Teachers/students - iPad feature requests.

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
As a teacher I would want -



Hardware

1. Long battery life and/or hot swappable and/or superfast recharge.

2. 9x11 screen (Paper dimension plus a little room for the dock menu)

3. Rugged with screen protected.



Software

1. Easy document distribution and collection to/from student's iPads

2. Total control/monitoring over students use in class.

3. Tight integration with a grading/student management ap

4. Calculator and algebra ap.

5. Ap for quick feedback on poll type questions.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    just incase it is not assumed, it has have handwriting recognition
  • Reply 2 of 10
    kishankishan Posts: 732member
    It should have the ability to run Palm or Windows Mobile software or else it would be pretty useless. That is if it is to be of a smaller form factor.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kishan

    It should have the ability to run Palm or Windows Mobile software or else it would be pretty useless. That is if it is to be of a smaller form factor.



    I experimented with using the palm in class and it's just too small. I believe we need a form factor that can exactly replace paper assignments.



    Actually, if I was being unrealistic I would request a dual screen tablet - one for an assignment sheet and one for book material.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    cubistcubist Posts: 954member
    Wow! Huge. I suppose you want a color display, too? Motion video? It will be horribly expensive. In most of our previous tablet threads, we have settled on a roughly 4x6 inch screen area.



    Using the Nintendo DS has given me another perspective on this type of thing. Nintendo is packaging some pretty impressive hardware in a very inexpensive product: dual display, touch screen, wireless networking. The clamshell case makes it durable, too. It seems to me that a classroom could use the DS as is for a lot of things, with appropriate software. You're asking for bigger displays, but the functionality needed is there.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    Why would you want handwriting recognition? Writing on a pad, is soooooooooooooooooooo slow compared to typing. This is why Tablets always fail.



    Waste of time. Now if you do sketches and nothing but mostly sketches then a tablet computer would be right for you. otherwise they aren't very useful.



    I know, I have one. The only thing it gets used for is, Alias Sketchbook, it's worthless for anything else.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    As a student, I'd stick with a Powerbook/iBook if the teacher had total control, and monitoring abilities
  • Reply 7 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by webmail

    Why would you want handwriting recognition? Writing on a pad, is soooooooooooooooooooo slow compared to typing. This is why Tablets always fail.



    For most people, writing is the same speed, if not faster for getting data down. The only problem with trying to use it on a tablet is that the recognition software is too slow.

    Can you imagine trying to get a class of six year olds typing. Also if the only method of input was a keyboard, and the tablet was used for almost everything, it would mean alot of people would grow up not learning to write with a pen.



    stu
  • Reply 8 of 10
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Needed features for iPad in Schools: cheap, ideally free, well-stocked, and discrete dispensing from inside the women's restrooms.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    I've always thought the issues people have with handwriting recognition might actually be a plus for a school environment.



    As an adult I get annoyed if a computer can't recognize my bad handwriting, but in a k-12 situation it would be perfectly reasonable to expect a student to improve his/her handwriting to the point where a computer can recognize it.



    And it's absolutely necessary that they can do sketches. I teach physics and I need them to be able to diagram problems.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    I use this for my notes and one of these for making diagrams for students.
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