There is certainly a puzzle to solve for school and district leaders—whether to jump on the iPad wagon, wait for Android’s Honeycomb and take advantage of Aps, stick with Win7 familiarity, especially if your environment is already Microsoft, or try something completely different. The few slates/tablets I did see at FETC 2011 in Orlando were pretty impressive, each offering something different, played Flash, and there were a few surprises as well. I expect to see more at TCEA 2011 in Austin.
KINEO
I think one of the show hits was the new KINEO by a company called Brainchild. It is unique in the slate and handheld space. While it has WiFi, this touchscreen for kids is administratively controlled and built for student safety. Aps, tools, and video are there, but it’s specifically only what the teacher and administrator want there. By design, it doesn’t have a camera, which may have a lot of education administrators sighing relief. KINEO is Android, but looks nothing like any of the other traditional slate platforms. I like that it has function buttons along with touch and stylus. It has a day's worth of battery life, and it is replaceable. This looks to be a sturdy, appropriately sized, safe computing device for kids. My feeling is the only problem will be keeping up with production—Brainchild should sell a lot of them.
by Dennis Pierce
As more school leaders look at using iPads and other tablet computers as learning tools, the Florida-based company Brainchild has developed an iPad-like device that is designed specifically for elementary and middle school students.
Built on Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, the Kineo—which is Greek for “to excite”—acts as an eBook reader with internet access and Flash capability. Its replaceable battery reportedly lasts for up to 12 hours on single charge, and at $299 it costs far less than Apple’s iPad.
Perhaps best of all for educators, the Kineo enables school leaders to specify the applications that students can use on the device by “locking down” apps they don’t want students to use.
MIAMI, Florida -- March 23, 2010 - Florida schools are seeing significant numbers of Haitian students file through their doors and some of the schools, like Miami-Killian High School in Miami are better equipped to help those students than others.
“If we hand a teacher a report that tells what each student needs to work on, she might be able to differentiate instruction for one or two students but an RTI program is about doing this for every student. It is only possible to do this with a total package like Achiever! where the assessment automatically jumps the student into the activities they need.” Dr. Geeta McMillan, Cassville Elementary School, TN
Read more on BusinessWire.
See Brainchild in booth 323 at the Florida Educational Technology Conference this week in Orlando.
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brainchild (www.brainchild.com) announced today that TCAP Achiever! online assessment and instruction resource has been newly aligned to the new and more rigorous Tennessee Curriculum Standards that students will face in the 2010 TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program). TCAP Achiever! monitors interventions and helps educators give additional support to children who are falling behind. The program accurately assesses TCAP standards-based performance and shares data between teachers, administrators and parents so that they can monitor student progress and provide intervention as needed.
Full release at: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091006005214/en or visit www.brainchild.com
Naples, Florida-- Sept. 16, 2009 -- The Study Buddy personalized learning device from Brainchild (http://www.brainchild.com/) earned a five-star review from a noted education magazine this week. Multimedia & Internet @ Schools magazine gave the handheld Study Buddy its highest rating and applauded the Study Buddy’s ease of use and ability to fit varied school settings including in-class lessons, individual tutoring, group learning and some ESL situations.
