Recommendation for Mobile Devices for school.

As we, my partner and I have discussed our options for the school we certainly concur with the principles decision to avoid the small screens.  Instead it is our opinion that the Medium Screens would be the best choice.  The screens are large enough, at least for young eyes, and the lighter weight would be advisable for long periods of work sessions.  One consideration would seem to be the size or the input screens.  But considering the ease in which most students today handle the small screens for texting it is our belief that they would have no problems with medium size screens.

This leaves the discussion as to which operating system would be best for our school.  The first one we discussed was the iOS.  The first and the most obvious positive that was mentioned is the familiarity of the system to the students.  My partner felt that the majority of the students would already have a good working knowledge of this system as well as it is frankly more prestigious.  While I completely agree with the second point I am not as confident about the first.  I know that there a great many students that have used the Ipad and Ipod, but perhaps not that many more than have a familiarity of the other systems.  Another advantage of the iOS system is in the number of apps.  The Apple store has a great number of apps available and adding to the number all the time.  One final advantage is with audio.  Apple was the first to bring audio so that you could download single songs and Apple Store still has a huge assortment of Podcasts and Music.  (I know this might not seem important to a school, but there are a great many Podcasts that are very convenient for education.)

Now for the Android system there are also several advantages.  One of the first that we discussed was the relative price, it is much more affordable than the other systems.  This could be very important as the need comes up to expand or replace mobile device. Another advantage is with the apps.  While there is not any one store with the number of apps that Apple has, when you consider Google Play, Barnes and Noble and Amazon together you get pretty close.  Also when you add the number of books available the Android has an edge.  there is also the issue of newer apps requiring newer operating systems.  This is not an issue for Androids, but it is for iOS.  A final advantage is the ability of running Flash.  This is very helpful when working on the Internet.

The final system is the Microsoft operating system.  It greatest advantage is in running programs.  Is is made to run the Microsoft Office suite, at least the windows 8 version.  Microsoft office is the standard of production software in education.  This one advantage leads to two other advantages that are closely related to this.  One is that Microsoft Windows could very well be the production program that the students will be using after their education experience.  And the other is that this is certainly the system that the teachers are the most familiar with.  Microsoft also claims that it can run Android apps, if this is true than this would certainly be an important aspect.

There are of course negatives for each.  The greatest negative that we, my partner and I discussed for the iOS as was referred to earlier is the cost.  Another negative is the lack of books in general.  With the Android system it would not be as quickly accepted by the students.  It might seem as second class.  Finally with the Microsoft's System the lack or apps as well as the cost would definitely factor into our recommendation as negatives.

Over all we would recommend a medium sized tablet with the Android operating system.  Finally as regard to using cellular service we would definitely not recommend this.  Cellular as one might imagine is using the same waves as cell phones.  It is basically connecting the Mobile Device just like it was a cell phone.  You don't need to make a phone call, but it is very similar.  It would be an advantage if the mobile devices were to be taken to a great variety of places.  but as they will be used at school and we already have a wi-fi service they are unnecessary.  And as they add an expense they are certainly unadvisedly.

So we would recommend the medium sized tablet with an Android os without cellular connectivity.