Thanks for the thoughtful response; you raise some excellent questions. I think there is a cutoff line for “good enough” and often hardware doesn’t make the grade. I’m currently in the process of getting some Lenovo S12 netbooks to test in 5th/6th grade because I want to know how the $ to ink tradeoff might work with younger students (I have a hard time justifying a $2200 computer in 5th grade). The kicker is that to use popular programs like Scratch and Google Earth I can’t get a cheap netbook because the screen resolution is too low–so we’re up to a $500 “bargain” computer/netbook…go figure…

We do use DyKnow and OneNote with our Tablets, and while it isn’t cheap, DyKnow has become a key app in grades 7-12 because it’s changed how our teachers deliver content (yes–we still have lectures here and it helps with class management (yes–sometimes our kids can get off task We feel those benefits, plus the collaborative and formative assessment features, make it well worth the cost and actually can’t imagine our program without it.

Hopefully Moore’s Law can extend into the ed tech world a bit more than it has and help make “good enough” great all the way around.

Cheers!

pat

Also, I think you use DyKnow and OneNote at MICDS. If I’m correct on that, do you think DyKnow using both ink and being somewhat collaborative has allowed tablets and ink to have more of an impact when being used by students (as opposed to teachers) than if you just had OneNote?

We do not have DyKnow at D-E. We looked into it, but the gain wasn’t clear given its high cost. Teachers explicitly use OneNote in various courses and students can use it as they wish in any course but as I start to look more at the power of collaboration though free/cheap “good enough” tools we give up ink as I’ve yet to experience any where ink works well or at all.