Category:

These basic devices are intended for reading ebooks and not much more. (We’ve included the more sophisticated devices from the same manufacturers in our post on tablets.)

Manufacturers and models:

• Amazon (Kindle, Kindle Touch)
• Barnes & Noble (NOOK Simple Touch, NOOK Color)
• Sony (Reader)

Pricing:

$79-199

Strengths:

• Enhanced features for reading, including variable display, dictionary support, search, notetaking, etc.
• Low cost
• Long battery life
• Single use (minimizes distraction)
• Wireless not required

Weaknesses:

• Single use

Killer applications:

• Ebooks

Things to consider and some opinions:

• These devices are designed for reading ebooks. If you want a device that does more, consider a tablet.
• While the use of these devices is limited, they are good at what they do. Not having access to a ton of other apps can also help students focus on reading. Having a few of these devices in a classroom or making them available for checkout from the library is a great way to encourage reading and provide some extra features like vocabulary support, searching, and variable display options.

The post Mobile devices: Ebook readers appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

Category: Tablets

These computing devices have touch screens and are typically operated through touch rather than a keyboard. They come in a variety of sizes but are generally smaller than a laptop but larger than a mobile phone.

Manufacturers and models:

• Apple (iPad)
• Amazon (Kindle Fire)
• Barnes & Noble (Nook Tablet)
• Samsung (Galaxy)
• Sony
• ASUS

Pricing: $199 – $800+

Strengths:

• Intuitive ease of use
• Well-suited to reading and multimedia viewing
• Very mobile
  

Weaknesses:

• No built-in keyboard
• Consumption-oriented
• Generally not robust enough for advanced multimedia creation, such as video editing
• Frequent changes in models and technology

Killer applications:

• Ebooks
• Multimedia viewing
• Google Apps (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation)
• Anything Web 2.0
• Robust curriculum content

Things to consider and some opinions:

• Reliable wireless is essential.
• Consider the form factor.
  The form factor of a touch-based tablet with no keyboard may work for some applications (e.g. reading, multimedia viewing) better than others (e.g. extended writing). In some schools, younger students have been found to like tablets better than older students. The most important things are to think about your curriculum goals (see below) and get a few devices to test with students and teachers. See what they like and what meets their needs.
• Think about your curriculum goals before deciding on any devices.
  These devices come with different operating systems (Android, iOS, etc.) and have different applications available. If you start by thinking about what you want to accomplish with the devices and then look for a device that has applications that support that purpose, you’ll be ahead of the game.

The post Mobile devices: Tablets appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

I got it as a personal device, but was immediately struck by its potential as a tool for mobile learning.

With the popularity of Apple iPads in schools these days, the comparisons are inevitable. The Kindle Fire runs Android, while the iPad runs iOS, but functionally, they’re pretty similar. The iPad has a camera, which the Fire doesn’t (which isn’t necessarily a disadvantage for schools, but stay tune for the next version). The iPad is somewhat larger (7.3″ x 9.5″; 1024 x 768) than the Fire (7.5″ x 4.7″; 1024 x 600). The iPad can be configured with 16 GB to 64 GB of memory;  the Fire has 8GB. (Again, stay tuned.) They both have beautiful, brilliant screens.

Currently, there is more software available for iOS than for Android (and particularly the Fire), but there hasn’t been much that I really wanted that I couldn’t get on the Fire. One minor annoyance with the Fire is that the Android Marketplace apps aren’t readily available (without rooting the device). Amazon has seemed to have begun to seen the error of its ways on this, and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

To me, a very big issue is PRICE. At $199 list, the Fire is well under half the cost of the cheapest iPad. Relative to education:

• Somewhere around $200 is the “sweet spot” for school pricing where one-to-one starts to make sense.
• I would generally rather see more devices in more kids’ hands; lower cost facilitates this.

For any of these tablet devices though, the question remains: Are they well suited to mobile learning?

Some have said that tablets are primarily media consumption devices and don’t inspire the kind of deeper creation that we want kids doing.

My responses to this are several. First, it’s hard for me not to think about all the great work, including writing and other work, that I’ve seen kids do in the past on Palm and Windows Mobile handhelds. And these handhelds of yesteryear are vastly inferior in every way to the new tablets. It’s one of the things that excites me most about these devices.

Secondly, there are a lot of great creation tools available for tablets. You can write using them with Office-type tools. (Google Docs is a favorite of mine.) You can collaborate and communicate with others. You can create graphic organizers, outlines, and notes. You can make presentations and even record audio and video. True that these devices aren’t well suited to editing and creating full multimedia presentations; that’s really a job for a more powerful laptop or desktop computer.

Finally, there are aspects of learning that do involve consumption — what we need is more differentiated, interactive consumption. Think about a textbook that is customized for each student’s needs and interests and includes opportunities for interactive practice and collaboration with others. That is the potential of tablets.

Now, if you are evaluating tablets against laptops for a one-to-one project, I personally would go with laptops in many, if not most, cases (especially for secondary students). There is little question that even a low end laptop has more capabilities than a Kindle Fire.

However, in a typical classroom, which is not one-to-one and which includes a variety of computing devices, including some laptop and desktop computers, I think the Kindle Fire is a cost effective tool that can greatly improve learning for many students.

The post Kindle Fire: Mobile learning device? appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

These books include subjects in ELA, math, social studies, and science and are formatted in web, Kindle, and EPUB versions.

We’ll be adding more titles to this collection over time.

Enjoy!

The post New free ebooks appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

First, they caved on the decision to include text-to-speech in the Kindle 2. Instead of making it a built-in feature, they will leave the decision to turn text-to-speech on up to publishers on a title-by-title basis.

This is a blow to education and really a ridiculous move (although perhaps understandable from a business standpoint since publishers were applying pressure and they are a key partner to Amazon). Text-to-speech technology has existed in commercial applications for over 25 years and represents absolutely no copyright infringement. I hope that various constituencies will weigh in on this and bring pressure as has been done with DRM.

In another much anticipated move, Amazon is making ebooks available to iPhone and other mobile device users. This only makes sense. Amazon is hedging its bets by making its’ best-of-class ebook system available on the hottest mobile device on the market.

While one might question whether Amazon ever should have got into the hardware business, I hope this doesn’t mean the end for the Kindle hardware. It is a sweet device and offers ebook reading functionality superior to any mobile device (including ipods, Palms, etc.). I, for one, would really miss it in its current and possible future incarnations.

The post Interesting moves by Amazon appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

However, now that I find myself living in a remote area with no cell coverage (!), I wasn’t sure whether I’d be as easily able to get my Sunday NYT on my Kindle. This morning I played around with the Kindle store and content manager on the desktop and found that it is super-easy to access all your content and purchase and transfer new items on a desktop computer and then transfer them to your Kindle. This is a great thing for me, since newspapers aren’t easily accessible where I am either.

I love my Kindle!

The post Kindle comes through again appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

I love technology and am an enthusiastic early adopter….but for a lot of (most?) people, technologies like RSS, podcasting, wikis, and even wireless are too complex and require too much troubleshooting. When trying to get newbies up and running with things, I am often frustrated by the number of problems that can arise.

The power of easy-to-use technology has been highlighted for me by the Kindle. It really is a piece of technology that anyone can use. The wireless is as simple as flipping a switch (literally).

The interface is simple. The usability is high. Even the ergonomics of the device are comfortable and familiar. (It feels and works very much like a book.)

I’ve shown the Kindle to a couple people who aren’t early adopters (including one who doesn’t “like” technology), and the response has been very positive. People are blown away by the easy-to-read display, and they like the feel of the device. In showing it, I have not had to explain much; just turning it on and handing it over is enough. And, like other technologies, the content is a big driver. The newspapers are especially appealing. Reading newspapers online is convenient, “green,” and cost effective, but for most of us, the traditional computer screen is not a good replacement for paper.

Add to the ease of use an integrated dictionary and web access to Wikipedia and more, and you have a pretty powerful tool.

When I think about the potential of truly easy-to-use technology for schools, I am optimistic. If teachers didn’t have to deal with many instances of things that don’t really work, maybe integration would have more of a tangible impact on learning.

The post What technology should be appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

Also, the Flip camera folks have a new model out the Mino. It is quite a bit smaller than the Ultra.

Creative has come out with their own pocket video camera, the Vado, which looks a lot like the popular Flip. I’m so happy with my Flip that I can’t imagine switching, though the Vado is a bit cheaper.

The post News on a couple of my favorite tech tools appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

The K12 Handhelds ebook library works with no changes at all (and they look beautiful — much more readable than on a handheld).

In addition to Mobipocket and Kindle ebooks, the Kindle will read Word docs, HTML, text files, JPGs, GIFS, BMPs, and PNGs. You can transfer files by USB, SD card, or the EVDO wireless. I think this always-available free wireless is one of the best features of this device.

Stay tuned for more on how “always-available” it is as I travel around.

The post Kids ebooks on the Kindle appeared first on K12 Handhelds.

This had gotten me thinking a lot about a couple topics:

1. How electronic resources can be more effective than textbooks to engage kids and especially to differentiate instruction

2. How the future of 1-to-1 computing for schools is shaping up

I think that both of these are critical if we’re going to be successful in engaging kids. I’ll write more about the first topic in another post. Regarding the second topic, there are a lot of new devices shipping, including things like the XO computer, the Eee, the Kindle, the iPod Touch, etc.

I think the keys to a solid device for education are:

– Low cost (under $300 seems to be a key price point for schools)
– Long battery life (at least 6 hours)
– Multimedia capability (audio and video)
– Capacity for “real” computing (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation — could be via Web 2.0)

There are other features that I’d rate as nice-to-have but not essential like wireless, color, durability, etc.

None of the devices above quite hits all of my “must-have” features, but they are all pretty close. The second-generation releases are likely to be there. Right now, the Eee is probably the closest, though the Kindle is the one that has my attention (in part because I think it may have the longest staying power, which is really critical to schools.) Interestingly, handhelds from Palm and HP — which have been around for years — already have all these features. Alas, though, they are no longer the latest and greatest. (Don’t get me started venting my frustration on how trend-driven technology is, even in schools.)

Some people have said that these devices are too limited for schools because there isn’t textbook content available for them. The more I think about the idea of textbook publishers putting their content on mobile devices though (something I used to look forward to, though it’s probably still a long ways off), the more I don’t think it’s the road to a better future. It’s easy to list reasons textbooks don’t work for most kids — they are huge; they are boring; there is no differentiation; there is little interactivity; the content isn’t comprehensible; etc. etc.

So why would we want that same content in an electronic format?

The post New ways to look at content and 1:1 appeared first on K12 Handhelds.