Day One – Teaching and Learning with a Surface Pro Windows 8 Tablet – Wow!

Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

3/12/2013

Welcome to another edition of 30 Days with a Windows 8 Tablet series where this time I will be exploring the practical side of using a Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 Tablet for improving the teaching and learning experience.

The first thing I must say is Wow! The Surface Pro has all of the potential to become my “go-to” teaching and learning device for everyday classroom use. This thing is fast, especially compared to my Samsung Ativ 500T Clover Trail Tablet.

Since I already had a Microsoft account setting up the Surface Pro was easy. The out-of-box experience was one of the best I have ever had. All I had to do was go through the setup wizard and in less than 5 minutes I was up and running with all of “MY” content available automatically via Skydrive.

A Microsoft account allows you to connect your account with up to five devices and keep all of your content accessible using Skydrive. Think of Skydrive as a hard drive in the cloud. You get 7GB of storage space for free when you sign-up for a new Microsoft account. Be sure to follow your organizations policies regarding external accounts.

If you are a past reader of the ITC Chronicles blog thank you.  You may remember my posts about using a “Clover Trail” class machine (the Samsung Ativ 500T) and how impressed I was with using it for educational purposes. I am still using the Ativ 500T daily as my personal tablet and it has proven itself to be worthy of consideration for anyone looking for a tablet with Pen input and long battery life (over 10 hours). You can read my conclusions after 30 days with the Samsung Ativ 500T Windows 8 Tablet here.

For the next 30 days I will be setting aside the 500T for the most part and concentrating on using the more robust Surface Pro. Please note that I am using the Surface Pro and not the lower powered Surface RT version that uses the ARM processor.

The Surface Pro has a fast processor (Intel Core i5), 128 GB SSD hard drive, 4GB RAM, a FULL-SIZE USB 3.0 port (with an extra USB Port on the charging adapter for charging your cell phone), a microSD card slot for expandable storage, and a display port for use with optional adapters to connect to projectors or HDTVs in the classroom.

To top it all off there is a pressure sensitive Wacom touch screen with 1024 levels of pressure that can be used with a digitizing Pen and for me is one of the most exciting features of the Surface Pro for teachers and students.

For educators working in the digital world there is a lot to like about the Surface Pro.

The Surface Pro form factor is impressive, a 10.6 inch wide screen format that is only 1/2 inch thick. All of this in a 10.6 inch tablet form factor that weighs just 2.3 pounds, Wow!

My first impression of the Surface Pro was that it had a solid build quality and I had to remind myself that this was a “real” PC running a Core i5 processor and the Windows 8 Professional operating system complete with Pen input in a very small package. The magnesium-vapor case is of high quality and feels solid in the hand.

The Surface Pro also has a fold out stand that is a very practical edition to this tablet. The stand allows you to instantly prop it up on a table for viewing. Add the magnetic type cover that snaps on and off with a “click” and you have a new class of machine that is a full PC in a slate form factor that can transform into a laptop-like experience when a keyboard is needed.

My biggest conclusion from my previous experience with the Samsung Ativ 500T was that most of the mainstream technology press have completely missed the story about the transformation of Windows 8 devices. The world has changed and we now have sub $1000 devices that make fantastic teaching and learning tools in a multitude of form factors. Choice is good.

One of the few things that was a mark against the Ativ 500T was the lack of CPU processing power that I sometimes needed. Enter the Surface Pro!

The Ativ 500T used the Clover Trail processor that is an Atom class processor previously used in netbook machines. The Clover Trail is the next generation of Atom and performed very well but there were times when it would bog down. The Surface Pro is the “real deal”, an Intel Core i5 processor, along with 4GB of RAM running the full-blown Windows 8 Pro operating system (the Ativ 500T only had 2GB RAM). The Surface Pro is truly a real PC in a tablet form factor.

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Until next time...

Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD