Which tool?

Hello everyone! I am our middle school's tech integration specialist and my principal has asked me to get information on different tools for a new cart on wheels next year. I start with the learning in mind and an iPad does not do the creating that we'd like to do. Laptops are too expensive, and net books would do what we need anyway. So do any of you have advice on a brand of net books? They need a battery life that will last all day, and handle high usage from middle school students. Thanks for your help!

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Don Shegog on April 18, 2011 at 6:45am

We currently use the Dell netbooks that are ruggedized for student use. They have held up well. The 8th grade use them daily and we have had no more than 10 major repairs needed.

Permalink Reply by Kathy Strathman on April 18, 2011 at 1:55pm

Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts. ~Kathy

Permalink Reply by James Castle on April 18, 2011 at 6:48am

What sort of creating do you want your students to be able to do?

Permalink Reply by Kathy Strathman on April 18, 2011 at 1:57pm

Thanks for responding! Currently, we do quite a bit online. We use google docs, animoto, toondoo, glogster, and other Web 2.0 tools.

Permalink Reply by James Castle on April 19, 2011 at 12:20pm

Check out the following apps for the iPad2:

Collaborative Document Editing: Mobile Editing on Google Docs

Digital Storytelling/Presentations: Animoto, Storyrobe

Cartoon Creation: Toontastic

Poster Creation: Phoster

Also, check out an app called "Notability" as an alternative to Glogster. It isn't designed to be a poster making App, but it has some potential for student creation.

The addition of dual cameras and iMovie to iPad2 makes it the best content creation tool for students, in my opinion.

In any case, your district has to decide what its instructional goals are and selected tools based on what you want your students to do. Best of luck!

Permalink Reply by Ruth Lemon on August 17, 2011 at 6:22pm

My daughter is part of the NSW Digital Revolutions programme. While they don't provide these notebooks on COWs, they're rugged enough for every high school student to have one. I would prefer slightly less restrictions in system operation, but here's a link to the specs. Very cost-effective:

http://www.tale.edu.au/tale/live/parents/learning/stages/dernsw-pub...

In terms of OS / tools, I would lean towards Edubuntu - http://edubuntu.com/

Permalink Reply by Christine on September 28, 2011 at 6:37am

Have you looked at any of the other tablets on the market? We have some iPads, but are currently researching some others. There is a droid pad that can be attached to a keyboard. WHen it is closed, it actually looks like a notebook. It can handle flash, so it has some more capabilities than an iPad.

RSS

Welcome to
Classroom 2.0

Sign Up
or Sign In