Ahhhh what a nightmare. I see why some people give up on technology too soon sometimes it can be very difficult and overwhelming. Thankfully, I wasn't in it alone my students had my back. I just received my first two Kindle Fires. My co-worker uses them in her classroom. I didn't realize she just uses the apps they come with until after I received mine. I thought they would be perfect for surfing the web and downloading apps like Padlet, Blogger, and QR codes. It actually didn't have a lot of the apps that I just assumed all tablets could receive all apps (my bad). I downloaded QR code readers on them and I borrowed 6 more from my Math coach. I thought I was all set for my Earth Day lesson. But the QR code reader only worked on one of the QR codes but my iPad could read all the QR codes no problem. The Kindles would crash every 5 minutes or so and would ask for my password again every 10 minutes like it kept forgetting it. So I decided only to do the Kindle Fires with the student apps that came with it on one of mine they were working at a steady speed but on the other one it could never open the app that came standard with the reader. They were so slow. It wasn't very user friendly.
I think I will use my Kindle Fires for downloading books for the Kiddos and hopefully they will be able to do their Scholastic New on it. I haven't tried that yet. I always wondered why more classrooms didn't use Kindle Fires in the classroom they are so affordable. But I need to come at it again and keep on uncovering the best way to utilize them. I don't want to give up on them but next time I will be requesting more iPads.
#tabletclassroom #teched
Yikes! And you persisted. It's great to have a variety of equipment -- and when you're out there on the edge, you sort of have to figure some of these things out as you go. Sometimes if you can't find a lot of information on how to use a platform in a classroom -- and that device or app have been out there for awhile - it may be that it just doesn't do what you want it to do. Having access to devices for reading and interacting with books is great -- beyond what many classrooms have.
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