According to this article, the Kindle Fire, is the tablet for 1:1 use in schools. The price is right ($199), the screen size is perfect (7") to fit in any bag easily and small hands can hold it just as easily as high school and college sized hands, and the new Silk browser has the potential to deliver an entirely new generation of web-bases tablet applications.
According to Christopher Dawson, for ZDNet Education, portability, at 7", is the key. The Fore tablets can move with students at a price almost too cheap to pass up. In his opinion, a 7-year old holding an iPad 2 is "a little scary."
The price of the Kindle Fire is exciting. And the Silk browser offers a mobile browser with increases in bandwidth and infrastructure thus delivering incredibly rich applications. As an educator, I like the idea of buying Amazon content to meet educational needs. I think the Kindle Fire is a less expensive way to integrate technology into the classroom. I think online textbooks are a great way to introduce the Fire to students and I am impressed with Amazon Silk for its ability to support existing Web services on behalf of education. I think the Fire is the right price and form for especially elementary students.
Well, we are hoping the price will drop in the future, as surely it will, but it does compare well to the iPad. :-)
ReplyDeleteWell done. :-)