help me find a tablet for 1st grade classroom use?

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ekuest

Supreme [H]ardness
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can someone please help me find a tablet for my girlfriend? she is a 1st grade teacher and just got a smart board in her classroom and I guess went to some workshop recently where they showed some things you can do with a tablet. i believe they used an ipad and it seems from my research that they are the easiest to use for teaching and most widely supported (closed ecosystem) but neither of us want to pay the apple tax since there are perfectly good 10" tablets for ~$200-300 whereas an ipad would be $380. I am not completely opposed to getting an ipad if that really is by far the best option, i just think that "air" and "retina" costs (making it really thin and/or using a ridiculous dpi) are not even remotely necessary for this application and paying more for the nicer hardware is just wasted money. the software side does sort of seem a lot better though. and the mini is too small. :/

I personally dont really see the value in using a tablet in the classroom, or ever really, and havent owned one in years. for that reason I am very behind on current tablet tech, and neither of us really knows anything about what you can do in a 1st grade classroom on an android tablet. 10" is probably required, though screen resolution and quality are probably not big concerns. it should be fast enough to run whatever the current android version is and be satisfactory for another year or two at least. other than that, I dont even know what to look for. also i told her she should look into using chromecast or splashtop or something to stream it to the projector since being tethered by a cable is so 2010. not sure what the best way of doing that would be, but she does have a windows laptop that she could use as the receiver.

thanks so much guys! if i can find something in the next few days it will make a great birthday present for her! (bday on the 13th)
 
Well, I think you answered your own question -- the iPads are generally better for teaching, at least at that kind of grade level. I'd rather pay a bit extra up front to save some headaches later (for reference: Chromecast works in some iOS apps; an Apple TV will let you do screen mirroring, although that may be expensive unless you can find the ATV on sale).

If you go Android, I'd suggest something like ASUS' Transformer Pad TF103C (speedy and fairly cheap), although it doesn't have a physical video output option -- you'd have to use Chromecast for screen mirroring.
 
My iPad is a relatively dumb device compared to Android devices. Airplay picture quality is fuzzy and since it's not standard 720p or 1080p you have big wasted borders on the sides. Apple TV is big and bulky and can't be powered via the display's USB port like the Chromecast so you have the unsightly power cord hanging.

The perfect fit for a teacher is a Galaxy Note 12.2 with the bigger real screen estate or even slightly smaller 10.1 (2014) with built-in precision pen combined with Chromecast to mirror lectures and notes to the smart board. With an app such as Lecture Notes she can save and reuse her presentations/notes and also export to PDF to share with students/parents. If you don't want to pay full price for the tablet you can look into refurbs.

Apps for 1st grade are relatively simple so it should be available on all platforms but double check availability.

In summary what you'll need are:

- Galaxy Note 12.2 or 10.1 (2014) from $429

- Chromecast $35

- TP-Link Archer C7 v2 (make sure you get hardware v2 and not v1) dual-band 802.11n and 802.11ac (I have 2.4GHz dedicated to Chromecast and 5GHz dedicated to Galaxy Note for best performance) $99

- Lecture Notes $4.32
 
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Er... mi7chy, did you pay attention to the OP's requirements? (Of course not, because that would involve you being open minded to tablets that aren't made by Samsung)

He's complaining that $380 is too much, and you've just suggested tablets where the refurbs can cost around that amount. You don't even know if this girlfriend would see any benefit from pen input (these are first graders, remember). Android tablets may well fit the bill, but please be genuinely considerate -- if you're going to insist on Samsung, at least offer a realistic choice like a Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 or Galaxy Tab 4.

As a side note, iOS 8 (due this month) will allow AirPlay without a Wi-Fi router, if you were looking at getting a router in the first place.
 
thanks for all the suggestions so far. yeah i am trying to not have to make this into a $600 operation. she doesnt make a lot of money, and this is all coming out of her own pocket (or mine). personally i think it's a silly idea to spend hundreds of dollars incorporating a tablet into her classroom since i dont think it will really add any value but she really wants to so im trying not to break the bank doing it. i see tablets all the time like this on slickdeals and was hoping i could make a $200-300 tablet work for her. a cursory look does make it seem like ios has most of the big teaching apps, including a couple specific ones she wants. i was hoping to get around the apple tax though if anyone had any suggestions. it's kind of looking like we will just need to bite the bullet and get an ipad i guess.

so unless anyone has any real-world experience with using an android tablet to teach primary school, i guess we are stuck going the apple route. so now i need to figure out how to make that work. she really wont need a nice display, or a quality pen input, or the fastest processor or any of that stuff. i am thinking a 3rd gen would be good enough for her since she will just be running teaching apps and maybe writing a bit and streaming to the projector. shouldnt be much multitasking, and nothing too intensive as far as i know. she doesnt need 4g and 16gb should be fine. after looking at ebay for 2 minutes gen 3 seems to go for about $300+, while 4th gen seems to be around $380+, is that about right? can anyone recommend whether i should go used or new (special teacher discount maybe?) and how much i should expect to pay? is there any reason why we should go for 4th gen over 3rd gen? also what other tools (apple tv, etc) would also be required to wirelessly stream audio and video to a host laptop or at least video to a projector? thanks again!
 
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A lot of instructors dump the iPad for the pen enabled Note but if she doesn't need the pen these are the official Chromecast mirroring supported devices or maybe just use her phone:

https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6059461?hl=en

Nexus 4
Nexus 5
Nexus 7 (2013)
Nexus 10
Samsung Galaxy S4
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Google Play Edition)
Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Samsung Galaxy Note 10
HTC One M7
HTC One M7 (Google Play Edition)
LG G3
LG G2
LG G Pro 2
Support for additional devices coming soon

If you're comfortable with rooting you can add that feature to these devices:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/hardware-hacking/chromecast/experimental-enable-mirroring-device-t2812193

Tested Working:
(Aside from the officially supported devices)
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9"
ASUS PadFone X
ASUS PadFone 2
Nook HD+ (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE)
Droid RAZR MAXX HD
Droid RAZR M
Sony Xperia Z
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
Sony Xperia Z1
Sony Xperia Z1 Tablet
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
Sony Xperia Z2
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet
Sony Xperia ZL
Huawei Honor 3C
HTC One M8 (Including GPE)
HTC Droid DNA (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE IN RED)
Motorola Moto X
Motorola Moto G
Samsung Galaxy S II (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE)
Samsung Galaxy S III (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE)
Samsung Galaxy Note II (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE IN RED)
Samsung Note 8 Tab
Samsung Note 10.1 Tab
Samsung Note Pro 12.2 Tab
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE)
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4
Nexus 7 2012
Galaxy Nexus (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE IN RED)
Oppo Find 7
Oppo Find 7a
OnePlus One
LG GPad 8.3 (ONLY ON V1)
LG G2 Mini (ONLY ON V1)
LG Optimus G (ONLY ON V1)
LG G Flex (ONLY ON V1)
Xiaomi Mi2
Sero 7 Pro (as of v4) (ROM MUST HAVE APPLIED FIX, CHECK ABOVE)
 
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yeah she doesnt need the pen but right now the thing im most worried about is whether she can even use android in a meaningful way in her classroom, which it seems to me she cant. unless you know of any teaching tools running on android, i think we're stuck with an ipad.
 
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