Review 3: The Kindle Fire as a Potential 1:1 Solution
As I mentioned in my previous blog entries, this is the use that I was most excited about when I first learned about the Kindle Fire. A high powered computing device for less than $200--that's the Holy Grail of 1 to 1 computing! Would the Kindle Fire be that Holy Grail?
Before I discuss that, I guess I should--as I did with my last review--lay the groundwork for what I think a student tablet ought to do.
Rubric for Scoring Tablets as a Student Instructional Device
Ideally, in order to be a good solution for a 1:1 student instructional device, at least in my school district, a tablet should have the following attributes:- A good Internet browser for student research
- A browser capable of running most instructional software, including the Flash-based programs (Compass, Fast ForWord) that my school district utilizes
- A Microsoft Office compatible office suite that can create word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents. The suite doesn't need to have all of the bells and whistles of a Microsoft Office program, but users should be able to do the basics, including font changes, centering, hyperlinking, etc. More advanced items can be taken care of on a traditional PC before finalizing documents.
- With that in mind, the tablet should have an easy way to transfer documents between the tablet and other devices, such as a PC.
- A digital camera (one less item to need to purchase. Plus, there would be no need to transfer digital photos from camera to device if the camera were built in).
- Sufficient processing power to allow for the viewing of educational videos.
- A robust e-reader program (I foresee a day in the very near future when textbooks are all digitized).
- The ability to connect a keyboard for longer document creation when typing on the virtual keyboard would be too difficult.
- Lots of high quality educational apps.
- A free anti-virus software program (You don't hear a lot about iOS or Android viruses yet, but give the virus developers time. It sure looks like we're all basically abandoning Windows and Apple OS for these platforms, and the virus makers are going to get on board soon, too!).
- Easily managed by classroom teachers so that I'm not always being called to help with the darned things.
- Some level of enterprise deployment so that software can be pushed to the device en masse.
- A battery that lasts an entire school day without needing recharging.
B: 9 or 10 or the above items
C: 7 or 8 of the above items
D: 5 or 6 of the above items
F: Fewer than 4 of the above items.*
I didn't go about checking this list in a systematic way, the way I did when I was trying to determine if the Fire would make a good productivity tool. Instead, I put the device in the hands of my daughters (grades 7 and 9). As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, my girls both have a lot of experience with technology, and I knew they'd be able to give me an honest opinion. So I sat down with my younger daughter first, handed her my Kindle Fire (which both of my kids had been hearing about for weeks--I made them sit and watch the promotional video on the Amazon website!), and asked her to try it out. As she began thumbing through the menus, I told her, "What I'd like for you to do as you look at it is think about this: If your homeroom teacher came into your classroom tomorrow and said that you weren't going to have textbooks anymore, and that your class wasn't going to be allowed to go to the computer lab anymore, but that instead you were going to be given one of these devices to take with you from class to class and even to take home, would you like that? And more importantly, would you be able to do most of the things on this device that you can do on the computer?"
My daughter looked up at me for a few seconds and frowned as if she were considering what I said, before smiling and saying, "Cool! Angry Birds is on here!"
"Yeah, I'm not worried about Angry Birds," I told her. "But open up the web browser." I showed her how. "What are you doing research on in class right now?"
"Greece," she said. "I have a report due in a few days. In fact, can I give this back to you and get on the computer?"
"No," I said. "Try doing your research on here."
I left her alone for a while, and when I came back I heard the tell tale music and the sounds of screams and crashes coming from the device. "Honey!" I said to her. "Why are you playing Angry Birds? I thought you were doing homework."
"I did already. It was easy. I have everything I need. So can I play Angry Birds?"
"No," I said. "I NEED you to help me do my research on this Kindle Fire. Let's look at the e-reader together." So we opened the e-reader and I showed her how easy it was to move from page to page, how she could look up the definition of a word just by pressing on the word and holding it for about a second, how, if the definition wasn't good enough for her, she could press "More" and look it up on the Internet. I showed her how to virtually dog ear, highlight, and make notes in the digital book.She agreed that having a device like this would be far better than hauling books back and forth to class.
About that time my older daughter came down the stairs and said, "Dad, can I get on the computer?"
I got excited! Another guinea pig! "Why?"
"I need to type a paper for class."
"No," I said. "I want you to try typing it on my Kindle Fire."
"It came?" she asked.
"Finally!" I said. "Just a few minutes ago."
"Awesome!" she said as she extended her hand. "Can I see it?"
"Yes, but I want you to try to use the Office program that I downloaded from the App store. See if you can type a paper on it."
"Does it have any games on it?" she asked me. "Is there Angry Birds?"
"Yes," I said. "There's an Angry Birds game."
"Two!" my other daughter said. "I downloaded another one from the app store after I finished my research."
I did a double take. "You did what? Did it cost money?"
"No," she said. "It was free."
I stared at her for a minute before saying, "Okay. You and I are going to have to talk about that in a minute. In the meantime," I said to my other daughter, "try typing your document on this program."
I came back about 10 minutes later and again heard the tell tale music. "Did you write your paper already?" I asked my daughter.
"No," she said. "It was WAY too hard to try to type on this thing. I want a regular keyboard. So I just decided to play Angry Birds instead!"
"Well," I said in frustration, "why didn't you get on the computer and type your paper?"
"Because it's locked. Besides, I really want to finish this level!..."
And THAT's how I analyzed the Kindle Fire as an instructional device: one argument with my children at a time.
And I guess I'm out of time today to actually give the review itself. That'll be the next blog post.
*That's not a perfect grading scale, I know, as some of the 13 items are WAY more important than the others.
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