Kindle Fire or iPad for homeschooling

With a price of $199 and Amazon behind it, the Kindle Fire Tablet seems like a good choice for homeschooling. Should you get a Kindle Fire for your homeschool? How does it stack up against the iPad?

iPad vs. Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire appears to be the first serious competition for the iPad. Here is how the Fire compares.

Hardware:

The Kindle Fire is built solid. There is a rubber coating on the back that makes it feel nice to hold. The Fire has a very simple design with only one button and one micro USB port for charging. There is also a headphone jack at the bottom next to the charging port. The Kindle Fire comes with a power adapter that plugs into the wall. Even though it connects with a micro USB connector, the other end is not USB and only plugs into the wall to charge. I have had problems with the HP touchpad micro USB but for that problem I just replaced the standard USB to micro USB cable. There is no option for the Fire. If the charging cable does not or the micro USB connector fails then you have to get a special charger.

The size is similar to a paperback book. Of course at 7 inches, the screen is smaller than the iPad. The boarder where you hold the Fire is slightly smaller than the iPad so some hands might have issues interfering with the touchscreen. The screen size isn’t too bad for reading books, but not the greatest for viewing web pages. The screen resolution is just about as good as the iPad2 but it is still a smaller area.

Of course there are some shortcomings. There is no physical home button.  There are no volume buttons. To change the volume or go home to select a new app you will have to tap the screen several places. There also is no camera but there are two speakers at the top of the Kindle Fire.

Software:

The Kindle Fire is an Android tablet. Amazon has modified the Android software to add their own features. The main home screen has a view called the “carasell” which shows the previously used apps. You can add favorite apps in a bookshelf below the carasell.

The onscreen keyboard is nice. There are some other features that are nice as well like the auto suggest words and web pages. There are also some punctuation and symbols above the keyboard which is nice so you don’t have to press extra. To edit text there is a little cursor bellow that helps you select the location you want with your finger.

Of course without a physical home button, many times you have to tap several times on the screen before you can go to the home screen and choose another app.  Also without a home button there is no easy way to capture the screen and save it to the Fire.  There probably is a way to copy the screen but its not intuitive.

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The Apps come from Amazons app store. I have not tried to load any apps from the Google app store.  The app store opens up to the top free and top paid apps. There are several categories at the top but my one complaint is that there is no education category by default. You can choose education category but it takes several taps.

Security:

As a parent its good to know that there are parental controls. The list below shows the options available.

  • Parental Controls – Content types, web browsing, and access to other features.
  • Web Browser
  • Purchases
  • Video playback
  • Block and Unblock Content types – Newsstand, books, music, video, Docs, Apps

Overall the Kindle Fire is a pretty good tablet for the cost, but it doesn’t compare with the iPad. The Kindle Fire is good as a book reader but for graphics like web pages it seems a little small. The Kindle Fire would be a good personal device especially if you have a child that reads well. For younger kids they probably will not notice the device but you might have some squabbles over it since the screen is pretty small for multiple people to view.

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What do you think? How have you used the Kindle Fire for homeschooling? I’d love to hear in the comments below how you use your Kindle Fire.

Kineo Android tablet from Brainchild ships in March

 

Another Android tablet aimed at education.  Appears to be a 7 inch tablet running android.  It claims to have a battery life of 10-12 hours.  There is wifi, 800 x 480 screen resolution, and a 800MHz dual core CPU with 2GB of internal memory and Android 2.1.  The internet is also limited to reduce distractions.  The “administrator” chooses what web pages are alowed and what e-books can be installed.  The Tablet was shown at the Florida Educational Technology Conference.  You can find information and video of the Kineo tablet here.  The tablet has a little kickstand and the kids in the video are using a stylus.  (resistive screen not capacitive screen) They are said to be priced at $299.  http://www.brainchild.com/Kineo.html

Kineo Android tablet from Brainchild ships in March – SlashGear.

A new Android tablet aimed at education

Here is another new tablet coming out this year that has some potential for home education.  The tablet website claims to have an “innovative platform”.  Not sure what is innovative about this Android tablet when other tablets will soon be coming out this year.  Maybe it will be priced for educators.   

“Connect
mySpark’s tablet is Wi-Fi enabled and can integrate with partner school’s Learning Management Systems to allow seamless two-way communication between school and student.” 

I have no idea what “Learning Management Systems” is but maybe it is an Canadian system for the Canadian schools.    We will be watching to see what innovations come out this year. 

It seems to be mostly software that other Andorid devices could be capable about but here are the current hardware specs: 

  • Display: TFT 10″, 4:3, 1024×768 pixel. External output via HDMI or DVI
  • Touch Input: Multi-touch finger and accurate stylus inputs
  • Processor: 1 GHz dual-core ARM V7 processor with graphics and video acceleration
  • Wireless: 802.11 a/b/n + Bluetooth + GPS
  • Camera: VGA Front (conferencing), 5MP Rear (video and picture snapshot)
  • Memory: 8GB Flash, 1GB Low Power DDR, SD Card Expansion

 A new Android tablet aimed at education.

The website above claimes this feature:

“One feature is “the MySpark Education Platform students and educators could both insert notes and media within class notes or coursework, possibly allowing for real-time changes and edits.”

Press release
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Nook color in store

 Nook color

If you want to get your hands on a Nook Color for yourself you can go into a Barnes&Noble store and try one out.  I stoped by the other day to see for myself what one looks and feels like.  I also wanted to check out how online ebooks looked like from www.childrenslibrary.org .  The books looked pretty good however the 7 in. screen seems to be somewhat limiting.  I don’t think all my children gathered around would have a good view but it probably depends on the book.   Other than the size I really like the Nook Color.  The screen did have a lot of finger prints.  That is understandable for a display unit but at my home it probably be covered with little childrens finger prints.

With regards to Android I have read that the nook color will get an update next year so it can access the Android market.  This will make it a full fledged Android tablet.  I am interested to find out if it will also be accessible with the Android AppInventor.