Amplify Education's New Intel Tablet Begs For Abuse

theodp writes "Bring it on, suggests the video for The Amplify Tablet, an Intel device (specs) developed for Rupert Murdoch's Amplify Education, which shows kids wrestling with, dropping, and even splashing the device. So is a ruggedized 10.1" device, which appears to be Amplify's answer to earlier fragility problems, the future of high-tech education? Or is go-big-or-go-home with a 27" touch screen the way to go, perhaps in some kind of next-gen-flip-top-school-desk? Or — cost be damned — are separate classroom and home devices what are really needed?"

Why all the books and backpack....

[Anonymous Coward]

... if you have a tablet?

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

It's school so they do stuff ass backwards

Re:

[Opportunist]

So school DOES prepare for work, after all!

Re:Why all the books and backpack....

[houstonbofh]

But a tablet will fix everything! Especially those poor children with level two lookalike firearms! (Fingers...) http://www.dispatch.com/conten... [dispatch.com]

Seriosly, technology is not the problem...

HP ENVY Recline how meny kids will get robed over

[Joe_Dragon]

HP ENVY Recline how meny kids will get robbed over that much less how will a school feel with trusting kids with a 1K+ tablet to not have it get broken.

Re:

[theodp]

Even a $400 tablet, it would seem, would be apt to be stolen or even just lost in transit. So, why not have a nice big display (27" Acer touch is under $400) in the classroom that's protected by being attached to or a part of a desk to greatly reduce chances of breakage?

Toughness is good

[invictusvoyd]

Yesterday my girl spilled juice over my notebook keyboard. And being the person I am , I have a certain emotional attachment to my hardware. Thank heavens the machine is ok . Durability is something which IMHO has to be incorporated in notebooks. In terms of ruggedised hardware and in terms of software .. good OS's ( read Linux ) .

______________
A tablet with a keyboard is a notebook
A tablet without a keyboard is ? ..waste of plastic?

Underestimating kids

[wjcofkc]

Everything in that video was a gross underestimation of what kids could potentially.... no make that will put this thing through. I suggest the real litmus test would be to put one of these things through a laundry washing machine, then a dryer, then repeat three times before driving back and forth over it multiple times with an 18-wheeler. I am not saying any single one of those scenarios will unfold, but somehow someway the equivalent abuse will.

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[lagomorpha2]

An 18-wheeler is a gross underestimation of the amount of damage kids can do. To really test if a tablet is kid resistant you need to run over it with a train.

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[ArcadeMan]

Since we're talking about kids, I suggest we scale back your torture test down to their level. I suggest spilling orange juice over it, leaving it in outside in hot summer sun, repeat three times before driving back and forth over it multiple times with a Big Wheel.

A real torture test

[kylemonger]

Try riding a bike at 15mph or so and have your weight-bearing foot suddenly unclip from the pedal, resulting in an endo over the handlebars landing on your back on top of a backpack with a tablet inside. I actually did this, landing heavily on top of one of the old GRID convertible tablets back in the 1990's. It survived.

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[houstonbofh]

I liked the "Lets fight over the tablet, but don't use your thumbs!" Actually, nothing touched the screen for the entire video except the one test ball?

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[wjcofkc]

They were fighting over it because one of the kids broke his after seeing how far he could kick it down one of the longer halls without hitting any lockers.

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[ArcadeMan]

Computers can be used for porn, games, music, movies, work.

In that order.

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[Opportunist]

Because we're working on getting better education, not educating kids better.

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[gIobaljustin]

People are as dumb now as they were in the past. Useless test scores and other such trivialities don't change that fact.

other alternatives

[kevlar_rat]

There are a number of options, as well as http://soylentnews.org/ [soylentnews.org] there is http://pipedot.org./ [pipedot.org.] There are a lot of ex-slashdotter on the comp.misc newsgroup. http://squte.com/ [squte.com] (my own site) provides a slashdot-like interface to newsgroups.

Rupert Murdoch?

[PvtVoid]

The last person on the planet I want to have supplying curriculum to children [prwatch.org] is Rupert Murdoch. He's a one-man ignorance machine.

digital utopianism

[kevlar_rat]

The idea that you can just throw tech at education problems is so common its got a name: 'digital utopianism'.
It's failure was seen with the OLPC project: in Uruguay all school children have an XO laptop but only about a fifth of teachers [wikipedia.org] use it in the classroom daily, similar statistics apply to Alabama. Even the OLPC now admits [uci.edu] you need to combine technology with teacher training and community buy-in

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[rtb61]

It has nothing at all to do with teaching. It is all about sucking every cent out of teachers pay and turning it into tech and publishing profits. Selling closed tech devices that will only accept corporate approved information at inflated costs and absent of keyboard to ensure students exchanging information is kept to a minimum, like idiot twitters. So no real interest in education just how much profit can be squeezed out of the system until it all collapses and then they blame the government that they b

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[arglebargle_xiv]

The idea that you can just throw tech at education problems is so common its got a name: 'digital utopianism'.

Beat me to it. The answer to the series of questions in the summary is "none of the above", instead of fancy gadgets we need a better pupil-to-teacher ratio, the ability for school boards to fire incompetent teachers, better support for teachers from parents (rather than treating them as glorified daycare nannies), and so on. Playing with gadgets is, at best, a distraction from addressing the real problems.

Murdoch!!!

[beermad]

I'm glad I don't have kids. I'd hate them to be exposed at school to anything associated with that vile dingo. There's certainly going to be an ulterior motive behind it.

What are they smoking?

[cohomology]

I have a strong bias in favor of kids who are growing up in the most chaotic environments.

In the poor neighborhoods I know, schools don't let kids take home *books*. What fool thinks taking home computers is a good idea? Anyway, who lets hardware manufacturers influence educational policy?

Signed,
bleeding heart liberal.

This leed makes the assumption

[xombo]

That these devices are necessary to begin with.

Oh, yeah, THAT will work

[PapayaSF]

"Here are your new tablets, kids. They're ruggedized so that they resist breaking!"

*CRACK!*

"Now, Tommy, why did you do that? Of course smashing it against the desk will break it!"

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[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

"Here are your new tablets, kids. They're ruggedized so that they resist breaking!" *CRACK!* "Now, Tommy, why did you do that? Of course smashing it against the desk will break it!"

This. I recall from my childhood having to "test" both shatter-proof rulers (for some reason when you're aged 8 shatter-proof = indestructible = must test this) and water-resistant watches (when you're 8 years old, water-resistant = completely water-proof).