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"This story is incredible, and admittedly, unfinished. There's much more we need to learn that hasn't been told yet, but what we do know c(sh)ould change things. Maybe even a whole lot of things. Recently, the OLPC organization took boxes of tablets, carefully and tightly taped up, and dropped them in two remote villages of Ethiopia. There were no instructions. No teachers. Nothing but a group of first grade-aged students for whom the tablets were intended. Students who couldn't read, couldn't identify the single form of a letter, had never before seen any kind of technology."

As the post-PC era moves from interesting theory to cold, hard reality, one of the most pressing questions is: How can we use tablets, and especially the iPad, to help people learn? Most of the focus has been on ebooks replacing textbooks, a trend fueled by Apple's recent updates to iBooks. Specifically, the company released iBooks Author, a tool for creating immersive ebooks on the desktop. Plus, the new iPad is now the first tablet with a retina screen, making reading and watching multimedia on the device even more enjoyable. But technology is only as good as the system it's applied to. Much like a fresh coat of paint will not improve the fuel efficiency of a '69 Mustang, the application of technology to a broken system masks deeper problems with short-term gains.

The momentum has been shifting for a while, but now the trend is emphatic. People now spend more time in mobile apps than they do online. There are more than 500 million Android and iOS devices on the market, and giant countries like China and Indonesia are only just getting started in their smartphone and tablet push. Global mobile 3G subscribers are growing at over 35 percent, year on year, and there's a lot more room to move - there are 5.6 billion mobile subscribers on our fair planet. Even in developing countries, cheap smartphones will soon rush into the market. And who here doesn't think tablet sales are going to go gangbusters pretty much everywhere?

The Thai government's One Tablet PC per Child policy is a noble effort to help children gain access to information, and to keep up with changing information technologies. But will it help them to think?

"Infuse Learning is a free student response system that works with any Internet-connected device including iPads and Android tablets. Infuse Learning allows teachers to push questions, prompts, and quizzes out to students' devices in private virtual classrooms. In an Infuse Learning room a teacher can give students a wide variety of formats in which to response to a question or prompt. Students can reply to prompts and questions in standard multiple choice, true/false, and short answer formats. But Infuse Learning also offers an option for students to reply by creating drawings or diagrams on their iPads, Android tablets, or on their laptops."

"At this stage it's going to be incredibly hard for Android or even Microsoft/Windows tablets to break into the market. Apple are stated to have 94% of the educational market in the US and whilst the craze hasn't dominated Australian schools yet, the future is not far off. This means it is incredibly unlikely that Australia will reverse an already popular choice in America. Combined with a lack of development for other formats this means the iPad will soon be the tablet parents HAVE to buy."

You can save about $3500 hundred dollars per classroom if you buy a tablet and projector rather than an interactive whiteboard and get the same results, but you don't know that because this and other research (almost always commissioned by IWB companies) is purposely misleading you, comparing classrooms with IWBs to those without technology rather than comparing classrooms with IWBs to the much less expensive projectors/laptop or projector/tablet combo.

"Japan will soon start trialling electronic textbooks in primary schools, enhancing the role of IT in the classroom for a generation of "digital natives" born in the wired age. Under the "future school" project, 10 elementary schools will give all their under-12 pupils tablet PCs and fit their classrooms with interactive electronic blackboards starting as early as next month."

Interesting development in Japan with a pilot Tablet computer project.

"One Laptop Per Child project founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the organization is accelerating its development of the XO-3 tablet computer and will have a working prototype by December 2010, two years ahead of projections. Negroponte said the final product would cost US$75."

The XO-3 OLPC laptop will be released two years ahead of schedule and cost about $75 US. Amazing to see all this techology come together. Tony and I are working with what we can do with the Sugar interface in the classroom.

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You can also insert the term "Tablet" for iPad: the questions and arguments for thinking about the task before the technologies are still very valid and worth considering. 

"Doctors have long said children under 2 years old shouldn't have any screen time.  Now, a leading pediatric researcher who's been a strong voice against babies watching TV has a new recommendation.  He says young children can, and should play with touch screen computers."

"Microsoft is set to release a series of Windows-based, tablet-style computers this year as it seeks to see off the challenge posed by Apple's iPad. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, told delegates at the company's annual worldwide partner conference that they would find the range of devices "quite impressive"."

"Fraser Speirs is a busy man. Having convinced Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland to buy more than 100 iPads and distribute them to all its students (age 5-17) earlier this year for class and homework, the private school's head of IT is traveling around the United States to talk about his school's experience with the Apple tablet."

1:1 school with a tablet computer, it is happening already now.

"Tablet computing and personal electronic devices such as iPads promise to have a dramatic impact on education. This Ning network was created to explore new and innovative ways iPads and other portable devices could be used in schools and colleges."

"FluidMath enables teachers and students to easily create, solve, graph and animate math and physics problems all in their own hand-writing on the screen of a Tablet PC or Interactive Whiteboard. For teachers, it is designed to assist in creating dynamic instructional materials for the classroom providing engaging learning experiences. For students, it is designed to help explore and understand concepts in mathematics and science."

Cool, new tablet pc math software that recognizes handwriting. It solves, graphs and animates math problems. I made these demo screencasts using FluidMath: http://bit.ly/kweHFN