[android] Google Play for Education-powered Android tablets are now available to UK schools

[Arthur]

Finally!

 

Source: Google (via Android Police)

 

So much of education is about unlocking potential — nurturing students’ desires to discover and explore, giving them tools that match their unique learning styles, and challenging them to work more creatively and collaboratively.

 

Great schools know to balance what’s possible with what’s practical. That means protecting teachers’ time, managing the workload for the IT department, and introducing new tools when they enhance a lesson (not disrupt it).

 

We built Android tablets with Google Play for Education to make it practical for schools to find and share tools that help students achieve their potential.

 

Today we’re bringing Android with Google Play for Education to UK schools, giving more schools access to hardware and apps designed for the classroom, many of which have been customised for the UK curriculum.

 

When you buy Android tablets from Google for Education you get a solution designed for learning:

 

• Your choice of affordable tablets, starting with the Nexus 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Education
  
• Set-up and management tools that make it easy to get your school up and running (simply bump tablets together to set up a whole classroom in minutes)
  
• Easy student access to Google Apps that encourage teamwork and critical thinking, including Docs, Drive, and Google Classroom
  
• Access to Google Play for Education, a content store designed just for schools that puts thousands of educator-approved apps like Book Creator, Pocket Code and BrainPOP at teachers’ and students’ fingertips.
  
• Google Play for Education also includes apps designed specifically for the UK market, such as a series of GCSE apps from Revision Buddies.
  

UK schools who have been piloting Android tablets are seeing deeper engagement from both teachers and students as a result:

 

“Teachers are able to look up apps independently on Google Play for Education, tailoring the apps they share to the needs of the students,” says Luke Scott, the IT Manager at Barclay Primary School. “Students love how easy it is for them to access the application once it has uploaded to their tablet. They get excited by the fact that something has just popped up onto the screen – they are instantly engaged and want to use it.”

 

The Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy (IPACA) has seen the adoption of Android tablets and Google Play for Education drive a culture of sharing and collaboration.

 

Year 9 pupil Shannon said, "Using the Google Tablets has made learning fun, it's been great to connect with other children from around the world and compare and contrast our location with theirs."

 

“We can’t wait to see what UK schools do with affordable tablets and the right set of tools. In the last year, we’ve seen classes across the US do great things – whether they’re mapping trails in Vermont or getting personalized reading help in New Jersey.

[caffrey]

Cupertino seem to be very quiet lately regarding education.... Wonder what they are offering at BETT.... Edited January 22, 2015 by caffrey

[Jamman960]

As ever Apple aren't at BETT but did host their "Apple Education Leadership Summit" here in London on Tuesday.

 

My post on Facebook while waiting for the introduction to start went along the lines of "The things I do for work.... Not particularly an Apple fan but I'm at the Apple Education Leadership Summit. Come on Google sort out Google Play for education in the UK!"

 

Right now we're looking at going down the Apple route for our potential 1:1 scheme, while I'm more of a windows/android fan I really can't see either working particularly well on such a large scale without a serious amount of hand holding and technical issues. Unfortunately iOS devices just work and do so at all levels, they may not offer what we would traditionally want from true enterprise devices but can offer the end users more or less a trouble free experience and the chance for the devices to become tools used seamlessly in the classroom.

 

I really hope these GPlay for Education devices and the software holding it all together is good enough to challenge Apple, the biggest barriers I see so far are App/Device compatibility, Vendors not releasing updates for devices that aren't current, the lack of a VPP equivalent and to some extent the overall interface not quite being as intuitive.

 

Our current barrier to all of this is funding, for some reason spending £70k to get us started isn't going down too well if Google can address all of the above our project might just get off the ground

[Arthur]

Google for Education: Even more affordable Chromebooks and Android tablets

 

So today we’re also adding to the set of Android tablets available through Google for Education, with four new devices from ASUS, Dell and HP available to schools in the US and UK. Running Android 5.0 – Lollipop, and supporting up to five student accounts per device, these four new tablets make it easy for teachers to personalize each student’s experience.

 

http://a.pomf.se/lyshmj.png

 

More details here: https://www.google.co.uk/edu/products/devices/tablets.html

Edited April 1, 2015 by Arthur