Language-Chinese
Essential Chinese
This is a language app for people who are not native Chinese speaker to learn Chinese. There are three levels: Essential, Intermediate and Advanced.It seems the Essential Chinese is free. But when you go into the app, there are only three lessons available. More lessons cost from $3.99 to $9.99. Thankfully, I learned how to master the app by just exploring the first three lessons. When you click into each lesson,the left column shows the outline with these categories: Vocabulary, Grammar, Conversation.Each category present its content with photos to particular word or phrase, Chinese Pinyin and characters and sounds.
With the multimedia functions, teachers arouse students' interest to learn and capture their attention during the lessons.Without Chinese language environment, it makes so difficult for Chinese teachers.But photos, sounds and Chinese Pinyin and characters, students are able to get so much information out of the lessons, just as the research says,"by seeing and hearing, students can get more than 80 percent information." So that students can still know the meaning and master how to use the language without the physical language background.Teachers can use the Grammar section to help students understand why and how words put together. The Conversation section is excellent for integrating teaching that to guide students to use or speak Chinese in their daily lives. Students can practice after class too with the app.
This app also includes Games and vocabulary list. The Games section makes teaching and learning more interesting as well as reinforces the lessons.Students tends to learn more when they are motivated and in a good mood. This app provides lesson plan for teachers so it is worthy of the price to get the complete lessons. It's good for students to do self-learning too.
ChinesePad
ChiesePad is a very practical app for Chinese teaching and learning. Inside the app's screen, a dozen of resources are provided such as: Library, Store, User Guide, Browsing,Writing, Flash Card, Pin Yin, Speaking, Dictionary, Settings, My Progress and Text to Speech. I will focus on how to use some of them to teach Chinese.
Library:
Students can save words, Chinese-English Dictionary or story books in the library so that they will be easily assessed in the future use.When I approached the app, a Chinese-English Dictionary is already stored in there.It includes countless commonly used Chinese Characters. They are clickable and animation will be displayed how to write the characters' strokes.
Store:
The Store has plenty of free bilingual resources such as Chinese folktales with photos, Chinese characters and Pin Yin, English and sound.It appeals both young and learners to learn Chinese with this app.It has Chinese Slang and cultural knowledge. To open them, you can simply click "get it free" tap on the right-hand and they will be saved in the Library.Teachers have great resources to teach students.
Browsing:
One hundred common hanzi(Chinese characters) are stored, from the simple ones to the complicated ones. Besides each hanzi, you have access to the sound, grammar or usage. To make them more organized, you can sort by popularity, strokes, or Pinyin. Teachers can use them to broaden students' vocabulary.
Writing:
Writing Chinese characters is considered the most difficult part compared to listening, speaking. But the "Writing" section offers the character's meaning and sound then requires students to write the corresponding character.Teachers can use it to test students' writing comprehension. There are 100 hanzi or more for students to practice.
Flash Card:
By clicking the hanzi on the screen, you can review and practice reading and speaking Chinese hanzi.
Pinyin:
This section shows the character's meaning, usage and sound.But it needs students to type in its correct Pinyin. It has "Check Answer" function too. So teachers can use it to test how well students know about Pinyin and assign self-study homework since students can check the answers themselves.
Speaking:
Students can't practice speaking with Chinese teachers always because of time and region limitation. But with the Speaking section, teachers can let students practice speaking the word showed on the screen. The app will record the sound and save it. It's a great way to assign speaking homework.
Dictionary:
When students come across something that they don't know, either from Chinese to English, or from English to Chinese, Dictionary will be a great help.
My Progress:
Through all the practices done from the above sections, My Progress will keep track of students' progress in four aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
ChinesePad is an excellent tool both for teachers to teach Chinese and for students to learn because it has enormous resources and a thorough exploration of Chinese. Personally, I really like it.
Play2Learn Chinese
Play2Learn Chinese is a paid app on iPad. But it's an interesting multimedia tool for learners to visualize the concepts and context in Chinese. On the main screen, there are lots of topics for you to choose. It has clothes, fruit, vegetables, animals, body parts, family members, etc. When you go into a certain topic, the related items will be displayed on the screen. When you touch a certain item, it will be highlighted and pronounced in Chinese. It's so colorful and vivid, meant for young learners, but it can be used for teenagers and adults too.Its strength is the fun and interaction and able to help students concentrate on the learning. Teachers can use this app for game or activity section in class.
My anticipated certification will be Secondary Chinese Teaching. I look forward to apply all this apps into my teaching.
Showing posts with label TECH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TECH. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2015
Sunday, May 17, 2015
iPad Literacy
Preparations-Merriam Webster
I have been using Google translate or other online dictionaries on the Internet.It's my first time to approach Merriam Webster.It's easy for new learners to master it just by exploring it.Like all the other dictionaries, you are able to type in word or phrase to search for its meanings.Plenty of word suggestions are displayed when the first few letter typed in.Voice input makes searching more convenient too.
On the top of the screen, there is tool bar with "Daily", "History", "Favorites" functions. Daily word encourages users to keep learning new words, especially helpful for the non-native English speakers."History" makes searching for words so handy that Merriam Webster records whatever you search last time and save them so that you are able to retrieve them next time. "Favorites" can help you create a personal word list and save the most frequent words that you come across.
The definitions of a word or phrase are quite detailed including pronunciation, brief and full definitions, synonyms, and examples.Thorough definitions allow users to have a in-depth study of the words or phrases they search.
Lastly, you can email the full definitions to yourself or others, which enhances collaborative study.I am really fond of Merriam Webster so that I may download it in my iPhone.
Presentations-Educreations Interactive Whiteboard
Educreations Whiteboard is one of the most powerful iPad applications I have ever known. As the name indicates, it's such a creative app for education, both teaching and learning. Educreations is meant to create video lesson, explain concepts or ideas, demonstrate multimedia lessons such as math, science,geography and history.
To create a new lesson, tap "New Lesson" on the top tool bar.As soon as you start the lesson, you can record it by tapping the "Rec" on the upper right corner.It records not only whatever you do on the screen but also the sound. There are a few main functions as follows:
To insert text, you just click the "T" icon on the top bar. You can choose what colors you want to type in text too, which allows you to signify different parts of the concept or idea on the screen.The two arrows are "Undo" and "Redo", which is a word processing app like Pages for you to edit the lesson and present a complicated concept by breaking down the steps. How convenient it is!
To insert images, you can choose from photo library or take photos. Photos are editable after being inserted. Video will be paused in the process of choosing images.This function is so considerate that it only records the important part of the lesson. Dragging the image to wherever you want on the screen, zooming in and out,rotating, underlying and marking, deleting are the options to edit images.By clicking the arrow on the bottom right corner, new page will be created.You can also go back to the previous page by clicking the left arrow.This allows you to review the lesson anytime you want and help students reinforce it by going back or forward.
After you finish creating the lesson, you can tap "Save" to save it on your iPad or share it to the world through Facebook or Twitter.As people benefit so much from free educational resources from YouTube, sometimes it's kind to give back to the world and share our creative ideas. You can also share it with particular people through emailing or copying the video link. When you save it on the iPad, it helps sort out video's subject too.
Educreations is great for one on one tutoring or small group lecturing. When teachers or speakers connect iPad with the project, it allows the whole class to see the lesson on the big screen. I fall in love with it. The best thing is that it is free! It's such an amazing and powerful tool for education, business and sharing video resources and all kinds of purposes.
Stories-Strip Designer
Strip Designer is for telling stories with creative images,text and even your own drawing.It's also easy to use.
To create a new story, click "Create New".You can either innovate your own stylish frame or choose the provided numerous templates.For example, if you choose one of the templates to start with, you can tap the strip to implant images from your photo album, other resources or take photos instantly.It enables you to edit the image by zooming it and out, rotating and deleting.You can draw in another strip if you want with the installed brush tools.
On the bottom left-hand corner, to click the "+" icon, you can add speech bubbles, a dozen of clip art and stickers. They can be dragged anywhere on the screen. Double clicking the bubble allows you to type in text, choose the font and color of the text, even to choose the shapes of the bubbles.After you finish creating and editing, you can save it by clicking the top left-hand corner "Save" tap.The saved format can be JPG or PDF, which lets you view it on your tablet or PC, print out or share it with anyone you desire.
Strip Designer is great for education or family purpose. Most children like to tell stories and see themselves in photos. This free app makes this experience more engaging.With this, teachers can assign a short presentation homework for students to tell their stories about their vacations,interesting things happened in the past, etc.Kids learn to be creative by selecting the stories they want to tell, what photos to use and how to design each page. Strip Designer is a very easy and practical story telling app.
I have been using Google translate or other online dictionaries on the Internet.It's my first time to approach Merriam Webster.It's easy for new learners to master it just by exploring it.Like all the other dictionaries, you are able to type in word or phrase to search for its meanings.Plenty of word suggestions are displayed when the first few letter typed in.Voice input makes searching more convenient too.
On the top of the screen, there is tool bar with "Daily", "History", "Favorites" functions. Daily word encourages users to keep learning new words, especially helpful for the non-native English speakers."History" makes searching for words so handy that Merriam Webster records whatever you search last time and save them so that you are able to retrieve them next time. "Favorites" can help you create a personal word list and save the most frequent words that you come across.
The definitions of a word or phrase are quite detailed including pronunciation, brief and full definitions, synonyms, and examples.Thorough definitions allow users to have a in-depth study of the words or phrases they search.
Lastly, you can email the full definitions to yourself or others, which enhances collaborative study.I am really fond of Merriam Webster so that I may download it in my iPhone.
Presentations-Educreations Interactive Whiteboard
Educreations Whiteboard is one of the most powerful iPad applications I have ever known. As the name indicates, it's such a creative app for education, both teaching and learning. Educreations is meant to create video lesson, explain concepts or ideas, demonstrate multimedia lessons such as math, science,geography and history.
To create a new lesson, tap "New Lesson" on the top tool bar.As soon as you start the lesson, you can record it by tapping the "Rec" on the upper right corner.It records not only whatever you do on the screen but also the sound. There are a few main functions as follows:
To insert text, you just click the "T" icon on the top bar. You can choose what colors you want to type in text too, which allows you to signify different parts of the concept or idea on the screen.The two arrows are "Undo" and "Redo", which is a word processing app like Pages for you to edit the lesson and present a complicated concept by breaking down the steps. How convenient it is!
To insert images, you can choose from photo library or take photos. Photos are editable after being inserted. Video will be paused in the process of choosing images.This function is so considerate that it only records the important part of the lesson. Dragging the image to wherever you want on the screen, zooming in and out,rotating, underlying and marking, deleting are the options to edit images.By clicking the arrow on the bottom right corner, new page will be created.You can also go back to the previous page by clicking the left arrow.This allows you to review the lesson anytime you want and help students reinforce it by going back or forward.
After you finish creating the lesson, you can tap "Save" to save it on your iPad or share it to the world through Facebook or Twitter.As people benefit so much from free educational resources from YouTube, sometimes it's kind to give back to the world and share our creative ideas. You can also share it with particular people through emailing or copying the video link. When you save it on the iPad, it helps sort out video's subject too.
Educreations is great for one on one tutoring or small group lecturing. When teachers or speakers connect iPad with the project, it allows the whole class to see the lesson on the big screen. I fall in love with it. The best thing is that it is free! It's such an amazing and powerful tool for education, business and sharing video resources and all kinds of purposes.
Stories-Strip Designer
Strip Designer is for telling stories with creative images,text and even your own drawing.It's also easy to use.
To create a new story, click "Create New".You can either innovate your own stylish frame or choose the provided numerous templates.For example, if you choose one of the templates to start with, you can tap the strip to implant images from your photo album, other resources or take photos instantly.It enables you to edit the image by zooming it and out, rotating and deleting.You can draw in another strip if you want with the installed brush tools.
On the bottom left-hand corner, to click the "+" icon, you can add speech bubbles, a dozen of clip art and stickers. They can be dragged anywhere on the screen. Double clicking the bubble allows you to type in text, choose the font and color of the text, even to choose the shapes of the bubbles.After you finish creating and editing, you can save it by clicking the top left-hand corner "Save" tap.The saved format can be JPG or PDF, which lets you view it on your tablet or PC, print out or share it with anyone you desire.
Strip Designer is great for education or family purpose. Most children like to tell stories and see themselves in photos. This free app makes this experience more engaging.With this, teachers can assign a short presentation homework for students to tell their stories about their vacations,interesting things happened in the past, etc.Kids learn to be creative by selecting the stories they want to tell, what photos to use and how to design each page. Strip Designer is a very easy and practical story telling app.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
iPad Basics
Pages vs Microsoft Word
After getting to know Pages, I found out that it's so similar to Microsoft Word. They share a lot in common as follow:
1. They are able to create, edit and save documents.
2. They can insert images, charts.
3. They can share and print documents.
Although Pages and Microsoft Word are similar, they are not the same.Pages enables you to create stylish documents. It makes inserting images so easily. Simply cropping and dragging the images inside the document to edit them.Inserting chart is convenient with Pages too. You can simply change the data and make it yours. From my experience with Microsoft Word,after I inserted images, I had to change the images'format in the setting before dragging to the position that I wanted.It makes it a hassle when I once inserted more than ten photos into Word, I was changing format one photo after another.For this aspect, Pages stands out. Pages can be automatically saved but Microsoft Word needs to save documents manually.
Pages in iPad is such a great invention because with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, iPad can simply replace computer or even surpass it. iPad creates a innovative experience when creating and editing documents because of touch screen function.iPad is so portable and light that people can work and study everywhere.However without an external keyboard and pointing device-mouse,creating and editing documents on iPad can be so slow. It's difficult to review the document with limited screen space. Microsoft Word has excellent review features while iPad does not.
Box.net
I am surprised to receive 10 GB for free by simply signing up a personal account on Box.net.Box serves as online flash drive. You can upload and download files and folders. It's your storage drive wherever you go as long as you have access to the Internet and you don't need to worry about losing it.If you are familiar with gmail, you will know that you will have to upload file by file. But with Box, folders will be straightly uploaded.
I also found out that Box provides note, Google Docs, Spreadsheet, New Word Document, New PowerPoint Document and Excel for you to create new files. It is such a convenient online "office". You can edit, delete and print out the files or folders you have storage there.Email and sharing are available too.
Since it's a webpage storage, you don't have to transfer documents from device to device. You just need to log in your account so that you have access to everything in there.
iThoughts
It's interesting to get to know the app "iThoughts" on iPad. Basically, iThoughts serves as mind mapping.Its functions are powerful that it's a great platform for brainstorming to organize your mind and present your thoughts clearly to others. iThoughts is not as difficult to master as I thought. Starting a map is easy because iThoughts provides blank canvas with a title of the map in the center bubble. Each items can be configured in many ways such as the shape of the bubble, icons, colors, start and due dates.The touch interface makes it so easy to create a mind map on iPad by dragging, scrolling and clicking it.
As useful as it is, I want to take advantage of it and use it to take notes and help me clear my mind before writing an article or essay. Knowing how to take notes is important in classroom. I used to write notes on my notebook.But when I need to relate some concepts to the note that I wrote earlier, I had to distort the note format that it can't be nice and neat anymore. With iThoughts, I can add as many notes as I want later on by inserting bubbles into the mind map and still keep it well organized. By brainstorming on the map before writing an article,I can quickly capture thoughts and ideas to form the article. Being able to read my mind and the connection of all my thoughts clearly helps tremendously with my writing. After the mind map is finished, I can save it forever for future use or share it with others.
Safari vs Rover
Safari and Rover share many similarities as browser.
1. They are both meant for iPad, Mac and iPhone browsers.
2. They both have history, favorites functions that you can easily find the webpages you have searched in the past and retrieve the ones that you have saved in the favorites.
3. You can scroll up and down, left and right on both browser when you go through webpages.
4. They are considered safe browser that they prevent other websites from tracking the current one that you are browsing.
But at the same time, they are different in some aspects:
1. Safari doesn't support flash while Rover does.
2. Safari is a normal webpage browser but Rover is meant for education that it offers educational apps and flash contents or resources and for teachers and students such as Discovery Education.
3. Rover is safer online environment than Safari. Rover is good for the younger users-children because it filters inappropriate webpages for them.
4. Safari saves gigabytes and browses faster than Rover. Rover constantly runs lots of gigabytes when even browsing websites, let alone browsing flash videos.
According to my findings, I prefer to use Safari personally because it's fast.When searching endless information on the Internet, browser loading and responding fast is a big deal. Even though there are great educational resources on Rover and it's a secure browser, its weaknesses of being slow and running too many gigabytes can not outweigh its strengths.
After getting to know Pages, I found out that it's so similar to Microsoft Word. They share a lot in common as follow:
1. They are able to create, edit and save documents.
2. They can insert images, charts.
3. They can share and print documents.
Although Pages and Microsoft Word are similar, they are not the same.Pages enables you to create stylish documents. It makes inserting images so easily. Simply cropping and dragging the images inside the document to edit them.Inserting chart is convenient with Pages too. You can simply change the data and make it yours. From my experience with Microsoft Word,after I inserted images, I had to change the images'format in the setting before dragging to the position that I wanted.It makes it a hassle when I once inserted more than ten photos into Word, I was changing format one photo after another.For this aspect, Pages stands out. Pages can be automatically saved but Microsoft Word needs to save documents manually.
Pages in iPad is such a great invention because with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, iPad can simply replace computer or even surpass it. iPad creates a innovative experience when creating and editing documents because of touch screen function.iPad is so portable and light that people can work and study everywhere.However without an external keyboard and pointing device-mouse,creating and editing documents on iPad can be so slow. It's difficult to review the document with limited screen space. Microsoft Word has excellent review features while iPad does not.
Box.net
I am surprised to receive 10 GB for free by simply signing up a personal account on Box.net.Box serves as online flash drive. You can upload and download files and folders. It's your storage drive wherever you go as long as you have access to the Internet and you don't need to worry about losing it.If you are familiar with gmail, you will know that you will have to upload file by file. But with Box, folders will be straightly uploaded.
I also found out that Box provides note, Google Docs, Spreadsheet, New Word Document, New PowerPoint Document and Excel for you to create new files. It is such a convenient online "office". You can edit, delete and print out the files or folders you have storage there.Email and sharing are available too.
Since it's a webpage storage, you don't have to transfer documents from device to device. You just need to log in your account so that you have access to everything in there.
iThoughts
It's interesting to get to know the app "iThoughts" on iPad. Basically, iThoughts serves as mind mapping.Its functions are powerful that it's a great platform for brainstorming to organize your mind and present your thoughts clearly to others. iThoughts is not as difficult to master as I thought. Starting a map is easy because iThoughts provides blank canvas with a title of the map in the center bubble. Each items can be configured in many ways such as the shape of the bubble, icons, colors, start and due dates.The touch interface makes it so easy to create a mind map on iPad by dragging, scrolling and clicking it.
As useful as it is, I want to take advantage of it and use it to take notes and help me clear my mind before writing an article or essay. Knowing how to take notes is important in classroom. I used to write notes on my notebook.But when I need to relate some concepts to the note that I wrote earlier, I had to distort the note format that it can't be nice and neat anymore. With iThoughts, I can add as many notes as I want later on by inserting bubbles into the mind map and still keep it well organized. By brainstorming on the map before writing an article,I can quickly capture thoughts and ideas to form the article. Being able to read my mind and the connection of all my thoughts clearly helps tremendously with my writing. After the mind map is finished, I can save it forever for future use or share it with others.
Safari vs Rover
Safari and Rover share many similarities as browser.
1. They are both meant for iPad, Mac and iPhone browsers.
2. They both have history, favorites functions that you can easily find the webpages you have searched in the past and retrieve the ones that you have saved in the favorites.
3. You can scroll up and down, left and right on both browser when you go through webpages.
4. They are considered safe browser that they prevent other websites from tracking the current one that you are browsing.
But at the same time, they are different in some aspects:
1. Safari doesn't support flash while Rover does.
2. Safari is a normal webpage browser but Rover is meant for education that it offers educational apps and flash contents or resources and for teachers and students such as Discovery Education.
3. Rover is safer online environment than Safari. Rover is good for the younger users-children because it filters inappropriate webpages for them.
4. Safari saves gigabytes and browses faster than Rover. Rover constantly runs lots of gigabytes when even browsing websites, let alone browsing flash videos.
According to my findings, I prefer to use Safari personally because it's fast.When searching endless information on the Internet, browser loading and responding fast is a big deal. Even though there are great educational resources on Rover and it's a secure browser, its weaknesses of being slow and running too many gigabytes can not outweigh its strengths.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Tablet Options/ Tablet Uses
Tablet Sizes
Our school Principal is inclined to consider the smallest iPod/mp3 type of devices. They are up to 5" and able to fit in the pocket. However, limited screen prohibits some uses.
In the market, There are medium size devices with a screen of 6" to 7" and large ones with a screen of 8" to 11".The medium device can be held in one hand for a period of time while it's too heavy to do it for the large device.For a variety of educational purposes, I suggest the Principal consider the medium or large devices such as iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barns & Noble Nook, Generic Android and Surface Windows RT.
The Pros and Cons of the Three Types of Systems
1.IOS-Apple
Apple's graphic user interface and systems are very easy to use and attractive for educational applications. Apple's main tablet products are iPod touch and iPad. iPad is now allowed the development of interactive school textbooks, for Apple connected education to build apps for iPod touch and easily transferred to iPad. With a camera added to the second generation of the iPad met the need of the creative Web 2.0 applications schools had begun using.With satisfactory upgraded screen and camera quality, along with faster processors in 2012, iPad has been rapidly adopted in schools.Apple shows overall strengths in the aspects of apps, internet and software. While Apple systems sound very appealing, the prices are comparably high so that some schools may not be able to afford its products. iPads vary from $499 to $699 while Mini iPad and iPad 2 offer low price from $329 to $399.
2. Android (Google)
Begun with a search engine company, Google's initiate to digitize books in a large scale shows a successful progression of thought in service to offer.Google financed the development of Android operating system until it became Google acquisition in 2005. As a service company, Google developed an "open" operating system and would sell Android to any company that would apply it to their hardware.It owns quite a few tablet products including Amazon Kindle, Barns&Noble Nook, Generic Android and Google Nexus, of which Amazon Kindle and Nook are the most popular Android tablets. Amazon's strength is in the book trade. Amazon Kindle as an e-reader selling books is as successful as Apple's iTunes selling music.Especially after its fourth generation touchscreen Kindle Fire HD and the fifth one paperwhite Kindle, Amazon Kindle is clearly trying to compete iPad in the market.Android's tablets are cheaper varying mainly from $159 to $299 and have small screen of 7". However,neither Kindle nor Nook is supported in the larger Android environment.Even though the newest Kindle provides music, movies and app functions, it still has limited educational application.Compared to Apple, Android system has slower processors.It is acknowledged that Google has been struggling with serving too many manufacturers with an open Android system.
3. Windows (Microsoft)
Microsoft long has held strong position in computer software in Windows operating system. Besides,Microsoft's Xbox has been a leader in games systems. However,a Windows operating system for tablet like the surface Windows RT launched in 2012 floundered unfortunately. The surface comes with two different keyboard cover options, which makes it difficult to do productivity work.
Conclusion
After analyzing the pros and cons of three types of systems and their products,apparently Apple and Android are beneficial to educational purposes depending on what function the schools focus on and their budget.If schools are in need of e-readers only, Android will be a better option with much cheaper costs. If they look for a multimedia device meeting the interactive and creative Web 2.0 applications and have a flexible finance, I would recommend Apple tablet-iPad with an excelling combination of various functions.
Reference Articles:
1. IOS-Apple
2. Android (Google)
3. Windows (Microsoft)
4. Tablet Uses
5. Tablets in Education
Our school Principal is inclined to consider the smallest iPod/mp3 type of devices. They are up to 5" and able to fit in the pocket. However, limited screen prohibits some uses.
In the market, There are medium size devices with a screen of 6" to 7" and large ones with a screen of 8" to 11".The medium device can be held in one hand for a period of time while it's too heavy to do it for the large device.For a variety of educational purposes, I suggest the Principal consider the medium or large devices such as iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barns & Noble Nook, Generic Android and Surface Windows RT.
The Pros and Cons of the Three Types of Systems
1.IOS-Apple
Apple's graphic user interface and systems are very easy to use and attractive for educational applications. Apple's main tablet products are iPod touch and iPad. iPad is now allowed the development of interactive school textbooks, for Apple connected education to build apps for iPod touch and easily transferred to iPad. With a camera added to the second generation of the iPad met the need of the creative Web 2.0 applications schools had begun using.With satisfactory upgraded screen and camera quality, along with faster processors in 2012, iPad has been rapidly adopted in schools.Apple shows overall strengths in the aspects of apps, internet and software. While Apple systems sound very appealing, the prices are comparably high so that some schools may not be able to afford its products. iPads vary from $499 to $699 while Mini iPad and iPad 2 offer low price from $329 to $399.
2. Android (Google)
Begun with a search engine company, Google's initiate to digitize books in a large scale shows a successful progression of thought in service to offer.Google financed the development of Android operating system until it became Google acquisition in 2005. As a service company, Google developed an "open" operating system and would sell Android to any company that would apply it to their hardware.It owns quite a few tablet products including Amazon Kindle, Barns&Noble Nook, Generic Android and Google Nexus, of which Amazon Kindle and Nook are the most popular Android tablets. Amazon's strength is in the book trade. Amazon Kindle as an e-reader selling books is as successful as Apple's iTunes selling music.Especially after its fourth generation touchscreen Kindle Fire HD and the fifth one paperwhite Kindle, Amazon Kindle is clearly trying to compete iPad in the market.Android's tablets are cheaper varying mainly from $159 to $299 and have small screen of 7". However,neither Kindle nor Nook is supported in the larger Android environment.Even though the newest Kindle provides music, movies and app functions, it still has limited educational application.Compared to Apple, Android system has slower processors.It is acknowledged that Google has been struggling with serving too many manufacturers with an open Android system.
3. Windows (Microsoft)
Microsoft long has held strong position in computer software in Windows operating system. Besides,Microsoft's Xbox has been a leader in games systems. However,a Windows operating system for tablet like the surface Windows RT launched in 2012 floundered unfortunately. The surface comes with two different keyboard cover options, which makes it difficult to do productivity work.
Conclusion
After analyzing the pros and cons of three types of systems and their products,apparently Apple and Android are beneficial to educational purposes depending on what function the schools focus on and their budget.If schools are in need of e-readers only, Android will be a better option with much cheaper costs. If they look for a multimedia device meeting the interactive and creative Web 2.0 applications and have a flexible finance, I would recommend Apple tablet-iPad with an excelling combination of various functions.
Reference Articles:
1. IOS-Apple
2. Android (Google)
3. Windows (Microsoft)
4. Tablet Uses
5. Tablets in Education
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Tablets in Education
Comparative Use Factors in Education for Tablets
New technologies have change education in the ways of how to learn and what to learn. There are mainly three competing tablets in the market: Nook, Kindly and iPad. I have read a few articles and summarized their similar and unique factors.These three e-readers are largely involved in classrooms and libraries.
Nook
One of the biggest strengths of Nook is that its company Barns and Noble offered a special version of Nook software for study and recently signed an exclusive contract with a major textbook publisher.Nook offers support for customers that they send staff to the school, home or workplace to train you how to use it. With good customer service, they will replace it for you if the Nook goes bad. It's such a blessing to have real person to walk through the process with you. Otherwise, it will be a hassle to learn by yourself.
Another advantage is that if you have purchased plenty of Nooks, the content purchased on one account can be shared with among six Nooks.
However, one thing that Nook still needs to improve is that speech to text function.Nothing is perfect, Nook's price is very competitive compared to Kindle and iPad. Whoever wants to invest money on it need to balance the good and bad.
Kindle
Kindle, the best known of the current e-readers, weighs only 10.2 ounces. A Kindle is able to hold 1500 e-books or more, considered as a handheld library for students and teachers. Kindle stocked with well-chosen e-books would allow teachers to apply new teaching strategies.Students have more books electronically than practical in print, which saves paper by reducing photocopying and relieves the unhealthy weight of students' backpacks.
Its text-to-speech audio function helps the students who struggle with vision problems, language barriers and reading fluency.
The cost of Kindle is pretty appealing compared to iPad. For long term, it saves students countless money to purchase e-books on Kindle.According to a news article, Amazon decides to let Kindle users buy e-books at a great discount.
iPad
The fact that Apple has sold approximately 64 millions iPads in two year proves how popular iPad is. Embracing the functions of computer,note-taking, music, video, e-readers, communication and much more, iPad is changing schools.New Zealand may be the first country to have all students have iPad for study. Provided with a huge variety of apps, iPad allows students and teachers easily to access to all kinds of learning and teaching methods. Compared to the cost of a Nook or a Kindle, iPad is not that competitive. However, iPad has profound meaning than just an e-reader like Nook and Kindle.
Uses of iPad in Education
This article describes why iPad is adopted in education. Compared to computer, iPad is considerably cheap and with reach.Here are the summarized reasons:
The uses of iPad save the cost of education. Textbooks are extremely expensive. A student can generate the textbook bill up to $500 to $800. Online books ore-books can drop the cost of a textbook by 50% or more.In the long run,iPad reduces the students' financial burden on textbooks.
Nowadays, the digital students require multimedia creativity in their learning experience. It helps them develop critical thinking and collaborative teamwork displayed through the use of multimedia. The apps provided on iPad increase the interaction for students to learn and capture their attention.
No matter what kind of tablets educators decide to invest in education, there is no doubt that tablets are changing and helping education in many ways.
References:
Article
1. Comparative Use Factors in Education for Tablets
2. Uses of iPad in Education
3. Our Nook Adventure Part One
4. Will Kindle Change Education?
5. How the iPad is Changing Education.
New technologies have change education in the ways of how to learn and what to learn. There are mainly three competing tablets in the market: Nook, Kindly and iPad. I have read a few articles and summarized their similar and unique factors.These three e-readers are largely involved in classrooms and libraries.
Nook
One of the biggest strengths of Nook is that its company Barns and Noble offered a special version of Nook software for study and recently signed an exclusive contract with a major textbook publisher.Nook offers support for customers that they send staff to the school, home or workplace to train you how to use it. With good customer service, they will replace it for you if the Nook goes bad. It's such a blessing to have real person to walk through the process with you. Otherwise, it will be a hassle to learn by yourself.
Another advantage is that if you have purchased plenty of Nooks, the content purchased on one account can be shared with among six Nooks.
However, one thing that Nook still needs to improve is that speech to text function.Nothing is perfect, Nook's price is very competitive compared to Kindle and iPad. Whoever wants to invest money on it need to balance the good and bad.
Kindle
Kindle, the best known of the current e-readers, weighs only 10.2 ounces. A Kindle is able to hold 1500 e-books or more, considered as a handheld library for students and teachers. Kindle stocked with well-chosen e-books would allow teachers to apply new teaching strategies.Students have more books electronically than practical in print, which saves paper by reducing photocopying and relieves the unhealthy weight of students' backpacks.
Its text-to-speech audio function helps the students who struggle with vision problems, language barriers and reading fluency.
The cost of Kindle is pretty appealing compared to iPad. For long term, it saves students countless money to purchase e-books on Kindle.According to a news article, Amazon decides to let Kindle users buy e-books at a great discount.
iPad
The fact that Apple has sold approximately 64 millions iPads in two year proves how popular iPad is. Embracing the functions of computer,note-taking, music, video, e-readers, communication and much more, iPad is changing schools.New Zealand may be the first country to have all students have iPad for study. Provided with a huge variety of apps, iPad allows students and teachers easily to access to all kinds of learning and teaching methods. Compared to the cost of a Nook or a Kindle, iPad is not that competitive. However, iPad has profound meaning than just an e-reader like Nook and Kindle.
Uses of iPad in Education
This article describes why iPad is adopted in education. Compared to computer, iPad is considerably cheap and with reach.Here are the summarized reasons:
The uses of iPad save the cost of education. Textbooks are extremely expensive. A student can generate the textbook bill up to $500 to $800. Online books ore-books can drop the cost of a textbook by 50% or more.In the long run,iPad reduces the students' financial burden on textbooks.
Nowadays, the digital students require multimedia creativity in their learning experience. It helps them develop critical thinking and collaborative teamwork displayed through the use of multimedia. The apps provided on iPad increase the interaction for students to learn and capture their attention.
No matter what kind of tablets educators decide to invest in education, there is no doubt that tablets are changing and helping education in many ways.
References:
Article
1. Comparative Use Factors in Education for Tablets
2. Uses of iPad in Education
3. Our Nook Adventure Part One
4. Will Kindle Change Education?
5. How the iPad is Changing Education.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)