Copernicus was kind enough to send me a Tech Tub to evaluate. I have liked the idea of the Tech Tub from the moment I first saw it. It is a basically an improved version of what some teachers have already done to manage small sets of devices. I have seen milk crates and dish drainers used in various combinations, and I'm sure there have been more unusual solutions too.
The Tech Tub keeps the spirit of these implementations, but improves on them in a few ways.
The Tech Tub is very light and easy to carry. I was actually a little surprised at how light it was when I first unpacked it and picked it up. Despite its light weight, it still feels durable. Obviously any tub or carrier is going to be heavier once loaded with devices, so there are cart options for the Tech Tub. The Tub has a lid that can be locked closed with a padlock, but it is well ventilated for devices that might get a little warm when charging. There is even a lockable metal bar that slides through the bottom of the tub. This is used either to secure the Tub to an optional cart, or to secure it to brackets on a table to prevent theft or accidents.
Overall, the Tech Tub is well designed, but I think there's still room for improvement.
I tested out the Tub with a set of iPads. There is plenty of room for the iPads, but it is almost too much room. They would "flop around" a little inside the Tub. Obviously the benefit to all that space is that the Tub is suitable for devices larger than iPads (such as Chromebooks). Not all sides that the devices come in contact with are padded, so there is a concern about impact damage if the Tub is dropped or roughly transported.
The Premium version of the tub comes with a power bar, but if you want to sync multiple devices via USB, you have to unplug them from the adapters and plug them into a USB hub (not included).
There are carts designed for 1, 2, or 4 Tubs. The Tubs open from the top, so the carts for multiple Tubs are all "double-wide". It is unfortunate that there isn't a single-wide, double-tall cart because storage space is often limited in schools with respect to square footage. I do understand the challenge in design here. The Tub opens from the top so you wouldn't be able to open the bottom Tub if stacked.
When it comes to price, I believe the Tech Tub is a pretty good deal for classrooms with 10 or fewer devices. When looking at the size and price of the 4 Tub cart ($1600), I think there are better options if all the devices are regularly used together as a class set. If sharing 20 devices among multiple classrooms, having four Tech Tubs on a cart is a good solution. The only downside is the inconvenience mentioned earlier about having to unplug the devices from power and into a USB hub to sync.
Tegra Note - Evernote
I am still searching for a good Android app that is comparable to the iOS-exclusive Notability. I would love to have such an app to use with the Tegra Note, a low cost Android tablet with a well implemented stylus.
Evernote is an extremely popular note-taking platform, with clients available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. In a recent update for the Android client, Evernote added handwriting support, including the ability to search handwritten text in documents. The following is taken from the Evernote blog entry.
Evernote is a platform and service. You can use some of the service for free, and your notes are synchronized to the Evernote cloud service. To get additional storage and features, Evernote is $5 per month or $45 per year. While not terribly expensive, it is not a cheap service, especially in light of Google's recent price changes for Drive ($2 per month for 100GB of storage). Notability is a one-time $3 purchase, and will sync with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and even WebDAV.
My search for a good alternative to Notability continues...
Evernote is an extremely popular note-taking platform, with clients available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. In a recent update for the Android client, Evernote added handwriting support, including the ability to search handwritten text in documents. The following is taken from the Evernote blog entry.
"Our realization was that a fluid handwriting experience would be one that lets you easily move from writing to typing to taking photos and back all within a single note."
This description sounded like Evernote would be able to work much like Notability. I eagerly updated Evernote on the Tegra Note, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
In Notability, pages are very much like actual blank pages. I can add images, text, and written notes anywhere on a page. Once added, I can select and move any of those objects anywhere within the note. In Evernote, I can indeed add handwriting, but it is placed in vertical order with other "objects". So, I can type some text, then write notes beneath that text (not next to it, or over top of it). Once I had completed the handwriting, I could not find a way to move the writing "object" to another location in the note.
As for the handwriting itself, the Tegra Note worked well, but Evernote did not support the variable widths of the stylus. The pen thickness had to be manually selected from a menu. I was impressed with the text searching. It seemed to find my printed text easily, but did not find results in my cursive writing. That isn't much of a surprise. My cursive writing is quite bad, even on real paper.
Evernote is a platform and service. You can use some of the service for free, and your notes are synchronized to the Evernote cloud service. To get additional storage and features, Evernote is $5 per month or $45 per year. While not terribly expensive, it is not a cheap service, especially in light of Google's recent price changes for Drive ($2 per month for 100GB of storage). Notability is a one-time $3 purchase, and will sync with Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and even WebDAV.
My search for a good alternative to Notability continues...
Tegra Note - iAnnotate PDF
A general note on stylus accuracy
iAnnotate PDF
The right pull-tab exposes the various annotation tools.
There is a pencil for free-hand marking up of the document. Unfortunately this tool does not support the stylus-width control of the Tegra Note. To be fair to the Note, iAnnotate doesn't seem to support pencil widths at all, so I doubt a tablet with an active stylus would have an advantage.
Next is the annotation button. Touch the button, then touch a point on the PDF document and you can type in an annotation. These are the annotations that can be navigated through using the tool in the left pull-tab.
There is a highlighter for highlighting text. Note that this will only highlight text and cannot be used freehand like the pencil tool. The advantage to this is it is very easy to accurately highlight text. The disadvantage is that some PDF files are scanned without the use of OCR, so the PDF is actually just a "picture" of text.
There are a couple of buttons for scroll-lock and fit-width, and the last button on the toolbar is a toolbox button. The toolbox button exposes even more tools. In the toolbox you will find strikeout and underline tools that operate much like the highlighter. There are tools for adding, and navigating through, bookmarks. It also has buttons for emailing the PDF, the PDF with annotations, or just the annotations.
If you regularly work with non-PDF documents, iAnnotate PDF won't be of much use. Also, you cannot use iAnnotate to add or remove pages within a PDF. The interface does require some accurate touches, so in this regard the Tegra Note was tremendously useful. The fine tip of the stylus made highlighting, drawing, and placing bookmarks and annotations much easier than depending on finger touches or constantly zooming in and out.
iAnnotate will stay installed on the Tegra Note for now, but I will keep looking for a good Notability alternative.
Tegra Note 7 - Android with a stylus
"It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a stylus, they blew it."
- Steve Jobs
While I can agree that a designer "blew it" if a touch screen interface requires the use of a stylus, there are some activities (writing and drawing) best suited for a stylus. One of my absolute favourite apps is Notability. In fact, it is the only app that keeps me going back to my otherwise neglected iPad. As much as I like Notability, I am frustrated that I have to use a stylus with a tip roughly the same size as my pinky finger.
Samsung capitalized on Apple's refusal to recognize stylus use-cases with their Note line of phones and tablets. The Note series have enjoyed great sales, but they are among the most expensive Android options available. In fact, most of the tablets that have good styli tend to be expensive, primarily because they use an active pen. Active pens allow for pressure sensitivity, detection of pen versus finger, and more.
Last year Nvidia released (through various manufacturers) the Tegra Note 7 (TN7), a 7-inch Android tablet utilizing a passive stylus. The use of a passive stylus, along with a mid-range screen and Nvidia's own Tegra 4 System-on-Chip (SoC), keeps the price of the TN7 to $200. Despite the use of a passive stylus, the TN7 distinguishes between stylus and finger touch, handles palm rejection, and while it doesn't support pressure sensitivity, it does recognize stroke size.
There are plenty of reviews of the TN7, so I won't go into detail about the specs and features. Nvidia is primarily known as a maker of video chips designed for PC gamers. I believe it is because of this heritage that the reviews of the TN7 are almost entirely from PC review web sites. Those reviews focus on specs, build quality, speed benchmarks, and games. In those areas, the reviews are quite positive.
I have stated that purchase price is only a small part of the story when it comes to tablets, so I think it's important to discuss some non-technical aspects of the TN7. For one, one of the manufacturers making the TN7 is EVGA. I have experience dealing with them from an RMA standpoint, and that experience was positive. As for the OS, Nvidia has included extras related to the stylus, but otherwise it appears to be stock Android. The TN7 shipped with Android 4.2, but received an update to 4.3 late last year. It isn't yet known if or when the TN7 will see an update to Android 4.4. By minimizing the changes to stock Android, it should be relatively easy for Nvidia to keep the tablet up to date. Unfortunately, only time will tell.
Note: So, I left that last bit intact, but Nvidia actually released Android 4.4.2 before I published this entry. This is the latest version of Android available. It is a good sign for future updates, but once again only time will tell for sure.
Right away, the TN7 is usable in the classroom. It can connect to a projector via HDMI, and it works very well with the Netgear PTV3000 for wireless video. This makes it a good option as a document camera. There is a very basic drawing app included with the TN7 that will take snapshots from the camera and let you draw on top of them. Having an accurate stylus, and one that can detect and draw in different pen widths, makes the experience better. The inclusion of a microSD slot makes sharing of photos easy, but you can also use Google Drive.
Android educational apps are continuing to improve, and I will be going back and re-testing some note-taking and drawing apps with the Tegra Note 7. Hopefully along the way I'll find a replacement for Notability and finally let my iPad go.
- Steve Jobs
While I can agree that a designer "blew it" if a touch screen interface requires the use of a stylus, there are some activities (writing and drawing) best suited for a stylus. One of my absolute favourite apps is Notability. In fact, it is the only app that keeps me going back to my otherwise neglected iPad. As much as I like Notability, I am frustrated that I have to use a stylus with a tip roughly the same size as my pinky finger.
Samsung capitalized on Apple's refusal to recognize stylus use-cases with their Note line of phones and tablets. The Note series have enjoyed great sales, but they are among the most expensive Android options available. In fact, most of the tablets that have good styli tend to be expensive, primarily because they use an active pen. Active pens allow for pressure sensitivity, detection of pen versus finger, and more.
Last year Nvidia released (through various manufacturers) the Tegra Note 7 (TN7), a 7-inch Android tablet utilizing a passive stylus. The use of a passive stylus, along with a mid-range screen and Nvidia's own Tegra 4 System-on-Chip (SoC), keeps the price of the TN7 to $200. Despite the use of a passive stylus, the TN7 distinguishes between stylus and finger touch, handles palm rejection, and while it doesn't support pressure sensitivity, it does recognize stroke size.
There are plenty of reviews of the TN7, so I won't go into detail about the specs and features. Nvidia is primarily known as a maker of video chips designed for PC gamers. I believe it is because of this heritage that the reviews of the TN7 are almost entirely from PC review web sites. Those reviews focus on specs, build quality, speed benchmarks, and games. In those areas, the reviews are quite positive.
Note: So, I left that last bit intact, but Nvidia actually released Android 4.4.2 before I published this entry. This is the latest version of Android available. It is a good sign for future updates, but once again only time will tell for sure.
Right away, the TN7 is usable in the classroom. It can connect to a projector via HDMI, and it works very well with the Netgear PTV3000 for wireless video. This makes it a good option as a document camera. There is a very basic drawing app included with the TN7 that will take snapshots from the camera and let you draw on top of them. Having an accurate stylus, and one that can detect and draw in different pen widths, makes the experience better. The inclusion of a microSD slot makes sharing of photos easy, but you can also use Google Drive.
Android educational apps are continuing to improve, and I will be going back and re-testing some note-taking and drawing apps with the Tegra Note 7. Hopefully along the way I'll find a replacement for Notability and finally let my iPad go.
FETC 2014
Last week was FETC 2014 in Orlando, Florida. It was the second FETC for me. There are a few reasons I like FETC, other than the opportunity to escape the deep freeze of January in Ontario. It has a great mix of activities, workshops, receptions, and a great exhibit hall. All of that is rolled into an event that is far less overwhelming than ISTE.
While the exhibit hall can often be an area where you want to dodge aggressive company representatives, it's also a great place to get your hands on devices that you otherwise just see online.
I first saw Swivl at ECOO in the fall. There is a new Swivl coming out, and the new model was on display on the FETC exhibit floor. The Swivl has a rotating base and a microphone with an integrated tracker. The base will hold a tablet for you to record the video. The microphone connects to the tablet via bluetooth, and the base rotates to track the movement of the microphone. This is a great device for creating instructional videos. In our Teacher Education program, our students record micro-teaching lessons to review and learn how to improve their practice.
While I believe there are better choices in educational technology than interactive whiteboards, I was impressed with the simplicity and price of the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System. If you've always wanted an interactive board, and you already have a whiteboard and LCD projector, the IPEVO is $150.
The robotic devices zipping around the VGo booth made quite a few people turn their heads. I think it would be great for a district to acquire these robots to share among schools. These devices allow kids stuck at home (sick, broken leg, etc) to continue to participate in school. This goes beyond classroom participation. Kids can even hang out with their friends during breaks.
Although I saw much more at FETC, the last item I'll talk about is JAMF Casper Focus. This is a fantastic way to hand over some of the controls of Mobile Device Management (MDM) to the classroom teacher without having to grant complete administrative access. The teacher, using an iPad app, can lock iPads to an app, direct an iPad to connect to a specific AirPlay receiver (student must confirm), distribute content, and even remove a PIN from a locked iPad. It was great testing this out at the JAMF booth with a few iPads.
While the exhibit hall can often be an area where you want to dodge aggressive company representatives, it's also a great place to get your hands on devices that you otherwise just see online.
I first saw Swivl at ECOO in the fall. There is a new Swivl coming out, and the new model was on display on the FETC exhibit floor. The Swivl has a rotating base and a microphone with an integrated tracker. The base will hold a tablet for you to record the video. The microphone connects to the tablet via bluetooth, and the base rotates to track the movement of the microphone. This is a great device for creating instructional videos. In our Teacher Education program, our students record micro-teaching lessons to review and learn how to improve their practice.
While I believe there are better choices in educational technology than interactive whiteboards, I was impressed with the simplicity and price of the IPEVO Interactive Whiteboard System. If you've always wanted an interactive board, and you already have a whiteboard and LCD projector, the IPEVO is $150.
The robotic devices zipping around the VGo booth made quite a few people turn their heads. I think it would be great for a district to acquire these robots to share among schools. These devices allow kids stuck at home (sick, broken leg, etc) to continue to participate in school. This goes beyond classroom participation. Kids can even hang out with their friends during breaks.
Although I saw much more at FETC, the last item I'll talk about is JAMF Casper Focus. This is a fantastic way to hand over some of the controls of Mobile Device Management (MDM) to the classroom teacher without having to grant complete administrative access. The teacher, using an iPad app, can lock iPads to an app, direct an iPad to connect to a specific AirPlay receiver (student must confirm), distribute content, and even remove a PIN from a locked iPad. It was great testing this out at the JAMF booth with a few iPads.
Accepting the blogging challenge (sort of)
This blog is my acceptance, in part, of the 5 challenges from Dr. Camille Rutherford.
#1 - Acknowledge the nominating blogger.
Dr. Camille Rutherford is an Associate Professor of Education at Brock University, and a fellow organizing member of the Teaching with Technology Showcase and CONNECT. She teaches the Educational Technology Leadership course at Brock, with a little help from me. She has a passion for technology that is admirable, but often drives the IT staff (including me) crazy.
#2 - 11 Random facts about me.
- I am married to a wonderful woman from Kentucky.
- There is a school in Burlington, Ontario named after my great grandfather.
- I dropped out of university in 1994, and finished my undergrad part-time after I started working at the university. I graduated (B.Sc. Computer Science) in 2005.
- I drove 16 hours to Hastings, Nebraska to go to the Kool-Aid Days Festival... when I was 36.
- My first job was at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
- My first IT-related job was a 75 to 90 minute drive away (depending on traffic). Now I make a 7 minute walk from my front door to my desk.
- I can wiggle my ears.
- I was 23 when I first flew on a plane.
- I was in the Enrichment Program for middle school. It later became the Gifted Program. I hated it.
- I am right-handed, but bat, play hockey, and golf left-handed.
- I had LASIK surgery in 2000.
#3 - Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
- What is your favorite quote or saying?
"That's unfortunate" is what I commonly say, but I think my favorite saying is by Edgar Bergen. "Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." - Name your ideal retirement location.
Kentucky. Beautiful countryside with great hiking. It's a lot like northern Ontario, but with much longer summers and milder winters. - If you could have only one educational technology resource, what would it be?
Assuming there was WiFi access, I guess a tablet. A tablet with Internet access is an amazing all-around tool with long battery life, and can easily be shared among students. - What is your favourite travel destination?
Puerto Rico. I was surprised by Puerto Rico. It has beautiful beaches, a rain forest, historic site-seeing, and is a fairly inexpensive travel destination. We were even able to use regular US cell service making it easy to stay in touch. - Recommend an educational game.
I don't really play educational games, so there isn't one that comes readily to mind. I've enjoyed some of the Dr. Suess books, but they're not really games. Similarly I think Whiteboard: Collaborative Drawing is a great app for education. It's not exactly a game, but you can play games using it. It's also cross-platform (Android and iOS), so great for BYOD. - What is your favourite app?
I primarily use Android devices, but the one app that keeps me coming back to iOS is Notability. - What is your favourite TV show?
I would say Big Bang Theory, but it's a very small pool to choose from. I'm only watching four shows total. - Have you ever paid it forward at a coffee shop?
I'm not sure. I don't specifically remember paying it forward at a coffee shop. I almost always tip at the coffee shop though, and I'm always willing to pay a little if the person in front of me is short. That's mostly to get myself through the line faster, so it isn't exactly the same thing. - If you had to pick a song to be your theme song, what would it be?
I really don't know. - What is the last movie you saw in a theatre?
"A Madea Christmas". Seriously. Before that it was Dallas Buyers Club. - What is the first thing you would do after winning a million dollars?
Change my name.
I will pass on the challenge for #4 and #5. The truth is that I am still primarily an IT person. I have just recently started looking for Ed Tech podcasts. I will look for blogs to follow as well. Here is a challenge for anyone reading this. Help me out, and feel free to share your favourites in the comments.
Android Tablets: More to the story than low prices
To start, I want to clarify that all of my personal use devices are Android-based. I have to say this because I am about to say some negative things about deploying low-cost Android devices in schools. I assure you that I neither hate Android, nor do I love iOS. There are things about both that I like, and there are plenty of things about iOS that drive me crazy as well.
This post is about making sure you know what you're getting yourself into when you decide to try Android in the classroom, especially in light of Google's new education initiative with its Nexus 7 tablet.
As for the low cost of the devices, purchasing devices directly from Google Play will incur additional shipping charges. You can get the Nexus devices from several retailers, but they typically charge slightly more than the price seen on Google Play. It is also unlikely you will be able to walk in to a local Best Buy and walk out with an entire class set of tablets. I'm not sure that's how you want to make your institutional purchases anyway. It is also not possible to purchase devices from the Play store using a purchase order. Regardless of how you go about buying the tablets, the Google advertised price isn't the price you'll pay.
This post is about making sure you know what you're getting yourself into when you decide to try Android in the classroom, especially in light of Google's new education initiative with its Nexus 7 tablet.
There are plenty of things to be excited about when it comes to the Nexus line of devices. They have very good specifications, and are generally the first devices to be upgraded to the newest version of Android. They always run "stock Android", which means you don't have to worry about losing some neat feature if you switch between Samsung, HTC, LG, or Sony (or feel like to have to commit to one manufacturer repeatedly to ensure you keep that feature). They also tend to be quite a bit cheaper than Apple's offerings.
Acquisition
Google does not actually make any of the Nexus devices. Device manufacturing has been contracted out to various companies including Samsung, LG, and Asus. The first problem is that Google does not have direct control over the supply of their Nexus devices. This has lead to supply issues, especially for new devices. It also lead to some quality control issues with the original Nexus 7 tablet.As for the low cost of the devices, purchasing devices directly from Google Play will incur additional shipping charges. You can get the Nexus devices from several retailers, but they typically charge slightly more than the price seen on Google Play. It is also unlikely you will be able to walk in to a local Best Buy and walk out with an entire class set of tablets. I'm not sure that's how you want to make your institutional purchases anyway. It is also not possible to purchase devices from the Play store using a purchase order. Regardless of how you go about buying the tablets, the Google advertised price isn't the price you'll pay.
Deployment
Apple has had a Volume Purchase Plan in place in the US for a while now, and it spread to many other countries about a year ago. The VPP lets you purchase iOS apps in bulk at a discount (50% for 20 or more licenses). iOS 7 even introduced new ways to keep control over the licenses you purchase, allowing you to grant a license to a user and then later revoke it in order to grant it to another user.
Although Google's recent announcement includes bulk purchases via purchase order, there are very few details. It does not appear that there is a discount, nor does it seem there is the same level of control over the deployed licenses.
Updates
Although Nexus devices receive the latest updates first, that does not mean that all Nexus devices will get the newest version of Android. The Galaxy Nexus phone from two years ago will not receive the latest Android 4.4 update (officially, anyway). There is a pretty detailed summary of the update status for various devices here.
Even on devices that do qualify for the latest update, you have little control over when your devices will actually have access to the update. The updates are pushed out to devices at random times. Although there is a mechanism to manually check for the update, it won't give you access to the update sooner. It just means that you might see the update before the scheduled automatic check. There is an explanation of the process here. Google does post device images, but even these are typically available after some devices will have already received the update.
For major updates, beta versions of iOS are available well in advance. These can be useful to IT administrators who are tasked with supporting the devices and training users. With Android, it is quite likely that end users would receive an update before the IT staff.
Maintenance and Repair
As previously mentioned, Google does not actually make the Nexus devices. This leaves you at the mercy of the service centers of the manufacturer, and generally speaking the service is pretty bad. Turn-around times are typically over a week, and in one personal case, it took over three weeks to get a repaired device returned (after the second repair).
Conclusion
As I mentioned, there are plenty of things to like about Android and the Nexus line of devices. Android 4.2 and higher introduced multi-user capabilities that make Android great for shared tablets in a classroom. The app store has been improving in both the number and quality of the apps. It really doesn't hurt that the Nexus devices offer some amazing specifications for the price, even if the price is slightly higher than Google says it is.
I want to be clear that I am not trying to tell anyone to not go with Android tablets for the classroom. I am just trying to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
I want to be clear that I am not trying to tell anyone to not go with Android tablets for the classroom. I am just trying to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.
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