mlearning-Gilbert school embracing e-reader technology with Nook Club

This Article is about Gilbert Elementary School starting a book club using the Nook e-readers. The school purchased six e-readers, and is giving their sixth grade students an opportunity to use the Nook. The students check out the Nook form the library for two weeks. During that two week students use it to read what ever they want. By the end of the school year all of the sixth grade students will have had a turn with the Nooks. The school librarian says it is "my job as a librarian is to encourage and motivate kids to read, and I don't want to limit them in what they can read. She goes on to say that she feels that the Nook will not replace print books. The article also talked about how e-books are cheaper and that you don't have to wait as long for new releases. One example in the article was the book "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins cost $17.99 for a hardcover at Barnes & Noble, the paperback is $8.99, and the e-book is $5.

If it takes being able to check out the Nook from the library in order to get students to read then it is worth every penny spent. While the beginning investment is expensive. School libraries can easily make up the cost in the price of the e-books. Most school libraries buy hardcover books due to sturdiness. which if the school had bought six copies of "The Hunger Games" the would have spent $107.40 versus $5 for the e-book. This is a huge saving to a school budget. I hope that my future school will have some form of e-readers/tablet for student to use, even they can only use them in the library.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/03/27/20110327gilbert-school-e-reader-nook-club.html#ixzz22LZaGmrv

mlearning- The Kindle Fire will enable the next generation of 1:1 education apps

This article talks about how the Kindle Fire is very suitable for education. It focuses on a few features. Some of them are the size, the price, and the Android based operating system. The author of this article really like that the Kindle Fire stays connected to Amazon's EC2 cloud. This allows the internet to work faster and to have better graphic with in the apps.

I had never thought about the size making that munch of a difference, but the author made a good point when he said that based on size the Kindle Fire would be good for elementary students because they could hold it better. The price is good, but I would not buy something based on price alone. I like that the internet can work faster than on other tablets.

mlearning- The iPad for Administrators and Teachers

This article talked about different apps for the iPad that could be helpful to administrators and teachers.  Some of the apps were free, but most others ranged from $1.99 to $9.99. There was a grade book app, a lesson plan app, and several apps to keep you organized. The article pointed out that a common complaint of administrators and teachers is that they have to many papers and notes to keep up with. This is where the iPad comes in because you can use it for everything and just have to keep up with one thing.

I feel that the iPad can be very helpful as long as you are committed to using it. Lets say I only used it for lesson planing and nothing else then it would not be a helpful tool. I do know teachers who could not live without there iPads because they use them a lot and others who never used them. I looked at a few of the apps suggested. I really wanted to check out the IEP Checklist app but it said that it was not available in the U.S. I liked the TeacherPal app better than the GradeBook Pro app and it appeared that they were a lot alike.The other app that I looked at was the Planbook app. I could see me using some of these apps in the future to help manage my classroom.

 

mlearning- Evaluating the Nook Tablet for an Elementary School

This article talked about if the Nook Tablet would be a good fit for an elementary school. E-book are not much cheaper than the printed books, so the only advantage would that most children's books come with an audio file. While this was an advantage it was not enough of a reason to buy the Nooks. One advantage is that e-books don't get tattered and would outlive a print copy and the tablet itself. There are lots of apps for the Nook. The school was worried that thousands of dollars worth of apps could become obsolete, but the Nook books can be accessed on other devices. So even if Barnes & Noble stopped making the Nook they could still access the books that were bought. They found that the Nook would be worth purchasing, but felt that the Kindle Fire might be a better investment.

I'm not sure that the Nook would be worth buy for an elementary school. I know that you can always access the books purchased, but you could lose lots of money in apps if Barnes & Noble decided to stop making the Nook. Also I feel that by just adding audio to the book doesn't make it worth purchasing a $200 device to have it read a book to you unless it is needed for a student with a disability.

mlearning-Schools Abandon Textbooks To Go All iPad

Burlington High School abandoned all text books and instead provided an iPad for every student. They payed for the iPads by getting rid of computer labs and by no longer buying new textbooks. The Principal said that they were not going to buy electronic versions of the text books because they can cost as much if not more than printed copies. Some of the teacher were skeptical of this change at first, but are now on board.

I like the idea of every student having an iPad and if every student has an iPad there is not a need for a computer lab. I thought that this was an interesting way to pay of the iPads. However, I did gasp with I read that they were not going to buy textbooks. I know that as a new teacher this would be very hard. I can't image not having a textbook to refer to, but at the same time this would give teachers more of a chance to tech in a style that fit them rather than teaching to the textbook.

mlearning- How the Amazon Kindle Fire Fits Into Education

This article tells about the Kindle Fire's specs, storage, and textbook rentals. According to this article the Kindle Fire is a huge competitor to the iPad based on price, storage and textbook rentals. The author says that the Kindle Fire will pay for its self in the savings on textbooks. You also get cloud storage for free, and the operating system is based on Google's Android operating system.

I feel that the Kindle Fire is being marketed to college students not for k-12 students. I don't feel that the saving are as much as Amazon would want you to believe. They make it sound like you will save enough to cover the price the first semester and this is not true. However, any savings is great. As a future elementary teacher I can't see myself renting a book for my future class.

mlearning- Why We Won't Purchase More Kindles at the Unquiet Library

This article is about a school Librarian that received a email form Amazon that she had to remove information from the library Facebook page. On this page she said that you could register six kindles with one email address so that you could share books on six different kindles. At the time this Librarian posted that information to Facebook it was true. However, Amazon has changed their policy on this and each kindle has to have a different email address. That the library needed to purchase overdrive. This is a major expense to the library that they can not afford. Because if this the kindle that they do have will not be use very much because the library will not purchase any more books for them at this time, They have also decided to not by anymore kindles and will purchase the Nook Simple Touch.

 I know that Amazon is a business and they want to make money. I feel that they could have been nicer to this teacher. She was not breaking any policies when she set up the kindles. If the policies changed then it should be enforced on future purchases not on past. I feel that Amazon should have been nicer because there are millions of teachers and you don't want to get on there bad side. Amazon is not the only book company or e-read company out there. As teachers we do not have to give them there our business. I feel that if Amazon wants educators to use there products then they need to make sure that the product is affordable for educators.

mlearning- The iPad is Changing Schools

This article tells about many different school systems that have or plan to integrate iPads into classrooms. The article also talked about the cost associated with these iPads. The Detroit Lakes Public School Districts are spending $105,000 on 304 iPads for their students. Some school districts are renting iPads. However, this is very expensive. It is costing the North Fork Local School District $74,500 per year with an option to buy the iPads in four year.The article talked about Knox County's plan to have iPads or similar devices for every student in all 87 schools bay the year 2015, and they will have to install a robust wireless network in all Knox County schools. New Zealand could be the first country were all students have iPads. They are requiring parents to buy iPads for their students. Many schools that have iPads are switching to digital textbooks.IPads are being used in special education classrooms to help students with various disabilities.

I feel that iPads will be in every classroom soon. I like that idea of renting iPads, but feel that some school districts can not afford to rent or buy iPads. I thought that it was neat that Knox County was included in this article. No matter what the cost it is worth it if the iPad makes a difference in even one child's education. I have been in special education room where they use iPods and some times iPads. The students loved it when we would get them out for them to use. 

mlearning- The Kindle Fire as Educational Tablet

This article talked about how the Kindle Fire is better suited for college students than for k-12 students, but that college students are not interested in using e-readers for  textbooks. Some of the reasons are that it is difficult to take notes, to share books, and that there is not much of a cost-savings when buying e-textbooks.

The author of this article feels that Amazon does not "seem to be targeting any aspect of the educational market" and the author goes on to say that the Kindle Fire is "definitely a device to consume content, not to create content."

As a future educator I hope that Amazon will come out with more educational apps, and be just a fancy e-reader. I feel that more school would by them based on price alone if they had better educational apps. However, I have to agree with the article that the e-textbooks do not save enough money to make it worth buy for that reason alone. One advantage that the Kindle Fire has is that it is much smaller than the iPad.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/kindle-fire-educational-tablet#ixzz22AMHXmw8
Inside Higher Ed

mlearning- Our Nook Adventure

This is actually a set of blogs by a middle school librarian. She writes about her adventure from the purchasing of the Nooks to having students use the Nook. They ordered 30 Nooks. The blogs start with the how she decided to purchase the Nooks over other e-readers.  The main reason she choose the Nook was because of the technical support that Barnes & Noble offered. However, purchasing the Nooks was not easy due to the fact that Barnes & Noble would not accept a purchase order to purchase the Nooks. Once the Nooks arrived they had to figure out a way to catalog the titles on each Nook. They were able to use the same account for five Nooks, so if you bought a book for one then it would be on all five under that account. This made it a little easier for them to catalog the titles. There was lots of learning curves in this series of blogs. Some of these were that the Nook had to be on to charge, you must have a credit card on file during the entirety of the download process,and that you must have a credit card on file that has enough credit on to cover the purchase even if you are using a gift card to purchase the books. One disadvantage is that each time a book was purchased they had to reenter the credit card information because they had to delete it each time so that students would not access to this information. They had trouble purchasing titles because there school credit card could only have a certain number of charges each month and Barnes & Noble billed each book separately which would put them over there number of purchases for the month. Over all it was worth all the hassle, because the students loved them and read more. Another benefit was that they could make a more customized list for each student.

I found this blog very informative. I would not have thought of many of the issues that had to be worked out to get and use the Nooks. You would have thought that Barnes & Noble would have some sort of educational department to work with schools to make it easier for schools to purchase the Nooks. I do not like that you have to have a credit card on file to use a gift card. Also you would think that Barnes & Noble would offer educators a discount when purchasing the Nooks and books for the Nook. The only negative of having the Nooks is that they had to stay at school. This would mean that your lesson plans would have to be something that the students could get done at school. I really like that you could some what customize the Nook to the student that was using it.

Google Earth

I learned that you can view the bottom of the ocean using Google earth. I also learned that you could view Mars. I looked at the Pre-K lesson plan and the elementary lesson plan. I liked the idea of pulling up a students address and then zooming in until they recognize that it is their house. I would not have thought to use Google earth to explore distance. I looked at the 26 interesting ways and tips to use Google earth. I really liked the idea of a virtual drive, and I liked that you could change the fly to speed so that students can get more form using Google earth. I also liked the take a trip through a story, and that they were broken down by grade levels.

Google Maps

I have used Google maps many times, but I did learn that when getting directions you could chose form different forms of transportation. I did not know that you could chose waking and public transportation. I also learned that you could click on traffic button to get a traffic report, and that if photos are available it will show a picture of the traffic. An Interesting thing that I learned for the Google Treks site is that you can make virtual tours using Google maps, and that within this tour you can add video, facts, vocabulary, and pictures.

Picasa

Before:

After:















I liked that it was easy to crop photos in Picasa. It had preset crops or you could crop the photo yourself. I liked the effects that you apply to the photo. It was also easy to upload a photo.