As a teacher toting an Ipad, a Laptop, a Livescribe pen, and 2 different ereaders around, I get asked this question at least twice a week. The parents asking are looking for an authoritative answer. They want to know which tech is good for school and which tech is not.
The short answer I would like to give is this: parents should buy their students the most powerful platform that the parents are willing to learn how to use alongside their child. I know that the device they buy for their 9th grader will be outdated before that student heads to college. The question is, in the intervening 4 years which digital skills will the student have a chance to develop.
If you were going to buy a new pen, and you needed to use that pen for the next 4 years, what would drive your decision? (available ink colors, quality of pen, ability to find the pen using the internet?, the ability of the pen to write on all types of paper?).
So the tech needs to be as capable as possible. Over the likely short life of the device it will become less capable in relation to other pieces of available tech. Buying the most capable and dependable hardware you can afford is an investment in prolonged functionality. Although I have seen a number of enticing minimal devices (alpha smart anyone?), my suggestion is to get the best tech you can, but make a commitment to learn and exploit the full functionality of the device.
My 9th graders have 2 or 3 option of making a video during the year. In the Eloquent essay class I teach we have talked about the rhetoric of VLOGGING. Yesterday I was greeted in the hallway by a student holding a laptop open to me "Look! it is Roee, he is in Israel. Roee say hi to Dr. Patterson." The camera built into the devices creates opportunity to produce original content in video form. Our students watch more videos than ever before. My goal is to prepare them to be Critical Consumer and Powerful Producers, so a camera and enough memory to edit video can be really important.
In addition my student in my class use their cameras to take notes. When I write something on the whiteboard, they know they can pull out their phone and take a picture. In fact I often have them send me that pic so I can post it to Schoology, our class LMS.
2. A full-sized keyboard
Even if you decide to ask your student to try to do everything on an iPhone, a full size keyboard (cheap Bluetooth ones are available) is a must. While schools don't spend much time teaching cursive, many also don't teach typing. A full size KB gives kids a fighting chance to begin to develop the muscle memory needed to type well. (Otherwise they, like me will be looking at the keys their whole life, but at least I did handwriting worksheets for 7 years of my schooling.)
3. A fully-capable internet browser.
Whatever device students are walking in the door with, they need to be cloud-ready. Our school email system is built on top of a Gmail platform. This means all of our kids have Google Drive available to them. Drive integrates well with many tablet apps including our LMS, Schoology. Using the app, students can associate their Google account with their Schoology account and be able to "submit" assignments directly from Google Drive.
When I first started using my Ipad it did NOT have a fully capable browser and this was a problem. As updates and apps have improved I find I can do ALMOST anything I need to on the Ipad.
Yesterday I saw a tweet "Ipad, I am sorry, I know you are not a laptop and I never should have tried to make you be one."
4. The ability to create, edit, share, and sometimes print documents.
Yes, the guy who has the blog titled "mypaperlessclassroom.org" just recommended you be able to print. Students are going to be working with many different teachers and they will need to create hard copies of their work The printing needs to be able to work via wifi, at the very least.
Don't be afraid of gaming, there is much good in gaming from social interaction to computer skills. Gaming is just another piece of our digital life. Now that I have finished writing this I am going to go learn some new words, playing Words With Friends. After all, learning is living.
The short answer I would like to give is this: parents should buy their students the most powerful platform that the parents are willing to learn how to use alongside their child. I know that the device they buy for their 9th grader will be outdated before that student heads to college. The question is, in the intervening 4 years which digital skills will the student have a chance to develop.
How capable does the platform need to be?
(this is a question often inspired by the idea that students will spend less time gaming if they don't have a computer that does gaming well.) The computer needs to be powerful enough to allow the student to engage in all types of creative expression. The key is not to try to limit what the student will do by hobbling the computer. Distraction comes in all forms, I just downloaded a bunch of 8-bit games onto my Ipad, management of these distraction is learned through interaction.If you were going to buy a new pen, and you needed to use that pen for the next 4 years, what would drive your decision? (available ink colors, quality of pen, ability to find the pen using the internet?, the ability of the pen to write on all types of paper?).
So the tech needs to be as capable as possible. Over the likely short life of the device it will become less capable in relation to other pieces of available tech. Buying the most capable and dependable hardware you can afford is an investment in prolonged functionality. Although I have seen a number of enticing minimal devices (alpha smart anyone?), my suggestion is to get the best tech you can, but make a commitment to learn and exploit the full functionality of the device.
What tools can make the difference?
1. CameraMy 9th graders have 2 or 3 option of making a video during the year. In the Eloquent essay class I teach we have talked about the rhetoric of VLOGGING. Yesterday I was greeted in the hallway by a student holding a laptop open to me "Look! it is Roee, he is in Israel. Roee say hi to Dr. Patterson." The camera built into the devices creates opportunity to produce original content in video form. Our students watch more videos than ever before. My goal is to prepare them to be Critical Consumer and Powerful Producers, so a camera and enough memory to edit video can be really important.
In addition my student in my class use their cameras to take notes. When I write something on the whiteboard, they know they can pull out their phone and take a picture. In fact I often have them send me that pic so I can post it to Schoology, our class LMS.
2. A full-sized keyboard
Even if you decide to ask your student to try to do everything on an iPhone, a full size keyboard (cheap Bluetooth ones are available) is a must. While schools don't spend much time teaching cursive, many also don't teach typing. A full size KB gives kids a fighting chance to begin to develop the muscle memory needed to type well. (Otherwise they, like me will be looking at the keys their whole life, but at least I did handwriting worksheets for 7 years of my schooling.)
3. A fully-capable internet browser.
Whatever device students are walking in the door with, they need to be cloud-ready. Our school email system is built on top of a Gmail platform. This means all of our kids have Google Drive available to them. Drive integrates well with many tablet apps including our LMS, Schoology. Using the app, students can associate their Google account with their Schoology account and be able to "submit" assignments directly from Google Drive.
When I first started using my Ipad it did NOT have a fully capable browser and this was a problem. As updates and apps have improved I find I can do ALMOST anything I need to on the Ipad.
Yesterday I saw a tweet "Ipad, I am sorry, I know you are not a laptop and I never should have tried to make you be one."
4. The ability to create, edit, share, and sometimes print documents.
Yes, the guy who has the blog titled "mypaperlessclassroom.org" just recommended you be able to print. Students are going to be working with many different teachers and they will need to create hard copies of their work The printing needs to be able to work via wifi, at the very least.
A final word of advice
Don't choose to buy a less capable tool in the hopes that students will misuse it less. They will simply use it less. If we want our students to make the move from digital natives to digital citizens, we have to give them tools and guidance in equal measure.One more thing!
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