8 ms·
I work in EdTech. I never thought the ipad ever made sense in the classroom and I'm not surprised that a netbook is beating back the tablet. Input onto a table
by bradleyjg 10y ago
I work in EdTech. I never thought the ipad ever made sense in the classroom and I'm not surprised that a netbook is beating back the tablet.
Input onto a tablet is clumsy at best. It is essentially a passive device. Yes, you can add an aftermarket keyboard and and an after market stand, but now you have a three part hacked together netbook instead of one that's designed with a keyboard and hinge from the get-go.
Further, tablets are a magnet for damage. A laptop screen can take localized damage and still mostly work. A tabket screen shatters. Plus the laptop screen is set back within the monitor component and the overall center of gravity means that a netbook is more likely to land on the keyboard side.
Finally, the software story is best for windows (web and native plus great management features), decent for chromebook, and worst for ipads.
- bluedino 10y agoThe big deal with iPads ate my local district was "interactive textbooks". All the books we got never lived up to the hype.
- platz 10y agodeign to threaten the textbook status quo.. established players do not find value in "disrupting" themselves.
- ghaff 10y agoI'm sure that's true. However, I'd observe that interactive multimedia books aren't something that have become a big thing outside of schools either. People obviously consume multimedia but there doesn't seem to be a huge appetite for packaging them up as books in any systematic way.
- rhizome 10y agoInteractive textbooks have been pushed by the largest established publishers (Thomson, etc.). This goes back to CD-ROM days.
- platz 10y agoWelcome to the Brøderbund™ Software Library! Here, you'll enjoy many educational software titles. Including: Dinosaur Hunter 3D, and, JumpStart Kindergarten Deluxe
- rhizome 10y agoHow many gravy trains have we missed out on?
- Pulcinella 10y agoInteractive textbooks have pretty much always been garbage. Education companies want to pretend they are some Bret Victoresque interactive VR learning experience but instead they are basically just regular textbooks with videos and maybe computer graded homework problems.
- djhworld 10y agoEven outside of education, I don't think the iPad is useful for anything other than consumption. I've seen some creative types using drawing applications on it, which is cool I guess, but for the most part I don't see it replacing a laptop/desktop just yet.
- digi_owl 10y agoWell they can replace clipboards. Samsung seems to market their rugged 8" Android model towards logistics and factory floor management. And in recent years I have noticed a large number of ruggedized Windows devices aiming towards much the same market.
- Ar-Curunir 10y agoThe iPad is decidedly not rugged...
- digi_owl 10y agoAnd thus there is a thriving market in third party cases...
- ryanmarsh 10y agoI seriously tried to make an iPad Pro (9.7") work for writing my book (ETA sometime before I die). All the tools I need are there. I fly a lot so the form factor is perfect. I just couldn't stomach the keyboard.
- macspoofing 10y agoI tried to make the iPad my primary 'travel' device. My problem was the lack of multi-tasking (I was surprised how often I reference the web, or a document when writing an email) and no mouse support. I get that that the iPad is a "Post-PC device", but if you're using a keyboard (by the way, keyboard shortcuts on iPad were terrible) anyway, the mouse is actually a really good, productive peripheral - but Apple ideology doesn't believe in using mice with tablets.
- tedmiston 10y agoA lot of educational software is games as opposed to office software etc where the keyboard is the main / best input device. The iPad has done a lot in schools, especially the K-5 market, for example, see edtech like Osmo. You might not think it makes sense but students especially younger ones are benefiting from it every day. https://www.playosmo.com/en/ https://www.playosmo.com/en/ (My mom is a teacher and I've helped her research and adopt a lot of this into her classroom including several iterations of iPads and augmented reality based learning games.)
- bradleyjg 10y agoThe k-5 point is a good one. The company I work for and my thinking is focused on older students, in the 7-12 range mostly. But I'd think the fragility of the ipad would be an even bigger downside in that age group.
- tedmiston 10y agoIt's definitely a concern. So far they have just bought very heavy duty cases and I don't think the young students are allowed to transport them. Somewhat surprisingly, I don't believe they've had any broken screens either out of hundreds of iPads (one per child). What's even crazier is that many of these kids have learned how to use an iPad, gestures, games, etc before they can even read or write.
- bnolsen 10y agoMy daughter has been typing a lot on a chromebook since beginning of second grade. Hand her an ipad and the only thing she knows (and isn't too interested in) is minecraft.
- Roboprog 10y agoTouchscreen devices are popular in special ed / autism work.
- robotjosh 10y agoSchools would have to solve bullying before they can give kids computers. How many tablets get smashed on purpose by shitty children?
- jtnews 10y agoI hear some schools used to send students home with backpacks full of hundreds of dollars worth of textbooks even though they knew every book wasn't going to come back. It's called acceptable loss and is a cost of doing business. You can't deny all students access to resources just because there are a few bad apples.
- euyyn 10y agoIf a bully smashes an iPad or a Chromebook owned by the school, it's no different to breaking any other school property like a microscope. You summon the parents and bill them.
- Kenji 10y agoLet's be honest, most of the best studying time is still spent using pen & paper and exercise sheets. Even in 2017. Let's not fool ourselves, apps don't make you understand things quicker. The exception are very few select educational videos and some Wikipedia pages. Or programming on the PC, since that is much harder to learn without actual tools to run code.
- jclulow 10y agoLet's be honest, this comment is full of emotionally loaded language. Let's not fool ourselves, it contains not one iota of evidence to support the core claim.
- dsfyu404ed 10y agoNetbooks are also much more serviceable than tablets. At $20 a pop screens can basically be thought of as a wear item if you've got a large enough fleet deployed.