Day 15 – Thoughts Halfway through 30 Days with the Surface RT – Is it Worth It?

30 Days with a Surface RT for Teachers
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet

Well, I am halfway through this 30 Days with a Surface RT blog series and this is a good time to reflect on my experiences to date with the Surface RT. First of all, I went into this thinking I had a good handle on what the Surface RT could do. For the most part my expectations have been confirmed but there have been some surprises as well. I went into this with low expectations from press reports but have found my experience contrary to much of what I have previously read. With many 1:1 initiatives being considered across the nation more real-world information is needed about device capabilities before purchasing decisions are made.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/Pages/index.aspx

Microsoft is currently offering the Surface RT at steep discounts for a limited time to schools and universities with an education price of $199 for the Surface RT alone, or $289 for the Surface RT and Type Cover Keyboard (I much prefer the type cover over the touch cover).

The Surface RT has taken a beating in the tech press and Microsoft has written-off $900 million dollars of Surface inventory due to over production. I have entered into this blog series at the low-point of Surface RT popularity.

One of the reasons I wanted to know for myself if the Surface RT is of any value for teaching and learning is due to the fact that Microsoft gave away 10,000 Surface RTs to teachers attending the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference in San Antonio, Texas earlier this year. Imagine the possibilities these educators have to improve the classroom experience for their students.

Educators that received a Surface RT at #iste13 have a wonderful opportunity to experience for themselves how they can use the Surface RT in the classroom. Of course, some will say that the RT is a paperweight and will just collect dust in the corner. That would truly be a shame as I have experienced for myself these past two weeks a wonderful teaching and learning tool for teachers and students. My first post in this series was called  “Glass Half-empty or Half-full” at Day 15 it is definitely half-full for me however there are things that need improvement going forward. I also can say the same thing about the iPad as there is also room for improvement with it as well.

One thing that I am learning about the Surface RT is that it is not in the same category as the iPad and therefore should not be compared to it, but none the less most do. Since others are making this comparison I thought I would take a look at the current discounted pricing of the Surface RT compared to a discounted iPad and see what impact it might have on a purchasing decision given tight school or university budgets. Below is a graph of the total cost of purchasing between the iPad and Surface RT.

I used Microsoft Excel on the Surface RT to calculate the price difference between purchasing multiple Surface RTs and iPads in the quantities of 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 550, 600, 650, 700, 750, 800, 850, 900, 950, and 1000. Below is a screenshot from the Surface with the numbers.

 I used a price of $289 for the 32GB Surface RT with Type Cover and $598 for the iPad with a cover and keyboard. The current price for a 32GB iPad is $599 without a cover or keyboard so I discounted it $100. This also does not include additional warranties or AppleCare. It also does not include wireless access costs or deployment servers that can easily double or triple the cost of the initial devices.

Many think that a few dollars difference in price per unit does not make that much of a difference in total costs but as you can see in the graph it makes a huge difference. Especially with larger quantities where the cost difference really begins to separate on the graph.

Depending upon your viewpoint this separation in price difference may be necessary to get the device for the job, or could be viewed as over-paying if the alternative meets or exceeds the requirements for the job.

So if you are buying 1000 devices for a 1:1 program the current price savings is $309,000 if you went the Surface RT vs. the iPad route. If you were a very large district and bought 10,000 devices that difference jumps to $3,090,000 – 3 Million dollars is a lot of money and a potential savings worthy of further investigation.

Looked at in a different way, you could buy devices for twice as many students for the same amount of money.

In these tight budget times there is enough of a cost difference to catch the attention of those who will be funding 1:1 initiatives, whether that be parents or taxpayers.

In the end the Surface RT should be judged on its capabilities and merits. Each institution will need to do their own homework and find the device that meets their needs based upon initial cost, functionality, deployment, and maintenance over a 3 or 4 year life-cycle. In year 4, most likely, you get to start the whole process over again, a lot can change in 4 years.

So, at the halfway point I have learned much but have much more to explore with the Surface RT. At this point I have more questions than answers, and that is a good thing.

Until next time...
Keep on Learning,

Tom Grissom, PhD

Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom

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