Friday, June 29, 2012

The Nexus 7 - Not ready for Education

This week was Google IO. A world-wide developer conference for Google developers...Christmas morning for all of us Google fanboys & girls.  With it Google announced the Nexux 7 tablet for $199.  It's an Android powered 7 inch tablet with a quad-core processor and an updated snappier operating system, (4.1 Jelly Bean). Personally, I want one and I might even consider buying one for my 2nd grader to take with her to school (if I could convince them to do BYOD).  However, I don't think this is a device that is ready for adoption in the education market.
I'm even trying to convince a principal that the Nexus 7 is not the right tablet for her elementary school. (What happened to me? I used to be the one pushing the envelope.  I used to be cool!). 

Any other educators out there agree/disagree with me?  It is too soon for a school to make plans to adopt the Nexus 7, even on a small scale such as a lab.  
  • It is centered around content consumption and not creation. (Think Bloom's taxonomy. Lower consumption-level device only.  OK if you have other devices on campus; not OK if this is a primary device.)
  • There are not enough tablet apps at this point in the Google Play store. 
  • No rear facing camera means no video editing. 
  • Device management at the enterprise level still has not been addressed by Google.
  • A computer is still more important for teaching and learning than a mobile OS. When your school doesn't currently have either.
And perhaps one of the biggest problems is that it is a 1st gen device.  

Thoughts?

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