Education ICT Conference
In two weeks time, we’re very excited to be taking place in a brand new conference for 2013, the Education ICT Conference.
Coming in the wake of Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announcing the scrapping of the ICT curriculum to be replaced with a new computer science and programming course, the conference aims to join together professionals in the field of education and ICT to share ideas and best practice, and meet with education suppliers. Much of the conference programme is led by educationalists exploring the links between ICT and reshaping the curriculum for the 21st century.
You can view the fantastic line up of speakers for the conference on the Education ICT website, with lots of high profile educational speakers taking part. This is one conference not to miss if you’re interested in the field of ICT in Education.
At LapSafe®, we also have a discount code for tickets, so if you’d like to receive this please leave us a comment below!
We’ll be showing some of our best-sellers at the event; from the highly secure and customisable Mini Mentor™ laptop trolley, to the cost-effective ClassBuddy™ storage and charging trolley, to complete iPad store, sync and charge solutions. We’ll be on stand number 2, so please do pop over and say hello to a friendly member of our team.
See you there!
One day until Academies Show London!
There’s just one day to go until Academies Show London and we can’t wait!
The Academies Show London will take place tomorrow, Wednesday 24th April, at ExCel London. It’s the perfect opportunity for existing academies to meet with school suppliers, for schools that are about to convert to attend seminars offering great advice, or even for schools who are curious but have no concrete plans to convert to academy status but are fact finding for the future. Best of all, it’s completely free to attend! You can register by visiting the website here.
LapSafe® Products will be on stand 195 at the show, so pop over and say hello to our friendly team who will be able to demonstrate our range of innovative products.
We’ll have on show our bestselling ClassBuddy™ storage and charging trolley for laptops, netbooks or tablets, our hugely popular UnoCart™ for iPads trolley and our Traveller™, the handy portable case that allows you to store, sync and charge up to 16 iPads or iPad minis. There will also be our highly secure Mini Mentor™, the only charging trolley on the market to offer truly integrated charging, SmartLine™, so you don’t even need the laptops’ AC adaptors to charge your devices. With its anti-drill locks, anti-jemmy plates to prevent crowbar attack and fully steel construction, this trolley offers some of the highest protection available on the market for your valuable IT equipment.
See you there!
Mini Mentor™ laptop trolley
Choosing between 10″ and 7″ tablets
There are so many factors to consider when choosing the right tablet for use in your classroom, not just simply whether to go Apple or Android; you also need to decide which exact make or model of tablet is suitable. But perhaps the first decision to make is to look at whether to go for 7-inch or 10-inch tablets.
Much of the decision making process comes down to personal preference, and it’s best to consider how you will be mostly using the tablets within the classroom. Anticipate the main activities your students will be using the tablets for.
7-inch tablets are smaller and lighter, so if your students are younger children they may find these easier to hold onto. Older children will find they can most likely hold the 7-inch tablets in one hand for ease of use, although perhaps not for extended periods of time. The larger keyboard size of a 10-inch tablet could be easier to type on than its 7-inch counterparts; however some find that holding a 7-inch tablet in landscape and typing with thumbs as you would on a smartphone is just as convenient. For extended periods of time however, the 10-inch versions are the winners.
If your students will be using the tablets for a lot of web-based activities and research, smaller 7-inch tablets will mean a lot more scrolling and zooming, especially to click small links. The 10-inch versions will make text much easier to read without the need to constantly zoom and pan through pages.
Although in theory 7-inch tablets offer more portability, they are still large enough to need to be carried in bags or stored and transported in tablet charging trolleys or cases.
With their larger screen size, 10-inch tablets are far more ideal for use in groupwork where more than one child will need to share the tablets round a desk, or similar situation. Larger screen sizes also often offer a higher resolution than their smaller equivalents, making videos much clearer.
The price tag is certainly a huge factor in the consideration of which tablets to opt for and of course 7-inch tablets are notably less expensive than 10-inch tablets. Last week we wrote an overview of five fantastic tablets for use in education, why not take a look?
Don’t forget, we’ll be at the Academies Show London on stand 195 on 24th April with our range of tablet management solutions which can accommodate 7” or 10” tablets. It’s free to register here, so we’ll see you there!
Five top tablets for education 2013
Last April in a very popular post on this blog, we looked at five top tablets for education. The world of touchscreen technology is moving so fast, we thought one year on we’d take an updated look at which tablets are hot topics in education right now, because whilst all of the focus seems to be in iPads, there are many viable alternatives out there.
Acer Iconia W510
The most recent addition to the Acer Iconia family, the W510 runs on the Windows 8 operating system and seems to offer a great array of features. It has a 10.1” touchscreen and features both micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports with a slot for a microSD card to expand storage space. Another thing that makes this a handy tablet to pick is the addition of the keyboard dock, which doubles as a stand and makes this tablet a good crossover between tablet and laptop.
Amazon Kindle
With the recent launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9, they’re making a furore into the world of slightly larger tablets, and with the price point much lower than many of its competitors, it’s an attractive option. Because this tablet started life as an e-reader, Amazon has made sure to use a reduced glare screen, which makes it very easy to read on even in direct light. It’s slightly smaller size and lighter weight makes it easier for smaller hands to keep hold of, but a lack of rear facing camera makes activities such as video blogging more difficult.
The downside of the Amazon Kindle is the inability to buy an app and roll it out to multiple Kindles. In the US, the Amazon service Whispercast does just that, but unfortunately this isn’t available in the UK yet. Hopefully Amazon will seriously consider rolling this service out to the UK to make the Kindle a more viable option for schools.
Google Nexus
The Google Nexus range now offers a 10 inch tablet alongside its first offering of the 7 inch screen tablet. For the purpose of this comparison of larger tablets, we’ll look at the larger 10 inch version. As Google doesn’t make its own hardware, the Nexus 10 is actually made by Samsung (whose Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is still extremely popular). The rubber finish on the back may not be quite so aesthetically pleasing to some as the iPad, but this make it very easy to grip and gives this tablet great protection from everyday wear and tear. The touchscreen also features Gorilla Glass making this a robust option.
Dell Latitude 10
Another Windows 8 tablet, the Dell Latitude 10 seems to be gaining more and more popularity. A great perk of this tablet is the fact that it has an easily removable battery on the back, which is good to bear in mind for future if batteries need replacing. However, this also means it’s easily removable by users in the classroom! This tablet also has an optional active stylus, which is great for accurate handwriting recognition (bear in mind this only comes as standard with the more expensive 64GB version though). The full size USB slot will be a big draw for many people, and the full size SD slot allows you to easily expand the tablet’s storage space. The rear facing camera on this tablet is a powerful 8 megapixels.
iPad
We couldn’t write a list of top education tablets without including the iPad; it’s still a hot topic and arguably still the most highly discussed tablet in schools. It’s undeniable that the iPad has a huge range of brilliant apps available, and a plethora of free and helpful advice for rolling these out across schools is available online, much more so than Android or Windows 8 tablets. The latest iPad 4 features a retina display, which Apple claims has such a high pixel density that the human eye cannot see pixels at a typical viewing distance. However the high price point of the iPad puts many people off, and it is often more viable to opt for the older iPad 2 or 3.
Which tablets do you think are ideal for education? Leave us a comment below.
For solutions to store, charge and sync multiple iPads, or manage multiple tablets, check out our website or call us free on 0800 130 3456.
Academies Show London 2013
There’s only four short weeks to go until the next Academies Show takes place at ExCel London and we’re really looking forward to it!
The Academies Show is taking place on Wednesday 24th April, and the LapSafe® team will be there on stand 195 exhibiting a selection of products from our market leading range. There’s also a brilliantly planned programme of free seminars, and the show is the only event dedicated to the Academies programme. So whether you’re already an academy, looking to convert or simply want to know what’s in it for you if you were to convert to an academy, then this show is for you. Here’s a sneak peek of what LapSafe® will have on show:
Addressing the need for a secure place to store, charge and synchronise iPads, our UnoCart™ for iPads has fast become a best seller since its launch. With this iPad trolley, schools can easily transport iPads between different classrooms and lock them away securely at night. The protective foam covering on each iPad shelf helps to prevent scuffs and scratches and the large bays fit iPads with even the largest ruggedised cases.
The hugely popular ClassBuddy™ laptop, netbook and tablet trolley provides a cost-effective solution for the safe storage and charging of your school’s ICT devices. The ClassBuddy™ charges devices using their own AC adaptors and will always charge all devices simultaneously. As with all LapSafe® storage and charging trolleys, power management is provided as standard, giving users complete peace of mind.
For institutions where space is limited and iPads need to be transported between buildings or up and down many stairs, the ruggedised Traveller™ offers the ideal solution. The Traveller™ for iPads can store both iPads or iPad minis and offers the ability to store, charge and sync the devices. The Traveller™ is available ventilated, offering the ability to charge and sync devices with the lid closed, or non-ventilated, offering a waterproof, dustproof and shockproof solution which charges with the lid open.
It’s free to attend the Academies Show, so if you haven’t already registered simply follow this link to get your free badge and see our products in action!
National Science & Engineering Week
As many of you will know, this week is National Science & Engineering Week which runs for 10 days every year. Starting on Friday 15th March, the week runs all the way to Sunday 24th March so there is still plenty of time to get involved or find an activity local to you. National Science & Engineering Week is run by the British Science Association and aims to encourage more people, especially schoolchildren, to get involved in science, engineering and technology.
The ExplorerLAB™ at the Bett Show 2013
In schools where space is restricted and perhaps a traditional science laboratory is not an option, the ExplorerLAB™ mobile science cart offers the ideal solution for science lessons as it has a small footprint. The science cart allows teachers to easily demonstrate science experiments, or carry out PowerPoint presentations. With its lockable doors, the mobile science cart also offers a safe place to store chemicals away from pupils when not in use. The ExplorerLAB™ is also ideal for use as a teacher station in a fixed science laboratory. You can read more about the ExplorerLAB™ mobile science cabinet here.
You could also head over to Official Ambassador of our ExplorerLAB™ mobile science cart, Professor Smarty Pots’ blog, where he has plenty of fun and easy science experiments you can do at school or at home.
We’d love to hear how you’re taking part in National Science and Engineering Week, please do leave us a comment below or tweet us at @lapsafe
The Prince’s Trust announces new initiative
This morning The Prince’s Trust launched a new initiative, The Prince’s Trust workshops, in partnership with the Science Museum to encourage more 13-19 years olds in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. The launch coincides with the release of findings from a survey carried out by the charity which concluded that young people’s lack of IT skills could be damaging their career prospects.
The charity, which is a youth charity aimed at helping to change young lives, interviewed 1,378 of Britain’s 15 to 25 year olds and included 256 not in education, employment or training – dubbed ‘Neets’. Their findings showed that many young people (17% of Neets) are put off applying for jobs that required even basic computer skills, and one in 10 of these young people don’t know how to send their CV online.
The Prince’s Trust workshops will be funded by a generous donation from musician and philanthropist will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and will run clubs in schools across the country. Martina Milburn, who is the Chief Executive of The Prince’s Trust explained that the trust works with many young people who often don’t have access to computers at home and this means they lack even basic computing skills; the idea of the workshops is to engage these young people in the STEM subjects whilst still at school.
The ExplorerLAB™ mobile science cart from LapSafe® supports teaching of STEM subjects by offering the essentials of a complete science laboratory in a mobile cart, making it easy to take science into any classroom. Even non-dedicated science classrooms can become a teaching station to carry out scientific demonstrations, and also has the capability to deliver multimedia presentations. To read more about the ExplorerLAB™ click here, or for some simple science experiments check out ambassador of the ExplorerLAB™ Professor Smarty Pots’ blog here.
Sources:
http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about_the_trust/headline_news/national_news_2013/1303_stem_project_announced.aspx
and
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21747206
