ipad samsung or laptops for schooling??? please help

Hi Emma

My wife works for Distance Ed in Qld - and her opinion was definitely go for the laptop. Not sure what happens in Victoria - but for lessons, her advice was that the tablets are a bit cumbersome for the type of work that has to be done. Laptop are probably better for the parents as well, as they can manage the standard word processing tasks easier (that last bit is my opinion only!)

Cheers

Chris

The two months I had with the kids travelling we were required to get work for them to keep up.
We used good out fashined text books, pencils, paper etc. The other family that travelled with us who do distance ed, was going to do the same, but made there kids do the required work over Christmas holidays so that they were already up to date.

I believe Distance Ed will post packs for you if you request and you know where your going to be at a certain time.

I don't know about the education requirements, but accessing internet from a laptop is getting easier because you can either (1) use your smartphone as a wifi portable hotspot, or (2) buy a wireless modem or (3) access wireless internet in caravan parks. Fewer tablets are coming with 3G/4G capabilities these days because they are not often needed.

Hi Emma

We are heading off in April 2014 with a 2 boys in year 2 and 7.

We have decided that we will be taking my iPad ( mainly for me to use), and 2 laptops. One is an ASUS that converts to a tablet and the other is a normal lap top. These are both "older" (2 years old LOL). We were going to update and go with iPads to save space, but the boys aren't that familiar with them.

Basically, our decision has been based on the platform that the boys already use at school.

When we enrolled the boys in SIDE, they asked what technology would we have access to. Their list indicated Internet, email, printer, webcam, fax, ereader,DVD digital cameras mp3 etc etc. Laptops covered most and our other bits and pieces covered the rest. The SIDE (WA) website will have all the details.

One thing we will be making sure of though, is the focus of our trip won't be on the boys using the technology to keep them occupied but as a medium to record and share our experiences with heir school mates in Perth and family and friends.

Hope this helps. By the way, both my wife and I are teachers.

Cheers

Anthony

we used both ipads and laptops
however most distance ed requirements were not compatible with ios so we then utilised the laptops and paper .
However there were some great educational apps for the younger ones which distance ed Victoria helped by getting us a subscription for such as mathletics ,literacy planet and for our 5 year old "bug club" for reading stories .
there are some great teachers in distance ed Victoria but unfortunately a couple of real average ones !

My kid goes to primary school in Victoria. Last year they used Ipads, however this year they dropped them and went to Samsung Windows 8 tablets. I think it is school by school.

According to a teacher, one of the issues they had was that when the Ipads came out the kids went into 'time to play a game mode'. With the Laptop, the mood of the kids was different and more of a 'lets learn mode'. I suspect that could be important to you too.

Also as a personal opinion and, probably because I am old, IMHO the separate keyboard of a laptop is less distracting, especially in a learning environment like you will possibly experience.

Also this may or may not be an issue. But a lot of learning sites would use "flash" for animation of characters, games etc. Apple in their wisdom won't support flash and you won't be able to access them.

I would go for the laptop as it provides more facilities than do the tablets.
Whilst you can use spreadsheets etc on a tablet, they are just easier on a laptop.
It's also much easier to print your work from a laptop.
I cloud-print from my Android tablet, but still require the laptop to act as the printer server (and a cell connection)...Would love it if anyone can advise me how to print straight from the tablet.