The Glade 4.0

Lower weight, more interactive, better for the environment, cheaper in the long run... just a few reasons that tablets are better than books.

Noone is suggesting "Here's your tablet, go learn"... that's ludicrous. I remember the days when there weren't computers in any classes, and any multimedia stuff included the overhead projector and the filmstrip thingy with attached cassette tape player....

With the availability of inexpensive science and learning apps... there's no reason NOT to have teacher controlled tablets.

Lock them down, and prevent social apps or not installed videos or whatever (that *can* be done you know) and present them as educational devices.

Assignments done on the tablet and submitted by email for the teacher with her instructor device to grade and email back. Computerized grade records, learning plans, syllabi, etc.

Ask Oonagh, or Khross about how they'd change their classrooms for the better.

Ask Kirra or SG how tablets change their jobs for the better. Xray viewing apps, computerized patient records, drug interaction references,... etc.

Just because you think that "it'd be a distraction" doesn't make it bad. The world we're in is changing. Kids are adaptable and can focus on several things at once. Look at all the information streams that people have to deal with nowadays. 24hour news, email, facebook, social stuff... the list goes on.

Preventing people from getting used to technology as they grow should be a crime. That's where we tech people look down on the lUsers that can't change their password because they're not "computer people".

Times, they are a'changin. Ya gotta keep up.

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Holy shitsnacks!

No, I don't need to "keep up" and I'm not trying to shelter my kids from technology.

I've taught in a classroom myself... one filled with computers. It didn't work well. Electronics are primarily toys to kids. They don't learn better with more "bright shiny!", they learn better when you take away the glitter and make them focus.

There is no reason to have school-issued electronics ever. None.

You're falling into the same trap the others are. I don't like particular types of technology, or particular things it does so you think I want to reject all of it. Check your PMs.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

It certainly has to do with how useful it is to me. This entire discussion is because I said I don't like Windows 8 and don't like tablets. I haven't suggested anyone else can't have them or shouldn't use them. I have no use for them. The things people are citing that they do are, for the most part, not things I want electronics to do.



I am absolutely certain that A) he wasn't hauling anywhere near 30 pounds of books. (I know exactly what 30 pounds feels like to carry, to, thanks.. and a hundred and thirty and everything in between) and B) seeing as you were all up in arms about soda sizes, you probably ought to be all in favor of kids lugging books. For some of them that's all the exercise they get because when they go home they veg out with the computer, TV, phone, or tablet.



Well gee, since you did I guess everyone would, right? It's no wonder you can't relate to someone not wanting to hop on whatever bandwagon you like.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Diamondeye, you are hopeless. I feel sorry for your children...

DE: So the singular experience of Lenas makes it irrelevant but your singular experience of teaching in a room with computers (how restricted were they - a note you ignore) is the basis of your fully formed entirely relevant position?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Because clearly the measure of a good parent is access to electronic gadgets.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Moving on, Microsoft is offering a free Windows Media Center upgrade to everyone that buys Pro until Jan 31st: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... ture-packs

I find myself enjoying the way multitasking is set up. At least, when the programs are made to adapt to it.

And my impression of Win8 as a desktop interface continues to plummet. That looks awful for a monitor/mouse/keyboard. It's probably pretty convenient for a tablet, though.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I get where you're coming from, but it's something everyone needs to try for themselves. I'm posting my impressions from my laptop and it all works well. Yeah, it's obviously optimized for a touch interface, but honestly once you're used to the new paradigm everything is just as smooth as it was back on Win7. All the power user options like alt-tab still function exactly as you'd imagine.

If you want to run everything in separate windows on the desktop, you can still do that:


Edit - protip from Sean: Win+X brings up a menu in the position of Win7 start with pretty much anything you'd need, control-wise.

Win+Q brings up search in Apps.
Win+W brings up search in Settings.
Win+F brings up search in Files.
Win+Z brings up context (right click) menu
Win+C for charm (right side) menu
Win+X brings up a small menu for basically every system tool you'd need to use.
Win+I brings up the Settings side bar.
Win+P brings up a multiple monitor configuration bar.
Win+H brings up some Share thing.
Win+K brings up Devices.
Win+L sends you to the login screen.
Win+M is Desktop.
Win+E loads up the Computer folder.
Win+R is Run.
Win+T is basically alt-tab but with no pop up window.
Win+D is Minimize, I think.
Win+B puts you at the taskbar and highlights the hidden icons arrow.

Anyone that might be using this on a MacBook (lol yeah right), Trackpad++ is a great windows application I just found that gives me the mouse functionality I wish Bootcamp drivers did.

Lenas:

My classroom might not be ideal, since almost all of the benefits a tablet provides would be met by an e-ink based e-reader. I deal primarily with seminars on specific reading topics or literary commonalities.

**edit** On second thought, I should not discount the massive value provided to me by allowing me to keep some 92% of my working texts for my next book on my iPad or Droid X2 via Amazon's Kindle Store and other E-Reader applications. While, to be certain, I have to deal with the actual authoritative print version writing, a tablet allows me to easily transport thousands upon thousands upon thousands of pages and hundreds of books in less physical space than the introduction to the Riverside Chaucer and at ~1% of the Riverside's total weight.

Diamondeye:

Stop being a nitwit. Tablets and other full-featured, highly portable electronics with tactile interfaces are fantastic for the classroom. While for my classes, the benefits would come in total-cost-of-delivery for books and literature, as well as space and labor-saving benefits, your lack of creativity regarding their implementation is precisely that -- a lack of creativity.

Couriers use tablets to replace paper signature sheets -- UPS and Fedex have been making religious use of them for almost 20 years. They were just PDAs in 1992. Doctors can replace notebooks and shelves of documents with a single, portable "clipboard" that doesn't have to be swapped for each patient. They actually reduce paperwork and chart confusion.

You can use tablets to push information, quizzes (to prevent cheating), and lab directives to students in more practical classrooms. You can use them to take pen-and-paper notes without typing or aggravating your classmates (I do this with my iPad). And, just like any sufficiently robust and full-featured computing device, you lock out unwanted features.

My university has some 1400 iPads we give out to Education Majors. Apple worked very closely with us to make it easy for us to lock-down our devices from being used for non-educational purposes.

Tablets and other ultra-portable, full-featured devices are fantastic tools for education and teaching. But they are tools ...

And a tool is only as good as the person wielding it.

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It's a lot more cost-effective for school textbooks to be in electronic format than dead tree format. Textbook publishing is an extortion racket, and removing that one cost alone would greatly improve high school education. Most high schools use books from the nineties.

Incidentally, the benefit this single app has on science and mathematics education can not be praised highly enough.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I absolutely agree with this statement.

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This assumes that e-format textbooks would actually be priced more reasonably than print textbooks. If, on the other hand, the publishers choose to treat the reduced production cost as extra profit margin ...

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

Even if ebooks are price-gouged the way print textbooks are, and they will be, they will still save on cost over our current textbooks for the simple fact that you do not have to print out a 1000-2000 page document and bind it to cardboard.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I'm not arguing that e-textbooks won't be cheaper to produce and deliver than physical textbooks, I'm speculating as to whether or not any of those savings will be passed on to the schools/students.

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/tablets- ... -children/

Really cool article about a company that gave tablets to Ethiopian kids and told them nothing about it, in 5 months they had learned the alphabet, how to read, and disabled the restrictions the company put on the tablet for camera/desktop customization.

Well written, thorough review/users guide from Toms Hardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/win ... ,3334.html

That's definitely the longest review I've seen.

This is the best review I've read yet. I've been using Win 8 for everything I do for the last month or two. This review is showing me things I've been doing wrong and great things I wanted to do, but didn't know about.

I thought this was pretty cool:

Windows: Switches between Start screen and most recent app
Windows + C: Activates the Charms Bar
Windows + F: Open Search Charm
Windows + H: Opens Share Charm
Windows + K: Opens Devices Charm
Windows + I: Opens Setting Charm
Windows + Z: Activates the App and Navigation Bars
Windows + O: Locks current screen orientation
Windows + Period: Snaps current app to the right
Windows + Shift + Period: Snaps current app to the left
Windows + Page Up: Move Start screen and app to monitor on right
Windows + Page Down: Move Start screen and app to monitor on left

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The Dude abides.

I'm wavering back towards Do Not Want. At least, not for work. From that review it looks like its shitty for multitasking.

But that could be that I'm used to doing things the way I do them... I dunno.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Well, for what it's worth, there is an "Enterprise" version of Windows 8...

I have no idea if or how it differs...

My company hasn't completely finished migrating to Win 7 yet.. I doubt we'll see Win 8 at all, ever...

^ This. We are piloting a migration to Windows 7 from Windows XP Pro by the time all 30k+ are on Windows 7 I am betting Win 8 will have been assigned to the Vista bin of OS history.

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