Beyond Substitution: Surface Pro 3 - A new device that offers new possibilities for educators Part 2
06/09/2014
Part 2 of 2
In my last post I introduced the SAMR Model of technology integration and how I believe it may be of help to tech journalist who are currently reviewing the new Surface Pro 3 tablet and other innovative technologies.
Most reviews I have read to date about the Surface Pro 3 are approaching it as a substitute for a laptop. Many educators however are looking for something more than just a regular laptop and in my opinion are not being fully informed of the new capabilities that the Surface Pro 3 offers.
Today, I would like to imagine the more transformative possibilities of Modification and Redefinition of the SAMR Model that the Surface Pro 3 allows for teaching and learning in the classroom and beyond.
More than a Laptop
The Surface Pro 3 is a new device that is proving difficult to categorize. Microsoft has positioned it as "the tablet that can replace your laptop" and is pushing the idea that the Surface Pro 3 can serve as both a tablet and a laptop and therefore you only need to carry one device.
My take is a bit different. In my opinion a more effective positioning of the Surface Pro 3 as "the tablet that can do more than replace your laptop" provides a more complete picture of this device for educators.
The most frustrating part of reading many Surface Pro 3 reviews is that very few address the issues that I am interested in learning more about as an educator.
Many reviews have also overlooked the power of the digital pen. When the pen is mentioned it is in the category of substitution merely replacing regular pen and paper for taking notes.
There are other details that I want to know more about. Little detail has been given about the front and rear cameras that can be used for educational purposes.
Trying to find information about the wireless display technology known as miracast has also proven fruitless as I have not found one review that provides this information to date.
Unfortunately, many reviewers do not have an adequate understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem and therefore do not report about the possibilities that the Surface Pro 3 offers when teamed with OneDrive, Office365, Office Web Apps, and OneNote. Many of the current Surface Pro 3 reviews have been locked into this uninformed group think and begin to sound very similar from one review to the next.
What we have here is a failure of imagination.
Imagine...
Imagine a device that is approximately the size and weight of a paper notebook that has a digital pen for taking handwritten notes as well as a detachable laptop-style keyboard for regular typing.
Imagine having access to over one-hundred thousand modern Windows 8.1 apps and millions of full-powered x86 applications to get your work done.
Imagine having the freedom to draw, doodle, sketch, highlight, and annotate any special symbols or artwork without the confines of a computer keyboard.
Imagine being able to easily collaborate with others by sharing your documents and notes online as needed.
Imagine having the ability as a teacher to share digital notes with students in near real-time. Imagine every single student having direct access to the teachers notes covered during the lesson immediately.
Imagine having a student share their own digital notebook with the teacher so that the teacher can check-in periodically and provide formative assessment on an ongoing basis in the very digital notebook the student uses daily.
Imagine digital notebooks saved to the cloud and accessed from any other kind of device that has an Internet connection (Windows, Apple, Android, or Chromebook) .
Imagine having digital access to all of your documents, all your notebooks, and all your students notebooks from your tablet and/or mobile phone.
Imagine being able to take a note at the click of a digital pen.
Imagine having the choice of input methods to match the situation at hand: keyboard, trackpad, mouse, touch, pen, on-screen keyboard, or voice input.
Imagine connecting a device to the projector and displaying it for the entire class to see using a VGA or HDMI adapter. Now, imagine being able to display the device screen "wirelessly" so the teacher can roam about the room untethered.
Imagine being able to take a device home and connect wirelessly to your HDTV to review student work or to preview educational videos and screencasts for future lesson plans.
Imagine forgetting your laptop/device at work but still being able to access your work from the cloud at home on a different device without missing a beat.
Imagine being able to take a picture and have any words/letters in that picture translated to text that can be stored and searched.
Imagine being able to have a video conference with anyone in the world with an Internet connection.
Imagine taking a device on a fieldtrip and making a special notebook documenting the days activities using photos, handwritten notes, snippets of Internet content, and audio/video recordings of the trip. Then, being able to share the fieldtrip notebook with others after the trip.
Imagine being able to plug-in thousands of USB devices like printers, keyboards, 3D printers, CAD/CAM equipment, scanners, external storage devices, musical instruments, microscopes, other scientific instruments, etc...
Imagine being able to save student files locally to a USB drive or if you have adequate bandwidth save to the cloud.
Imagine being able to grade student work using your natural handwriting to make comments to students and returning it electronically.
Imagine a paperless classroom.
Imagine being able to share a word-processing document, spreadsheet, and/or presentation with others to work together collaboratively and see the changes others make editing a document in real-time.
Imagine being able to create audio/video content at the press of a button and share with your students.
Imagine being able to take a camera snapshot and annotating directly on it using digital ink to illustrate an important point (teachable moment).
Imagine being able to make a survey and share it with others and have the results immediately available in a spreadsheet.
Imagine being able to have two windows open side-by-side to do a compare/contrast activity.
Imagine using a snipping tool to capture anything displayed on the screen to store or share for later use.
Imagine having the capability to connect your device to a docking station with two, three, or four external monitors to increase display capabilities and turn your tablet into a desktop workstation.
Imagine being able to utilize full applications for office work and getting things done.
Imagine free online apps for basic creating/editing of word, excel, and powerpoint documents for all students.
Imagine having a device that can work off-line when needed and then able to be synced up once re-connected to the Internet.
Imagine creating screencasts for the flipped classroom and being able to utilize full-powered screencast, photo editing, and video editing software.
Imagine having a device to easily create an ePortfolio of student work.
No need to imagine anymore as the Surface Pro 3 appears to be able to do all of the above mentioned items. The flexibility of this device is impressive.
The above scenarios are just a few of the creative and transformative things that I have not read about much in other Surface Pro 3 reviews. Yet, these items are of common interest to teachers and students everywhere.
There is one big caveat for this post as I have not had the opportunity to actually use the Surface Pro 3 myself. I have no hands-on experience with the Surface Pro 3. That is why I am in learning mode right now trying to soak up all the released information and reviews that I can find about this new innovative device.
I do however have significant experience with the original Surface Pro and about 2 months experience with the Surface Pro 2 so I do have a solid understanding of the current devices. I also regularly use Apple, Android, and Chromebook devices so I am also familiar with the other major ecosystems.
Everyone has a bias, myself included, but when it comes to reviews it is not fair to review a device if you completely ignore its native ecosystem.
The Surface Pro 3 is set to be released on June 20, 2014 to the general public. There are significant educational and military discounts currently available.
Last year I compiled several blog postings into a free eBook called Lessons Learned: 30 Days with the Surface Pro Windows 8 Tablet that is available to download if you are interested in learning more about my experiences with a Windows 8 tablet from a teaching and learning perspective.
The Surface Pro 3 looks like it can do all the things that I currently do with the Surface Pro 2 but in a larger 12 inch form factor with a 3:2 aspect ratio.
Wrap up
I am still in Surface Pro 3 learning mode but I am encouraged by what I already know about existing Surface Pro devices. I am impressed with the new thin design and bumped up technical specifications of the Surface Pro 3 and think this device has much to offer anyone who is a teacher or student.
Wrap up
I am still in Surface Pro 3 learning mode but I am encouraged by what I already know about existing Surface Pro devices. I am impressed with the new thin design and bumped up technical specifications of the Surface Pro 3 and think this device has much to offer anyone who is a teacher or student.
The new innovative features of the Surface Pro 3 push the technical capabilities forward and the toolsets are getting better. The power and capability we educators have available to us now is mind boggling.
Let's push forward and advance the state of teaching and learning and provide the best environment possible for our students. The Surface Pro 3 is just one example. No matter what tools you choose to use the end goal is to improve the learning of our students.
New tools now offer new possibilities.
New tools now offer new possibilities.
It is a great time to be an educator.
Imagine....
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.
@tomgrissom
@tomgrissom
