Strategically planning for use of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the classroom

***After all the below post I finally decided to hold fire for a few months on purchasing tablets. This will allow me to see the durability of such devices and wait for their price to decrease. So for this school financial year we have purchased Asus Eee PC netbooks at half the cost. In other words we have been able to get more devices into the classroom than otherwise possible. The long term plan remains unchanged (as described below) and strategically, these netbooks can be switched to KS2 (currently in Y1,2,3) next year when tablets will be purchased for Y1 and 2!

This day seems to have been a long time coming. I’ve always wanted handheld devices in our classrooms but since the IPhone with its slick touch screen interface and fairly easy use of the internet there are more plausable reasons than ‘well it would be cool’ and ‘it’s how children learn these days’. Having a tactile and intuitive piece of hardware that brings the power of the internet and beyond (ie apps) to the classroom is a leap forward. Those saying what’s wrong with netbooks I would say they are cost effective at getting 1 to 1 devices into the classroom but I don’t believe them to be particularly tactile or intuitive and would go as far as labelling them a touch clumsy and frustrating (certainly for younger children). Although one word of caution is some Flash content is a bit touch and go with any tablet (generally drag and drop functions which make the tablet screen scroll rather than the flash content. I expect this will be generally ironed out in new content as tablets become more commonplace).

But you need more than a fantastic piece of hardware to impact on learning. I’m leaving the notion of enthusiasm to use the devices out of the equation here. I know the children will be engaged in their learning but long term any technology should be so integrated and familiar that there should only be a minimal ‘buzz’ in its use.

You need a clear strategic plan for how the impact will take place. Beyond ‘we can get some cool apps like Garage Band and they can make their own music’. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with Garage Band, IPads or schools using the app based approach as long as their plan stems from requiring the devices used to support cross curricular/creative/high engagement learning.

For my school setting the strategic  plan is slightly different. It’s true it would be great to use tablets for creative uses but the priority is to impact on basic skills, which I wrote about back in March here. I want our 2 form entry school to have a year group set of 6 devices which they can share between the 2 classes. Tablets in KS1 and either tablets or netbooks in KS2. The tablets would be used 1 to 1 but more often 2 children to 1 device. I have always taken the approach that sharing, collaborating and supporting each other’s learning is not only cheaper but also creates more effective learning than having a suite of computers 1 to 1. The devices would be used primarily for free based internet resources such as Zondle and ICT Games as well as specifically chosen subscription services such as Busy Things. This means that a tablet that runs Flash is essential (bye bye IPad). Which brings me neatly onto another reason I am taking the internet over apps approach. Apart from the fact they generally cost money, getting apps used well throughout a school will be more problematic than getting consistent use of quality internet sites. Teachers are not all familiar with apps, may require training etc whereas every teacher is familiar with using websites and therefore the fact that they are on a touch screen device as opposed to a laptop or desktop should create the minimum amount of barriers for teachers to use the devices to impact on learning. And don’t get me started on syncing.

I see the implementation of use as being short, frequent bursts of use where, for example, children go on for 5 to 10 minutes each day to develop, refine and consolidate either phonic, reading and mental math skills. Children need to over learn these basic skills and this approach would allow them to achieve success on a daily basis. So every day, in phonics and literacy sessions, children would come and practice phonics and other reading skills for 5 to 10 minutes. In maths lessons they would be used with a specific group of children for the session. In other lessons either phonics, reading or mental maths skills will be the focus for 5 to 10 minutes.

So what device will deliver all the above? In my mind it has to be an Android device. Whilst apps are currently not important, I would like to keep future options open and I think devices like the HP and Blackberry tablets are pretty much non starters for apps. The Android marketplace will mature. Now, there will always be something better just around the corner but right now (August 2011) the current crop are:

Motorola Zoom (way to expensive, heavy and fairly clunky)

Acer Iconia Tab (a cheaper Zoom)

Asus eeePad Transformer (not stylish or light but cost effective and with the option of a keyboard dock that acts as a second battery, a real option)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (light, fairly cost effective, keyboard option and Honeycomb 3.1 but no second battery)

So it’s a straight shoot out between the Asus eeePad Transformer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. A big factor in deciding was using the information the children I taught last year gave me (5 and 6 year olds) about the RM Slate and Motorola Zoom which I was fortunate enough to test with them for a couple of days. Their review? They loved the idea of the devices but both were far too heavy and the RM Slate was simply unusable. They had no such problem with the Zoom’s Honeycomb operating system. I assumed they would rather have a smaller device that they could hold in their hands but they were very clear that they wanted a large tablet that they could use with a stand but also have the option of having in their hands.

Where does that leave us? Basically, is the Galaxy tab worth £40 per device more? I think so. It’s got newer technology (it was based on competing with the iPad 2), looks better, is significantly lighter, thinner (easier for small hands to hold) and also has Honeycomb 3.1 which has the advantage of proxy settings being built in so that when you connect to a school network you have the option of adding proxy details. Any downsides? I’m not sure about it’s robustness so would need a decent case for each and has an IPad style non-standard connection (which we will not really need anyway) … and that’s about it. Other small things that help are the loudness of the speakers (on each side rather than the back or bottom or somewhere less than ideal for Primary children) and the headphone jack is on the top so it’s unlikely to be damaged. And the crispness of the display is rather lovely.

So I will be purchasing 12 Galaxy Tabs for our school after the summer holidays, 6 each for year 1 and 2. Our second mobile laptop suite will be disbanded so year 3 and 6 will be set up with 6 each and then if all goes well, next year devices will be purchased for the missing year groups.

So what do you think? Is now the right time to purchase a tablet over a netbook? Does the Galaxy tab do it for you? If you are after something smaller the 8.9 inch version is just around the corner. Do you have any concerns with the strategic approach being taken? I’d love to hear what people think.

Finally, below are some screen shots of the Galaxy tab running various things (click for bigger images). The children in our school when loading the internet will be taken to ‘Digital Wings’ (our custom built learning platform which is basically a set of links on speedtile).

Zondle (most games work with the tablet – a couple that use drag and drop or a spacebar don’t)

Busy Things (a few things don’t work work – dragging and dropping mainly but lots does as well)

Click here to watch a video of Zondle being used on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.