A slew of these diminutive collaborative learning devices, at price tags to suit all pockets, have flooded the market
It was an all-but-dead product category, one that never really got off the ground in adoption terms despite the big push from Microsoft all the way back in 2002. And then this sleek, almost diminutive device, that we’ve come to know as the iPad was launched in early 2010. With the iPad, Apple wiped the slate clean, so to speak, and quite literally opened up the floodgates for a slew of contenders that promised to completely change the way we interact with our computers and consume information.
Cut to October 2011, when the Human Resources Development Ministry launched Aakash, the $45 tablet aimed squarely at increasing the literacy rate and developing much-needed technological skills across India. Once the subject of intense scepticism, this low-cost tablet successfully underscored the Indian government’s backing of the portable form factor, and everywhere computing that the tablet category has come to represent.
The tablet is here to stay, this much is undeniable. But how can you capitalise on this new learning and collaboration medium for your institution? We take a deep dive into the many benefits a tablet deployment can bring, and take a look at the landscape as it exists today.
Why Tablets Make Sense
Content Viewing Devices: If you take a look at the vast majority of tasks students have to do, you will find that they are primarily passive in nature — students have reading assignments, research
assignments, and possibly some media viewing in the form of video material. It can be easily argued that these activities better suit the ‘book’ form factor of a tablet rather than a ‘desk’ form factor of a PC or a laptop. Factor in the evolution we’re seeing in e-textbooks (with rich graphic and visual content), which suggest that tablets make for excellent study devices. By allowing students to highlight the text, take notes on top of the PDF documents, and access reference material directly within the book itself, tablets are matching (and in some cases, surpassing) everything that a traditional book can offer.
Portability is Paramount: Laptops are, all said and done, bulky and heavy, and many budget laptops are slow to start up. Tablets in comparison are about the weight of a slightly heavy textbook, and much like the pen-and-paper approach, are instant on and off by nature, allowing for quick and efficient note taking during lectures. With the exception of a computer science class, which may place demands on students in terms of performance and legacy software, students rarely need laptops for activities that can’t be performed on either medium, so why not pick the tool that’s easiest to carry? Plus, with the iPad and some newer Android powered tablets, you get all-day battery life, which means students can leave the chargers back in their rooms.
It was an all-but-dead product category, one that never really got off the ground in adoption terms despite the big push from Microsoft all the way back in 2002. And then this sleek, almost diminutive device, that we’ve come to know as the iPad was launched in early 2010. With the iPad, Apple wiped the slate clean, so to speak, and quite literally opened up the floodgates for a slew of contenders that promised to completely change the way we interact with our computers and consume information.
Cut to October 2011, when the Human Resources Development Ministry launched Aakash, the $45 tablet aimed squarely at increasing the literacy rate and developing much-needed technological skills across India. Once the subject of intense scepticism, this low-cost tablet successfully underscored the Indian government’s backing of the portable form factor, and everywhere computing that the tablet category has come to represent.
The tablet is here to stay, this much is undeniable. But how can you capitalise on this new learning and collaboration medium for your institution? We take a deep dive into the many benefits a tablet deployment can bring, and take a look at the landscape as it exists today.
Why Tablets Make Sense
Content Viewing Devices: If you take a look at the vast majority of tasks students have to do, you will find that they are primarily passive in nature — students have reading assignments, research assignments, and possibly some media viewing in the form of video material. It can be easily argued that these activities better suit the ‘book’ form factor of a tablet rather than a ‘desk’ form factor of a PC or a laptop. Factor in the evolution we’re seeing in e-textbooks (with rich graphic and visual content), which suggest that tablets make for excellent study devices. By allowing students to highlight the text, take notes on top of the PDF documents, and access reference material directly within the book itself, tablets are matching (and in some cases, surpassing) everything that a traditional book can offer.
Portability is Paramount: Laptops are, all said and done, bulky and heavy, and many budget laptops are slow to start up. Tablets in comparison are about the weight of a slightly heavy textbook, and much like the pen-and-paper approach, are instant on and off by nature, allowing for quick and efficient note taking during lectures. With the exception of a computer science class, which may place demands on students in terms of performance and legacy software, students rarely need laptops for activities that can’t be performed on either medium, so why not pick the tool that’s easiest to carry? Plus, with the iPad and some newer Android powered tablets, you get all-day battery life, which means students can leave the chargers back in their rooms.
Applications Galore: Whichever tablet platform you pick (see our debate between Android and Apple), one thing is certain, both platforms offer several tablet applications, including ones dedicated to note taking, viewing PDFs and watching multimedia content and Power Point presentations. Applications like Evernote, which allow students to take notes and insert images from the web or the camera), or others which allow them to type notes while recording the teacher’s/lecturer’s voice, take note taking and classroom discussions to a whole new level.
Fostered Collaboration in Classrooms: An interesting point educators bring about is that laptops, due to the vertical screens, tend to alienate the student from the educator — while they are being used to ostensibly take notes or follow presentations, they are equally being used for other distractions — social media, for example. With a tablet at hand, students can enjoy the benefits of note-taking and reference search, yet allowing them to participate more fully in the class discussions.
Increased Availability and Affordability: With the increasing popularity of tablets, every manufacturer worth his salt is launching one in the market; with many tablets now available in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment. The result is that you can now get tablets across the price spectrum, allowing students and institutions to select tablets according to their feature and budget requirements.
Where Tablets Don’t Quite Stack Up
Lack of Tablet Oriented Material: While tablets lend themselves better to rich visual content, the truth is that the content is not coming fast enough, with many texts simply not available in a common tablet-usable format like EPUB or PDF, while others do not allow for annotation. Things are looking up though, with major academic publisher McGrawHill working in conjunction with a software company Inkling, which makes textbooks iPad-friendly, and other publishers following, albeit with more measured initiatives.
Learning Curve of Tablet Interaction: Most students are well-versed with keyboards and pen-and-paper, having used these for the bulk of their student life. Transitioning to a touchscreen device for taking notes takes most people time to adapt, and finger typing on tablets is a slow process to begin with.
Reliance on Physical Media: As much as we like to believe the cloud is all-pervasive, the reality is that network connectivity is not a given, more so when we step out of the institute buildings and campuses. With the iPad and many Android tablets not supporting direct access to physical media such as USB/pen drives (i.e. without the use of an intermediary PC/laptop), the process of transferring project files or assignments often becomes a tedious affair.
Applications Galore: Whichever tablet platform you pick (see our debate between Android and Apple), one thing is certain, both platforms offer several tablet applications, including ones dedicated to note taking, viewing PDFs and watching multimedia content and Power Point presentations. Applications like Evernote, which allow students to take notes and insert images from the web or the camera), or others which allow them to type notes while recording the teacher’s/lecturer’s voice, take note taking and classroom discussions to a whole new level.
Fostered Collaboration in Classrooms: An interesting point educators bring about is that laptops, due to the vertical screens, tend to alienate the student from the educator — while they are being used to ostensibly take notes or follow presentations, they are equally being used for other distractions — social media, for example. With a tablet at hand, students can enjoy the benefits of note-taking and reference search, yet allowing them to participate more fully in the class discussions.
Increased Availability and Affordability: With the increasing popularity of tablets, every manufacturer worth his salt is launching one in the market; with many tablets now available in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment. The result is that you can now get tablets across the price spectrum, allowing students and institutions to select tablets according to their feature and budget requirements.
Where Tablets Don’t Quite Stack Up
Lack of Tablet Oriented Material: While tablets lend themselves better to rich visual content, the truth is that the content is not coming fast enough, with many texts simply not available in a common tablet-usable format like EPUB or PDF, while others do not allow for annotation. Things are looking up though, with major academic publisher McGrawHill working in conjunction with a software company Inkling, which makes textbooks iPad-friendly, and other publishers following, albeit with more measured initiatives.
Learning Curve of Tablet Interaction: Most students are well-versed with keyboards and pen-and-paper, having used these for the bulk of their student life. Transitioning to a touchscreen device for taking notes takes most people time to adapt, and finger typing on tablets is a slow process to begin with.
Reliance on Physical Media: As much as we like to believe the cloud is all-pervasive, the reality is that network connectivity is not a given, more so when we step out of the institute buildings and campuses. With the iPad and many Android tablets not supporting direct access to physical media such as USB/pen drives (i.e. without the use of an intermediary PC/laptop), the process of transferring project files or assignments often becomes a tedious affair.
Tablet Deployment Use Cases
University of Phoenix: The university has developed a mobile application for iPhones and iPads, with an Android version on the cards, which allows students to perform a wide variety of tasks from their mobile devices, such as accessing and responding to messages, participating in discussion questions, and receiving real-time alerts when grades are announced.
The University of Notre Dame: For its Project Management class, Notre Dame debuted its first paperless course, using iPads as replacements for textbooks. Duke University: Duke’s Global Health Institute is offering iPads to students enrolled in a master’s course that focusses on methodological techniques in global health research. The iPads will be used for field study to collect, organise and analyse data — a boon for such students who would ordinarily have used pen-and-paper and had the tedious task of transcribing their notes at the end of each day.
Era Business School: Closer to home, the Era Business School in New Delhi has introduced Apple iPad 2 tablets for all its students. The tablet works in conjunction with the EBS blackboard ERP application, which allows students to access classroom notes and learning material (videos) wherever they are, while receiving updates from the institute regarding attendance, class information, etc.
Amity University: Amity has planned to roll-out tablets across all its five Universities situated in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior, Jaipur and Nagaland, and is considering both Android and iPad tablets depending on the user group that is being targeted in each campus. The primary application being targeted is support for Amity’s Intranet Amizone, which allows access to syllabus and course material, recorded classes, attendance, etc.
Tablet Options and Alternatives
Options are varied, but the tablet you choose has to go beyond the hardware alone, with an equal focus on applications and compatibility of your existing IT infrastructure (intranets, course material, etc). Pricing is representative, and vendors can be contacted for institutional pricing.
Reliance Tab 3G: The best of the budget offerings, the Reliance Tab 3G features a capable set of hardware specifications and offers memory expandability as well. Reliance bundles in a 3G data plan that ensures you’re online at all times, and this helps it subsidise the price of this tablet to a compelling Rs 12,999.
mTab: From IT peripheral manufacturer Mercury, this too features a 7-inch touchscreen and connectivity via 3G and wireless networks (WiFi). While performance is average, this is one of the few sub-Rs 10,000 tablets that are on offer.
Beetel Magiq: Brought to market by Beetel, a unit of Bharti Enterprises, the Magiq offers budget hardware at a budget price (Rs 9,999), but is let down by the responsiveness of its touchscreen when compared to the Reliance Tab, for example.
Tablet Deployment Use Cases
University of Phoenix: The university has developed a mobile application for iPhones and iPads, with an Android version on the cards, which allows students to perform a wide variety of tasks from their mobile devices, such as accessing and responding to messages, participating in discussion questions, and receiving real-time alerts when grades are announced.
The University of Notre Dame: For its Project Management class, Notre Dame debuted its first paperless course, using iPads as replacements for textbooks. Duke University: Duke’s Global Health Institute is offering iPads to students enrolled in a master’s course that focusses on methodological techniques in global health research. The iPads will be used for field study to collect, organise and analyse data — a boon for such students who would ordinarily have used pen-and-paper and had the tedious task of transcribing their notes at the end of each day.
Era Business School: Closer to home, the Era Business School in New Delhi has introduced Apple iPad 2 tablets for all its students. The tablet works in conjunction with the EBS blackboard ERP application, which allows students to access classroom notes and learning material (videos) wherever they are, while receiving updates from the institute regarding attendance, class information, etc.
Amity University: Amity has planned to roll-out tablets across all its five Universities situated in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior, Jaipur and Nagaland, and is considering both Android and iPad tablets depending on the user group that is being targeted in each campus. The primary application being targeted is support for Amity’s Intranet Amizone, which allows access to syllabus and course material, recorded classes, attendance, etc.
Tablet Options and Alternatives
Options are varied, but the tablet you choose has to go beyond the hardware alone, with an equal focus on applications and compatibility of your existing IT infrastructure (intranets, course material, etc). Pricing is representative, and vendors can be contacted for institutional pricing.
Reliance Tab 3G: The best of the budget offerings, the Reliance Tab 3G features a capable set of hardware specifications and offers memory expandability as well. Reliance bundles in a 3G data plan that ensures you’re online at all times, and this helps it subsidise the price of this tablet to a compelling Rs 12,999.
mTab: From IT peripheral manufacturer Mercury, this too features a 7-inch touchscreen and connectivity via 3G and wireless networks (WiFi). While performance is average, this is one of the few sub-Rs 10,000 tablets that are on offer.
Beetel Magiq: Brought to market by Beetel, a unit of Bharti Enterprises, the Magiq offers budget hardware at a budget price (Rs 9,999), but is let down by the responsiveness of its touchscreen when compared to the Reliance Tab, for example.
Aakash: The much-hyped, Government-backed tablet has got its basics right — most importantly the price point. Depending on the profile of your institute and its students, it may well not be the tablet you finally pick, since costs mean a number of compromises on performance. That said, it is refreshing to see a company that is addressing the country’s digital have-nots.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 750: The flagship Android tablet, the 10.1 inch tablet offers exceptional hardware with the latest made-for-tablets version of the Android operating system, but even great
hardware is let down by a mediocre number of tablet-oriented applications. At its asking price of
Rs 36,200, it is a worthy competitor to the iPad but ensure that the lack of applications does not hinder your intended use-cases for the deployment.
Apple iPad: The current market leader worldwide, the iPad has had small and large campuses alike, flock to put it into campus use since its launch in 2010. Possibly the best software and hardware combination, the iPad has the biggest selection of applications for any tablet, and is let down only on two major accounts — no access for USB thumb drives and a tedious way of sharing data between applications.
Debate: Android vs Apple
While the iPad has swept global sales for tablets, Android tablets have been progressively nipping away at the heels of the Apple tablet. Which one should you choose for your institute? A possible answer lies in the weak spots of each — see if any of these failings is a deal breaker for you.
Apple iPad Weaknesses: While the bouquet of software is much better than the equivalent applications for tablets on the Android side, Apple software tends to be a little inflexible, especially when it comes to sharing files between different programs. Add to that fewer hardware choices — you get a single sized product, and the only options are whether you would like 3G or not, or how much memory you would like. No options on screen sizes, form factors — Apple takes a one-size-fits-all approach.
Android Tablets Weaknesses: Unlike the consistent experience you can see from one iPad to another, Android tablets are wildly inconsistent, not only in performance terms but also how different tablets look and feel in terms of interface. You literally have to use each tablet for a while to gain familiarity with it and know its individual weaknesses. Also, as mentioned, there is a distinct lack of quality tablet-oriented applications for Android when compared to the Apple ecosystem.
Aakash: The much-hyped, Government-backed tablet has got its basics right — most importantly the price point. Depending on the profile of your institute and its students, it may well not be the tablet you finally pick, since costs mean a number of compromises on performance. That said, it is refreshing to see a company that is addressing the country’s digital have-nots.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 750: The flagship Android tablet, the 10.1 inch tablet offers exceptional hardware with the latest made-for-tablets version of the Android operating system, but even great hardware is let down by a mediocre number of tablet-oriented applications. At its asking price of Rs 36,200, it is a worthy competitor to the iPad but ensure that the lack of applications does not hinder your intended use-cases for the deployment.
Apple iPad: The current market leader worldwide, the iPad has had small and large campuses alike, flock to put it into campus use since its launch in 2010. Possibly the best software and hardware combination, the iPad has the biggest selection of applications for any tablet, and is let down only on two major accounts — no access for USB thumb drives and a tedious way of sharing data between applications.
Debate: Android vs Apple
While the iPad has swept global sales for tablets, Android tablets have been progressively nipping away at the heels of the Apple tablet. Which one should you choose for your institute? A possible answer lies in the weak spots of each — see if any of these failings is a deal breaker for you.
Apple iPad Weaknesses: While the bouquet of software is much better than the equivalent applications for tablets on the Android side, Apple software tends to be a little inflexible, especially when it comes to sharing files between different programs. Add to that fewer hardware choices — you get a single sized product, and the only options are whether you would like 3G or not, or how much memory you would like. No options on screen sizes, form factors — Apple takes a one-size-fits-all approach.
Android Tablets Weaknesses: Unlike the consistent experience you can see from one iPad to another, Android tablets are wildly inconsistent, not only in performance terms but also how different tablets look and feel in terms of interface. You literally have to use each tablet for a while to gain familiarity with it and know its individual weaknesses. Also, as mentioned, there is a distinct lack of quality tablet-oriented applications for Android when compared to the Apple ecosystem.
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