Android Tablet or Ipad? As tablets are becoming more common place in education so more schools are buying into new hardware. I have been working in a small rural school for a few years and this has taught me that the ICT school budget is almost non-existent! One of my main concerns is that I have seen a few schools who have jumped on to the Ipad bandwagon, have spent thousands on hardware and are now not sure how they are going to implement them through their school infrastructure. When contemplating purchasing new equipment there are a few things to take into account...
Are Ipads worth the cost? I have seen many schools using Ipads in a variety of ways, from a class set used daily to a single device in a classroom. There is a wealth of fantastic APP's out there that can be used in so many ways but I personally feel that their limits far outweigh their benefits. Apple are keen to make these fantastic products that all will use but make it very hard for you to personalise the device, meaning it is hard to set the device up for your school network settings and file systems. One thing that Ipads do well is just work! You can download an APP on and Ipad and you just know that it will work! But with the cost of an Ipad ranging from £300 upwards I feel as though schools are wasting money if they are just used for word processing or internet research!
Is Android the way forward? I have been using Android tablets in my class for the last 2 years and have seen the benefits instantly, not just with the childrens academic ability but with the improvement to my teaching style. I have found that Android tablets have been easy to set up on the network and when rooted can access all of the schools network and file systems through free APPs. Another benefit of an Android device is the price, I bought ours for £99 so we were able to have 10 in class for a fraction of the cost of Ipads! One negative point of the tablets is the ability for them to go wrong, some APPs just dont seem to want to work well on certain devices and this does sometimes cause problems in class, but with abit of a discussion with the children they are soon able to troubleshoot the problem and get the APP working.
One thing I would suggest before spending your whole budget on tablet devices is do your research, make sure that you are buying for the right reason and that they will be used in your school! My main advice is don't buy these expecting for your whole teaching style to change or for your classroom to become something that it isn't. Take your time to introduce the devices trying one new thing at a time so you build your confidence as the children do. Also, don't plan a se
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