Education Technology - How to choose the best devices for your school classroom.

Technology in the classroom is nothing new when walking around the hallways of any school.  From kindergarten through high school and especially into college you see an increasing number of electronic devices all being used to help increase the students educational experience.

Studies have shown that the utilization of technology in the classroom has helped increase test results and student interaction in classrooms.  For example, University of California Irvine medical school saw their students get 23% higher test scores on their national exams when they were equipped with an Apple iPad.  In addition, Auburn Maine shows that Kindergarten students scored higher on literacy tests when using iPads in the classroom.

So if you are looking to implement technology into the classroom, then of course you want to pick the best device for not only your students, but also your budget.  To help educators out, I have created  some guidelines to look for when choosing what type of device to select, what you should be looking for in regards to a provider, as well as tips to assist you with future planning.

Top considerations when choosing either a laptop device or a tablet device

So if you are looking to implement devices in the classroom, there are few things you are going to want to consider prior to choosing your device.

1. Cost
2. Warrenty
3. Collaboration
4. Future Planing

Cost - What kind of funding do you have available?  Are you purchasing the devices outright? or are you leasing the devices?  Does grant money exist?

• Grant money is always a great way to get technology into the classroom.  However as most educators know, there is a decreasing amount of funding available in the world of education.  When making large purchases with grant money, it is always useful to purchase the devices that will have the longest lifespan so you can get the most out of your funding.  Since grants are typically very rare to receive year after year, when the devices become out of date or to expensive to maintain, you might not have the option to replace them down the road after students have got used to utilizing them in the classroom.
• Lease options are very helpful with school budgets.  Typically there is a low up front cost for the devices and you also don't own the devices.  This option also allows schools to potentially get new devices every few years without having to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a new set of devices and instead, keeping the same monthly payments.  Leasing offers an easy way to help with school budgeting while also getting the top of the line equipment!

Warranty - What type of warranty do your devices come with?  Does the provider offer on site support or a "hot replacement" program?

• Manufacturers warranty is not enough - Electronics break.  They get dropped, spilled on, cracked screens, and sometimes even with the best case or the most careful hands, they just stop working.  When these machines break you want to make sure that you have more than just the simple 1 year manufacturers warranty.  Your typical manufacturer warranty only will cover the hardware components from failing.  That does not include any of the "accidental" problems addressed above.
• Hot Replacement - Does your provider offer a host replacement option for broken machines?  If you have 30 students in a classroom, and only 29 laptops, there is 1 student who is now left out in the cold sharing the same screen as another student.  With a hot replacement program, the provider will give you a replacement computer when another computer breaks until the broken computer is fixed.  This helps with continuity for both the teachers and the students.
• On Site Support - Does you provider offer on site support?  This could range anywhere from having a technician on site for the implementation of the devices into the classroom, to having someone available during school hours to resolve a problem to even having a dedicated person in the school a few days a month!  Either way, you want to make sure that you can rely on someone being there when a problem occurs and not have to call a general support hotline that only takes precious time out of your day.

Collaboration - Many devices offer collaboration applications, but are you simply sharing content or are you writing group research papers?

• Working as a team is a very important skill to learn when in school.  It teaches students how to work together to achieve a common goal.  These goals can range from a science project to a research paper.  There are many tools available for collaboration, but depending on what you are trying to achieve can really make a difference in how you choose which device works for you.  For example, if you are just sharing content found on the internet or simply reading articles, you could utilize and Apple iPad to share content from person to person and read the endless amount of news available on the internet.  However if you are looking to write a full research paper with a group of 5 students, you should strongly consider purchasing a laptop device such as a Google Chromebook so student have a full keyboard and can utilize the power of Google Docs so everyone can be working on the same paper at the same time!

Future Planning - Equipment can be expensive, and the average lifespan of a computer/tablet is only 3 to 4 years!  What is your plan not only when you get the devices, but what you are planning on doing 3 years from now?

• The future is closer than it used to be and where long range planning used to be 8 to 10 years, in the technology world it is 2-5 years.  This is due to the rises in technology and how quickly technology advances over time.  A new computer 5 years ago now may only have 30% of the power and hard drive space than what current computers have.
• Three years from now what would you do with the devices you just purchased?  Are you going to use them until the all break?  Are you going to try and sell them?  Are you going to try and continuously upgrade the components?  Your students are now used to having a device in their hands for learning and how are you going to replace them?  These are all valid points that you should be considering down the road so you do not get stuck with 2,000 devices that are collecting dust on a shelf while loosing value by the second!

Chris' Recommendations

• Elementary Level - Apple iPads - $400-$500 (Without Case)
• These devices easily attract even the youngest students.  Not only does it keep them focused on what assignment or reading they should be doing on the iPad, but there are also a large variety of education applications already available to teachers to utilize without having to rewrite an entire curriculum!

• Middle School - Entry Level Google Chromebook - $200 + $30 Google  License
• Chromebooks are very simple machines with very bold features.  These devices have full keyboards and are very light to move around while also being very reliable.  In addition, these devices come with built in Google Applications and everything in stored in the cloud.  This means that all students have their documents and settings no matter what computer they sign on with!  Not to mention that with Google Doc's students can collaborate in real time with other students on assignments.  Google also provides a management consul for administrators to help manage all the devices on the network as well as manage student assignments.

• High School - High End Chromebook - $350 +  $30 Google License
• In high school, students are more likely to be working on papers and projects that require a lot of collaboration power as well as computing power.  A higher end Chromebook would be my device of choice not only for the built in applications, but also because of no ongoing license fees unlike most Microsoft products.  This will help with future planning and budgeting.

• College - Macbook/Pro/Air - $899- $2,000
• College is a whole new ball game.  This is the time where a student is going to be on their laptop nearly every day for a majority of the day and you need a machine that will be able to last a LONG time and not fail when you are cramming for an exam or writing your senior thesis.  When I look around a college library (yes, students really do use the library...) you will find that nearly 80% of the student all are utilizing MacBooks due to their reliability and performance.  Where they are expensive initial investments, MacBooks can sometime last 2 to 3 times longer than the average Microsoft based computer.