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The Kindle Fire: Appropriate for the School Environment?

The Kindle Fire: Appropriate for the School Environment?. KySTE 2012 Bryan Sweasy Chief Information Officer Erlanger-Elsmere School District. First Things First. This entire presentation, and all of the information gathered from this presentation, is available at . http://sweasy.net.

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The Kindle Fire: Appropriate for the School Environment?

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  1. The Kindle Fire: Appropriate for the School Environment? KySTE 2012 Bryan Sweasy Chief Information Officer Erlanger-Elsmere School District

  2. First Things First This entire presentation, and all of the information gathered from this presentation, is available at http://sweasy.net

  3. Outline for this Session Kindle Fire Specs General Criticisms The Kindle Fire for Administrators and Teachers The Kindle Fire as a 1:1 Solution How to Choose if it’s Right for You Essential Apps for the Educational Setting

  4. Kindle Fire Specs • 7 inch tablet • Modified Android operating system • Display: 1024X600 • Storage: 8 GB (6 GB available) • Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n • Camera: None • Microphone: None • GPS: None • Speakers: Stereo • RAM: 1 GB • Processor: Dual Core

  5. General Criticisms • Screen size too small • Locked down operating system (not really Android) • Too Little Storage (only 1 GB for apps, no room for expansion) • No camera • No microphone • No GPS • Cheap, tinny speakers • No way to turn off 1-click purchasing • No parental controls

  6. The Kindle Fire: A Productivity Tool for Teachers and Administrators?

  7. Tool for Teachers/Administrators? • Access to work email, including calendar, contacts, tasks, notes • Office productivity program, including the ability to make basic edits • A .PDF reader • A web browser capable of running the web apps for work (i.e. Infinite Campus, district Help Desk program, network monitoring program) • An app store with the programs I need

  8. Tool for Teachers/Administrators? “Out of the Box” vs. “With some Work”

  9. Tool for Teachers/Administrators? Out of the Box • Access to work email, including calendar, contacts, tasks, notes • Office productivity program, including the ability to make basic edits • A .PDF reader • A web browser capable of running the web apps for work (i.e. Infinite Campus, district Help Desk program, network monitoring program) • An app store with the programs I need

  10. Tool for Teachers/Administrators? With some work… • Access to work email, including calendar, contacts, tasks, notes • Office productivity program, including the ability to make basic edits • A .PDF reader • A web browser capable of running the web apps for work (i.e. Infinite Campus, district Help Desk program, network monitoring program) • An app store with the programs I need …and $34.94!

  11. 1:1 Solution? The Answer is simple… …It depends…

  12. 1:1 Solution? So how do you make that decision? By deciding what you want your 1:1 device to do.

  13. Essential Apps So what if you decide the Kindle Fire IS the device you want to use? Essential Apps

  14. Some Final Considerations • Consumer Device, not a business-class device. As such • Limited manageability • Unknown reliability • Teachers will need to be willing to be “hands on” with the devices. • If your district doesn’t have transparent proxy, the device cannot get online AT ALL. • You'll need a document camera (and apparently a file folder) to project onto a screen. • Mobicip (or a similar product if it becomes available) is a necessity until Amazon fixes the 1 click purchasing problem. • Mobicip for Android is currently in Beta. The iOS version left Beta and went from FREE to $4.99.

  15. The Kindle Fire: Appropriate for the School Environment? KySTE 2012 Bryan Sweasy Chief Information Officer Erlanger-Elsmere School District

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