samsung tablet

A teacher’s tablet review: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

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Samsung tablet

At our ULearn conference in October, we had some of the latest mobile devices on display for teachers to try, along with a survey on teachers’ views on the increased use of mobile devices in schools. All those that completed the survey went into a draw to win a Samsung Galaxy Tablet. The lucky winner was Paul Elkerton, and we caught up with him a month later to find out how he was using his new device, both as a personal and a professional tool.

– Glen Davies, CORE Education’s IT Manager

In the weeks leading up to ULearn I had been considering finally purchasing an iPad or a tablet running the Android OS. I’ve had an iTouch for two years now, and have enjoyed using it for everything from personal note taking, diary, games, music, email and cooking (recommend Nigella Lawson’s app), to using it in the classroom with educational apps. However, I could see the benefit of a tablet with its bigger screen size, quick web surfing, book reading, and for sharing my photography.

I was pleased to see a number of trade stands at ULearn11 with iPads or tablets up for grabs in exchange for completing simple surveys. So, between browsing what innovations were on offer and enjoying the food, I completed surveys. Thanks to CORE Education, I won a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at the end of the conference.

Here’s how I’ve found it…

Set up

The first thing I did when I finally got home was to start charging it and setting it up. It was a simple process requiring me to download Samsung’s Kies software to my laptop so I could sync my files and calendar. The tablet also connected to my wireless quickly and through the built-in browser I was soon able to access all my accounts such as Flickr, Facebook, Trade Me, YouTube, and even manage my photography webpage.

Personal use of the tablet

In terms of personal use, the Tablet has taken precedence over my iTouch.

Personal management

The Memo app is a great way to keep organised, and the calendar allows me to keep track of all important events, especially meetings at work.

Surfing the web and communication

Instant and easy web surfing without waiting for my laptop to boot has been enjoyable. Skype is great with the front facing webcam.

I have transferred my portfolio of photography to the tablet which has been a great tool for sharing with potential clients.

App shopping

The Android app market is easy to use, and those used to the iTunes store will quickly become familiar with it, although, I found it takes longer to find the appropriate app.

Reading

Recently, I downloaded the Amazon Kindle app, and was surprised by how easy and cheap it is to purchase books. And the reading experience is just as enjoyable as an actual book. —likewise, reading the paper through the NZ Herald app.

Games

In terms of games, I have become addicted to Angry Birds. And recently, my cat even started using my tablet to play CrazyCat, a simple app for cats. A mouse wanders around on the screen, and he gets points every time he swats at it.

Using the tablet and apps in the classroom

Around the classroom and at school the tablet is rarely sitting idle. I have it with me to quickly type notes and to add events and meetings to the calendar.

It is most popular during maths time, when children use it to play a range of Maths apps (Math Genius, Math Training, Math Magic, Math Ninja, Math Workout, Math Maniac) during their game rotation. During reading we have used the camera to record our plays so we could critique the expression in our voices and actions upon playback. The quality of the videos is impressive.

As the Android OS supports Flash Player, educational websites that don’t work on Apple devices work on the Samsung Tablet. Thanks to this we have been able to access our usual educational sites (BBC Bitesize and Snappy Words are great). We have used the StopWatch & Timer app for athletics, and recording the time of our model land yachts for maths so we can then work out their speed on the Calculator app.

Conclusions

Overall the tablet is an engaging educational tool.

I see potential in the Tablet for bringing devices into the classroom 1:1. However, I feel that a lack of a publishing programme such as Word, which our current Microsoft-based schools run, will for now hold the tablet back from widespread adoption. Our school will be looking for replacements of our net book pods next year, and the lack of this publishing option would see us steer away from tablets (unless we adopt Google Docs). Likewise, I can’t see the tablet replacing my teacher laptop yet, not until it can connect to and run our interactive whiteboards, or allow us to plan through a publishing programme.

Paul ElkermanPaul Elkerton is a Year 5/6 teacher, syndicate leader, and Director of Technology (ICT) at Stratford Primary. He is also an amateur photographer (www.pjelkerton.com).

 

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Schools of the future take action today…

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vision and leadership

Creating schools of excellence requires a shared vision, clear action plans for what matters most, and continuous reflective practice.

Here's some key ideas for developing momentum for whole school participation in reflective and developmental change:

Learning together

  • Culture – develop a culture that is based on relational trust and co-created vision. Build in opportunities to experiment and to fail safely.
  • Challenge – develop internal expertise to question beyond the known.
  • Connection – adapt any ideas to fit your context rather than adopt practices of others.
  • Conversation – develop a culture of inquiry, discussion and dialogue. Listen!
  • Collaboration – work as a team. Use external sources, conferences and online tools to connect you nationally and globally.

Taking action

  • Catalytic – focus on the one of two things that will make a difference to learners and drive that focus relentlessly.
  • Cunning plan – develop plans and set goals based on the shared vision and direction.
  • Coalition of leadership – grow others in the team to take action.
  • Commitment – once you have your plan keep focused AND be flexible enough to change the plan if needed. Develop systems to report on what matters.
  • Continuous reflection – provide professional learning and reflection opportunities,

Leadership takes courage. In an increasingly complex world, schools that wish to remain relevant to young learners of the future must move forward.

Cheryl DoigThis week's post comes from guest blogger, Cheryl Doig of Think Beyond, whose tagline is "Challenging leaders to think for the future". Cheryl is a recognised leader in education. She is managing director of both Think Beyond Ltd and ALPinE Leadership Ltd.

 

Check out our interview with Cheryl Doig

 

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iPad review: could the iPad replace a teacher’s laptop?

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iPad to replace laptops?

With the rise in mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones we wanted to see if a teacher could manage with just an iPad as their only device for the duration of one of our professional development conferences. Would it provide the full range of functionality the teacher needed for consuming and creating content, or would the teacher have to reach for his or her laptop when it came to the heavy work.

We put a tweet out for a willing teacher that did not own an iPad, but would be willing to try putting aside their laptop and using an iPad for the full three days at Ulearn11. Tracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) stepped up to the mark, and here is how she found it.

– Glen Davies, CORE Education's IT Manager

Arriving at ULearn, I was excited to get my hands on the iPad! I had some experience with Apple products, being an iPhone owner, and, of course, having played with iPads at electronic stores. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the device other than that I hoped I could learn as much as I could, and gain some insight into how I could use this for teaching my digital class next year. I had brought my laptop with me in case the iPad didn’t do what I needed it to do. It turned out the only thing I ever used my laptop for over the whole 3 days was to sync to my iTunes account.

The iPad was better than I expected. I found the keyboard so easy to use, and loved the time saving predictive text function. Typing was so much easier on the iPad as I didn’t end up hitting other keys by mistake, which sometimes happens on a normal keyboard. The screen size was great, and there was no trouble using both hands to type.

I was able to connect easily to the internet, even to the dreadful third party Wi-Fi my hostel offered. I could also swap in and out of different Wi-Fi networks simply and quickly. There was no trouble connecting to my school webmail accounts or to any websites I needed for breakouts. I could also access my Google Docs account easily, but I did have trouble enabling the editing options, which seemed to be only available to desktop/laptop users, but that could simply have been my inexperience.

I was lucky enough to go to the fantastic iPad App Harvest breakout with Paula Jamieson, and got some fantastic app suggestions from there. One of the best suggestions I had was to get the Appshopper app, which allows you to search for free and discounted apps. Really handy to have, and I got a lot of great free apps from there in just one day.

Other apps I found which I have really liked were:

  • Tour Wrist – a great app for exploring places and sights around the world,
  • Prezi Viewer – to view Prezi presentations (my class uses Prezi a lot)- the only downside to this app is that you could not edit a Prezi.
  • Elementals – was a great chemistry elements app I found free through App Shopper which is easy to use and interactive.
  • WordPress -I also use the WordPress app a lot to update our class blog, and loved the layout and improvements in the iPad version. We will be continuing to use this next year and it will be great for students to use to update their own blogs.
  • Storyform, Strip Design, Voicethread, Rocket Math, Word Bubble and Storie are also some favourites.

Using the iPad was such a highlight for me, and having that time to experiment and play around with it was great. I have come away from the whole experience with some fantastic ideas for my 1:1 iPad class next year, as well some great apps to use for different ability levels right across the curriculum. We have even decided to just use the built in keyboard the iPad has rather than buy separate ones for each of the kids.

A huge thanks to Glen and the team at CORE Education for letting me have the opportunity. I was very sad to have to give it back and can’t wait to get my own one in the next few weeks!

Tracy TindleTracy Tindle (@CrimsonNZ) is a year 7/8 teacher at Wellsford School. She is an ICT enthusiast, a recent Apple convert, and an e-book fan.

 

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