A student tablet is different from other tablets in that it has a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and is designed to cater for the specific educational needs of the students. The likes of McGraw-Hill Higher Education eLabs work with educational institutions and technology partners to come up with innovative and cutting-edge tablets and other digital educational tools in an effort to improve the way students learn and the way instructors teach.
Examples of tablet devices that are being considered for use by students are e-book readers such as Amazon Kindle, BeBook, Sony eReader, Nook, and Kobo. Student tablets feature apps that are optimized for students. Examples are Studious which is a planner app for students, Skedule which is a ‘time tabling’ application, and My GradeBook which allows you to keep track of your homework. Others are Body XQ Heart, Write: Tablet Notepad/Journal, Evernote, iAnnotate PDF, Dictionary – Merriam-Webster, LectureNotes, and OfficeSuite Pro 7 (PDF & HD).
Student tablets are designed to integrate with ICT resources given that institutions where they are used already have ICT resources. The tablet you go for should support your current eLearning content and activities, it should allow for easy access to your existing network resources and it should work with your other ICT devices. You should also consider such things as how you are going to control individual user usage and access. Particularly important today is to control access to social networking sites.
More and more schools are buying student tablets while it is the responsibility of the parents to buy them in other schools. The best arrangement is where schools own the devices because there will be less conflict amongst students. Schools are also able to get good prices and good rates for repairs should the devices get damaged or break down.
Tablets are now ready for the classroom today because they give access to more textbooks and they ensure that schools do not spend a fortune on textbook buying and replacement. The use of a student tablet allows for more efficient and effective learning. For instance, students are able to hear the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. instead of reading about it hence leading to greater impact. Today’s students are already familiar with touchscreen technology and they will not have a hard time learning to use tablets. There will be no resistance since these devices fit students’ lifestyles. Student tablets are not meant to replace traditional learning techniques – just to complement them.
