an Apple fanboy. I swapped from my iPhone 4 to a galaxy s3 a few months ago and firmly believe it's better than the iPhone.

I was so impressed with the s3 that I looked into changing my iPad for an android tablet, but after a lot of searching I stayed with the iPad.

Why?

Simple thing that swung it for me was connectivity to the projectors in my lecture rooms. I couldn't find a decent android tab that could easily connect through VGA cable. Sure, the iPad needs an adaptor for this, but android would have needed at least 2 adaptors to do the same thing. That's just messy.

So if your school has hdmi projectors you can shop around for android, but if it doesn't, then stick with iPad.

In terms of support for education, Apple are really good. The apps and discounts for schools they offer are really good. I've had a look at some apps on android written for teachers, things like time tables and class management, and honestly, there are much more useful ones on ios than on android.

I have a post grad certificate in technology enhanced learning, and I believe that ipads are definitely a better overall option than android tabs right now.

Pm me or reply if you want more specific help.

Wayne

waynegalway

Solair wrote: »

You can browse the Android and the Windows app stores on a web browser (unlike iOS store) if you want to search for apps.

https://play.google.com/store?hl=en

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-ie/store

I'd imagine for a classroom situation this wouldn't be an issue as the apps that are needed would be loaded up centrally. The kids wouldn't have the rights to go shopping on the stores. So using itunes to browse instead of a website browser wouldn't be a problem.

waynegalway

areyawell wrote: »

Android definitely. They have flash, cheaper and have more customization.

Flash is gone as technology. Adobe has even taken it out of the play store.

Cheaper, maybe. But for a classroom situation what you want is reliability, and as a general rule you get what you pay for in terms of buying technology.

Customization shouldn't be a selling point for school use. At most, the school may want to put on a background image of its logo or contact details. That's do able on ipad.

waynegalway

bdoo wrote: »

Hi,

Second level teacher here, we are going to start the transition to a portable device for use with ebooks etc for students from next September.

There is no shortage of salespeople shoving iPads down my neck but I have an open mind and want to make a good choice in terms of cost and reliability etc.

I also want to be sure that the device isn't just instead of books but that it's used to enhance learning in other ways.

Any experience / advice you could give regarding apps etc or other issues that would make the android tablet suitable / unsuitable?

Silly question maybe : is your school looking at buying in these tablets for loaning out over a number of years, or are you asking parents to buy the tablet that will exit the school when the kid leaves?

There are lots of great case studies from the USA of schools using tablets, but it seems to work best where the school makes the purchase. If you give parents options to buy android, you'll end up with maybe dozens of different tablets in the classroom, and fragmentation may lead to some tablets not being able to run some apps.

Better to pick a single device and buy a load of them.

bdoo

waynegalway wrote: »

bdoo wrote: »

Hi,

Second level teacher here, we are going to start the transition to a portable device for use with ebooks etc for students from next September.

There is no shortage of salespeople shoving iPads down my neck but I have an open mind and want to make a good choice in terms of cost and reliability etc.

I also want to be sure that the device isn't just instead of books but that it's used to enhance learning in other ways.

Any experience / advice you could give regarding apps etc or other issues that would make the android tablet suitable / unsuitable?

Silly question maybe : is your school looking at buying in these tablets for loaning out over a number of years, or are you asking parents to buy the tablet that will exit the school when the kid leaves?

There are lots of great case studies from the USA of schools using tablets, but it seems to work best where the school makes the purchase. If you give parents options to buy android, you'll end up with maybe dozens of different tablets in the classroom, and fragmentation may lead to some tablets not being able to run some apps.

Better to pick a single device and buy a load of them.

Plan is to pick a device and do a deal for 120 of them so that we can get value. Parents then buy from the school, in a small number of cases we may be able to allow payment over a couple of years to ease the burden.

There too many issues with repairs etc for a school to manage with the resources we have. The experience I have suggests that kids rake better care of their own property, there is little incentive to take care of something if you don't own it.

Also 120 tablets in 3 years Will be worth very little, this scheme needs to be sustainable and in my view the only way to ensure thatit that the child owns the device.

Ebooks are available on all platforms now also.

The choice we have is iPad / netbook / android tablet.

I have no allegiance or preference, I would like to get the best value ( not cheapest) option that will have most impact on teaching and learning.

waynegalway

bdoo wrote: »

waynegalway wrote: »

bdoo wrote: »

Hi,

Second level teacher here, we are going to start the transition to a portable device for use with ebooks etc for students from next September.

There is no shortage of salespeople shoving iPads down my neck but I have an open mind and want to make a good choice in terms of cost and reliability etc.

I also want to be sure that the device isn't just instead of books but that it's used to enhance learning in other ways.

Any experience / advice you could give regarding apps etc or other issues that would make the android tablet suitable / unsuitable?

Silly question maybe : is your school looking at buying in these tablets for loaning out over a number of years, or are you asking parents to buy the tablet that will exit the school when the kid leaves?

There are lots of great case studies from the USA of schools using tablets, but it seems to work best where the school makes the purchase. If you give parents options to buy android, you'll end up with maybe dozens of different tablets in the classroom, and fragmentation may lead to some tablets not being able to run some apps.

Better to pick a single device and buy a load of them.

Plan is to pick a device and do a deal for 120 of them so that we can get value. Parents then buy from the school, in a small number of cases we may be able to allow payment over a couple of years to ease the burden.

There too many issues with repairs etc for a school to manage with the resources we have. The experience I have suggests that kids rake better care of their own property, there is little incentive to take care of something if you don't own it.

Also 120 tablets in 3 years Will be worth very little, this scheme needs to be sustainable and in my view the only way to ensure thatit that the child owns the device.

Ebooks are available on all platforms now also.

The choice we have is iPad / netbook / android tablet.

I have no allegiance or preference, I would like to get the best value ( not cheapest) option that will have most impact on teaching and learning.

Well iPads seem to come out on an annual basis, and with ios 6 apple has essentially ceased to support the original ipad, which is basically 2.5 years old now. So a 3 year cycle is realistic.

Android tabs come out more often because there are so many companies making them. For staying up to date that's a good thing, but it leads to too many companies trying to get a bite of the cherry and it's fair to say that the range in quality is huge.

For reliability the ipad is hard to beat. It'll be around for years come in some forms whereas android tablet makers will come and go.

I have no allegiance to apple (I use an S3 and I genuinely looked around to see what android tabs are like), but my preference for a tablet would be an ipad.

Pop'n'Fresh

I'm very impressed with this thread, an Irish school embracing new technology to improve children's learning experience is great to see!

It's awfully difficult to provide meaningful advice on which tablet you should go for without any requirement list. I would research each platform's respective app store to determine what apps would be of benefit to use alongside your prescribed ebooks. This should be a huge determining factor.
Aside from the apps, what is your expected budget? What ports does the tablet need? What is your storage requirements? Do you want students to be able to use a stylus to take handwritten notes or rely on physical keyboard or on-screen keyb?
The tablet market has exploded in the past 12 months and there are so many options it can be mind boggling. I would first nail down your requirements and that will make your search much easier.

bdoo

Pop'n'Fresh wrote: »

I'm very impressed with this thread, an Irish school embracing new technology to improve children's learning experience is great to see!

It's awfully difficult to provide meaningful advice on which tablet you should go for without any requirement list. I would research each platform's respective app store to determine what apps would be of benefit to use alongside your prescribed ebooks. This should be a huge determining factor.
Aside from the apps, what is your expected budget? What ports does the tablet need? What is your storage requirements? Do you want students to be able to use a stylus to take handwritten notes or rely on physical keyboard or on-screen keyb?
The tablet market has exploded in the past 12 months and there are so many options it can be mind boggling. I would first nail down your requirements and that will make your search much easier.

We're not the first school to go this way but many schools have done so for the wrong reasons imo.

It will be a student device, we have an enterprise standard wireless network in place and are working on a vle for sharing work / notes etc.

the requirements are, durability, long battery life, ease of ssupport, loads more!

Atm if I do a complex problem on the board I get he kids to take a snap of it with their phone rather than try to keep up with me. They pay attention to the work and then try to do it themselves with reference to the solution.

They cal look at it on their computers or on their phones as they try it for homework. I have also started doing little videos of things which I share with he class on an online platform that they can reference it when they need to,

It's not about the particular piece of technology it's how we use it. I don't want to ask parents to spend money on something that won't improve outcomes for their children.

If we get a device that runs the ebooks, and is durable etc we will figure out creative ways to use them.

I know schools where the iPad has replaced the books full stop- no more no less. Other schools use them very creatively, I know we have to walk before we run so a good reliable tablet would get the ball rolling.

I think that the kids will help us enormously in developing ways of using the technology.

As for a stylus / keyboard there are still written exams so copies will stay! This is not a bad thing either imo.

The nexus 7 looks tidy, im not sure if it's too small with all the zooming capabilities etc, compact, light etc - how tough?

the one thing I would like is a classroom control app where kids logon to my class and it allows me to monitor what they are at via ny own device, this is possible on windows and iPad.

Pop'n'Fresh

bdoo wrote: »

the requirements are, durability, long battery life, ease of ssupport, loads more!

Atm if I do a complex problem on the board I get he kids to take a snap of it with their phone rather than try to keep up with me.
I have also started doing little videos of things which I share with he class on an online platform that they can reference it when they need to,

If we get a device that runs the ebooks, and is durable etc we will figure out creative ways to use them. As for a stylus / keyboard there are still written exams so copies will stay!

The nexus 7 looks tidy, im not sure if it's too small with all the zooming capabilities etc, compact, light etc - how tough?

the one thing I would like is a classroom control app where kids logon to my class and it allows me to monitor what they are at via ny own device, this is possible on windows and iPad.

A quick google search provided 3 options regarding classroom management apps on Android. I have no experience with any of these packages but if I can find these in 2 minutes I'd be confident there are many more options:
Blackboard, Netsupport, TabPilot

Quality manufacturers develop quality products which would meet your "durable" requirements however I would most definitely advise you suggest your students purchase an appropriate case/sleeve to protect their tablets. No tablet is immune from scratched or cracked screens if the necessary care is not taken.

The Nexus 7 would be a great starting point for an android device however a couple of things to note. There is only a front facing camera so if you want the kids to take a picture of what you've done on the board it'll be very difficult. Also there are no SD card slots on the Nexus (nor the iPads) so expandable memory is a no-go.
7" screen can be limiting depending on what format your e-books are, large graphic heavy PDFs would favour a bigger screen. On the up side they are great value, reliable and fast devices. Google and Asus will support these for a considerable length of time in the future.

waynegalway

HI

This is a very interesting thread, alright. It covers 2 of my pet interests, education and technology. (Although technically speaking they're more than pet interests as I make a living from them, but they are something I'm passionate about).

On the subject of classroom management, I have experienced Blackboard as a student and Moodle as a student and teacher. I would recommend Moodle to any school/college, but it's something that would have to be bought-into by management. Have a look at http://moodle.org/ for more details.

Another option for VLE/classroom management is Edmodo. Have a look at http://www.edmodo.com/ for details. It looks a bit more like facebook, so I'd imagine the kids would buy-into it more. And from what I can see, an individual teacher can set it up for a single class as a trial run, whereas Moodle requires a more technical set up (we use it from a large server). Edmodo might be a handy and cool way to introduce a class to eductaional technology without too much effort on the part of the teacher or school.

But getting back on topic, all of these VLEs are web-based, so any device with a browser can access them. I wouldn't get caught up in picking a device based on the VLE you need. Although most of them have dedicated apps, in my experience you're better off just using the device browser to use them.

OP: the whole area of technology in education is very interesting. Drop me a line if you ever have any specific questions about it, as delving into it here is going off topic a bit!.

nice_day

Resurrecting this thread from the dead, and would be very grateful for any feedback...

In an effort to keep costs down for parents, our second level school is looking into alternatives to the iPad. Does anybody have any experience with second level students bringing Android tablets to school? Or a BYOD situation?

Further, what devices are used and is there a minimum spec? Do you find the Education apps available to be comparable to what is available with the iPad, and are the devices powerful enough to run them. And do the students find the Android device difficult to manage?

loyatemu

the school should talk to the PDST and see what other schools are doing in this area. My son's school is using iPads and the devices are all managed under contract by Wriggle. This is a costly option, but they make very productive use of the devices.

waynegalway

loyatemu wrote: »

the school should talk to the PDST and see what other schools are doing in this area. My son's school is using iPads and the devices are all managed under contract by Wriggle. This is a costly option, but they make very productive use of the devices.

I have no experience with Wriggle, but since I was last involved in this tread, I have been through a number of devices.

Back in 2012 I was still probably using my iPad2 along with my iPhone 4. When Android phones got nice big screens, I switched to Samsung. To keep my IT suite consistent, I then bought a Google Nexus 7 tablet. I went through a couple of Android phones, then switched back to iPhone 6.

I like trying out new tech, but to be honest, in all my dealings over the years, I think the one thing that hasn't changed is that you get what you pay for. Ultimately, my main reason for switching back to an iPhone was reliability and service: both my Android phones had faults, which resulted in between 4-6 weeks without the phones while they went for repairs in the UK. I have also had a minor issue with my iPhone6: I got a replacement handset over the counter in CompuB in under 48 hours. That kind of support is priceless.

For security, reliability, usability and functionality, if I had to buy a set of tablets for a classroom right now, it would be a no-brainer: I'd go for iPads.

Another option to look at, though, is Chromebooks. I have one, and I really like it. It boots up really fast, most things work offline, and they can be had for about half the price of an iPad. It works more like a regular computer, so in some ways they are more flexible than the walled garden of iOS. Google also has a suite of apps for education, including a thing called Google Classroom, which might be a good solution for class management and/or syllabus delivery.

The main thing to think about (aside from cost) is what the IT people in your school think. The locked-down nature of iPad is a double edged sword and I know some IT technicians that really do not like Apple stuff.