Google Powered Tablet (Nexus 7) for Education

This year our district switched to Google Apps for Education. All students in the district were given a Google account. Then, our district bought a few of the Nexus 7 tablets powered by Google. (As I wrote about previously in this blog, one of our buildings is trying out the bring your own device and the tablets work well for those students who don't have an internet enabled device to bring). The tablet works seamlessly with Google Email and the Google Drive. According to USA Today, the Nexus 7 is more flexible than the Amazon Kindle Fire. What I have found is that you can download many free educational apps from the Google Play store to the Nexus 7 and use the Google Drive and Email, too.

Today, I was working with a teacher to set up the Nexus 7 for a special education student. That student has a hard time writing. So, the teacher wanted a voice activated app that would type what was said and then print it out so it could be edited by hand. The best app that I found wasn't a specific educational app at all. It was the Google Drive. Since all of the students already have Google accounts, and the Nexus 7 was set up with this child's Google account, all I had to do was download the Google Drive app and everything was synced. Just open up the Google Drive, create a new document, and talk into the built in microphone. What is said will be typed into the document. The document is automatically saved into the Google Drive. Then, that document can be accessed on a computer through Google Drive and printed.

I truly think this is an amazing resource for students. I've blogged about Google Apps for Education before, but using it with the new Nexus 7 allows even more possibilities.

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