Introduction of Android In Secondary School?

[musejay1]

I am an ICT Tech in a secondary school which is currently using IPad's and IPad Mini's. We have had some ASUS transformers in, old first generation ones, which were never given a fair chance to be tested.

 

I admit myself, I have always preferred Android over IOS, but i understand the flaws in both Android devices and IOS devices.

 

The main problem with Android, however is that they are not unison in specs and even OS's, making it harder to roll out software.

 

I am going to be getting my own personal tablet with case and other gear, for a budget of £500, I have looked around and I am leaning towards the samsung galaxy tab 2, however this would still be cheaper than IPads for education, but I personally see it would be hard to convince the governing board to allow samsung tablets to be used.

 

I have looked at the Zoostorm tablets and they seem pretty good, never seen one in person though, and can be picked up for about £100.

 

I have also had a look at the google nexus, however we are looking for a 10" screen as a minimum.

 

We use software such as emurge on the IPads, and from what i hear works better on android than IOS.

 

So, as a personal tablet is the Samsung galaxy 2 a good one to go for?

And what would be a good tablet to trial for usage at a school?

 

Cheers

 

- Adam

[fiza]

I realise its not Android but you might want to look at the Windows Surface RT

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/116467-ridiculously-low-pricing-surface-rt-uk-edu-summer.html

 

At £130 for education we are considering it.

[musejay1]

I will have a look at it, but we are not planning to have any Windows 8 machines/devices being deployed, which is the main reason we are looking at android.

[catch21]

Rather than make a big expensive mistake, our IT tech bought one of each to try (small expensive mistake!). Trial ongoing, results awaited, I don't know what she ended up buying in the end.

[musejay1]

The tablet I'm looking at now is the Samsung Galaxy note for myself, and having a look at the following as a base unit:

Zoostorm PlayTab PC - Tablets | Ebuyer.com

At £99 with those specs I think it is a fair deal.

[sted]

just a point with android check the charge sockets the galaxys are fine have some tosh's in a school and they are micro usb and ones snapped already

[musejay1]

The Galaxy would be for myself, the zoostorm would be for if we introduced android tablets, as I'm having a look into a cheaper alternative to IPad's, that runs android.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

We're currently selling these: http://www.ict-direct.co.uk/joytab-9-7-android-tablet-open-box-stock-pristine-condition.html

 

They're practically the same spec as the Zoostorm, except you get a brilliant bluetooth keyboard cover with them which helps massively as it doubles as a stand and allows accurate and fast typing.

[seawolf]

I am an ICT Tech in a secondary school which is currently using IPad's and IPad Mini's. We have had some ASUS transformers in, old first generation ones, which were never given a fair chance to be tested.

 

And what would be a good tablet to trial for usage at a school?

 

I would be reluctant to move from iOS to Android. I don't see it solving the problems that do exist with iOS management and hardware cost, etc without creating a lot of other problems. The OS fragmentation and crapware loaded on Android OS by most of the manufacturers is a big roadblock to me. I don't see Surface as a great solution either with Surface Pro so expensive and Surface RT quite limited in apps and manageability in a school.

 

Personally, I'm going to wait to see what comes out later in the year with iOS 7 MDM improvements, etc. and hardware updates (fingers crossed). I also would like to see what happens with Ubuntu Tablet http://www.ubuntu.com/tablet - this project holds more promise than anything I've seen since the original iPad and could be the answer for a lot of schools. But, Ubuntu Tablet hardware is currently just vapourware, so it could drop with a resounding thud. I would love to see Ubuntu have success in the Tablet market though, especially if the tablets aren't hobbled by OS update fragmentation and crapware.

[musejay1]

The main problem is that we introduced IPads as part of a plan to have them replace laptops (which I don't think is possible), or at least lower the usage of them, it would have worked apart from one problem, we use SIMs and we cannot chance from that at all, and for the IPad's we have emerge, which works perfectly fine on android devices and works the same way as it does on a laptop/workstation, but on IOS it is very limited and doesn't offer all the features that we require.

 

We are at a point where we are having a new block built and getting in so many IPad's, I am trying to look if we could introduce android tablets, or run a trial.

 

The main reason I'm looking at this is because as a school running win xp, win7 and a mac suite, we insure that the students have access to different types of OS's so they can get used to them for personal use, if they choose to get their own machine/device, but more to prepare them for working life.

 

Also most students have android devices, as lots of people cant afford the premium of apple devices, and some just prefer android, such as me.

 

Both OS's have their positives and negatives, but I am looking for the right android devices to deploy rather than the pro's and con's, and to see others experiences in doing so.