After reading the last article about the Amazong Kindle and the supremely bad reviews it had gotten I decided to read a little more about it in this article written by Joseph Baker. He states quite the opposite view of Audrey W. Joseph writes, "Educational aspects of this new competitor are endless, from basic applications to the most useful tools teacher can use in order to maximize their time with every student."
Clearly this is a very different sentiment. He goes on to introduce the specs of the Kindle Fire. Baker covers the basics: The fire is just under a pound, has a 7" multi-touch display and has a resolution of 1024x600 and is protected by Gorilla Glass. The Kindle uses Google's Android operation systems that allows Kindle owners access to the app store on Amazon's website. These apps can aid in education. Teacher in classrooms may log on and purchase different apps that they find useful to their students.
Another feature that many educators complain about is the lack of an actual hard drive on the mLearning tablets, but the Amazon Kindle Fire offers owners cloud storage. Kindle owners are allowed 5 GB of free storage on Amazon's cloud drive and the Fire can synchronize the files via Wi-fi. Amazon also publicizes that if users need more storage they can upgrade for a yearly fee. Another nice feature this offers is the ability of users to swap music and store spreadsheets, and photos. Also, anything purchased from Amazon will be stored for free.
The Kindle Fire also provides students and teachers the ability to rent textbooks from Amazon. This feature is exclusive to the Kindle Fire and isn't available through the other Kindle products. Baker asserts that, "...this will undoubtedly change the landscape of $700 (or more) textbook expenses per semester, and allows teachers to directly pull from their own texts in order to teach." He continues to discuss the "green" aspect of the Fire that saves the constant reprinting of texts that teachers revise as the years progress.
Overall, Baker states, "Anyone not wanting to spend the $400-$900 for the Ipad will have a much better option in the Kindle Fire. For students on a limited income who have a budget for every semester, the Fire will more than pay for itself."
I have to say that I appreciate the aspects that he pointed out on the positive side of the Kindle Fire. I still see the negatives the Audrey pointed out in her article, but at least it is helpful to see what the Fire offers students. His information about the educational apps and the storage capabilities are extremely helpful regarding the Fire's use for education. Overall, I feel much more confident that they could be used as tools for mLearning in a high school literature course especially with the text book rental. I still am not persuaded to negate the Ipad's educational purposes over the Fire's, but it has definitely given me some information to consider when looking at incorporating mLearning devices into my future classrooms.
Yes, this article is an interesting balance to what you read earlier. I think the "endless" apps for the Kindle Fire is a bit overstated, personally - but I still am exploring the situation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a good write-up. :-)