The Kindle Fire:
Appropriate for the
School Environment?
KySTE 2012
Bryan Sweasy
Chief Information Officer
Erlanger-Elsmere School District
First Things First
This entire presentation, and all of the information
gathered from this presentation, is available at
http://sweasy.net
Outline for this Session
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Kindle Fire Specs
General Criticisms
The Kindle Fire for Administrators and Teachers
The Kindle Fire as a 1:1 Solution
How to Choose if it’s Right for You
Essential Apps for the Educational Setting
Kindle Fire Specs
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7 inch tablet
Modified Android operating system
Display: 1024X600
Storage: 8 GB (6 GB available)
Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n
Camera: None
Microphone: None
GPS: None
Speakers: Stereo
RAM: 1 GB
Processor: Dual Core
General Criticisms
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Screen size too small
Locked down operating system (not really Android)
Too Little Storage (only 1 GB for apps, no room for expansion)
No camera
No microphone
No GPS
Cheap, tinny speakers
No way to turn off 1-click purchasing
No parental controls
The Kindle Fire:
A Productivity Tool for
Teachers and
Administrators?
Tool for Teachers/Administrators?
 Access to work email,
including calendar,
contacts, tasks, notes
 Office productivity
program, including the
ability to make basic
edits
 A .PDF reader
 A web browser capable
of running the web apps
for work (i.e. Infinite
Campus, district Help
Desk program, network
monitoring program)
 An app store with the
programs I need
Tool for Teachers/Administrators?
“Out of the Box” vs.
“With some Work”
Tool for Teachers/Administrators?
Out of the Box
 Access to work email,
including calendar,
contacts, tasks, notes
 Office productivity
program, including the
ability to make basic
edits
 A .PDF reader
 A web browser capable
of running the web apps
for work (i.e. Infinite
Campus, district Help
Desk program, network
monitoring program)
 An app store with the
programs I need
Tool for Teachers/Administrators?
With some work…
 Access to work email,
including calendar,
contacts, tasks, notes
 Office productivity
program, including the
ability to make basic
edits
 A .PDF reader
 A web browser capable
of running the web apps
for work (i.e. Infinite
Campus, district Help
Desk program, network
monitoring program)
 An app store with the
programs I need
…and $34.94!
1:1 Solution?
The Answer is simple…
…It depends…
1:1 Solution?
So how do you make
that decision?
By deciding what you want your 1:1
device to do.
Essential Apps
So what if you decide
the Kindle Fire IS the
device you want to
use?
Essential Apps
Some Final Considerations
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Consumer Device, not a business-class device. As such
• Limited manageability
• Unknown reliability
• Teachers will need to be willing to be “hands on” with the
devices.
If your district doesn’t have transparent proxy, the device cannot
get online AT ALL.
You'll need a document camera (and apparently a file folder) to
project onto a screen.
Mobicip (or a similar product if it becomes available) is a
necessity until Amazon fixes the 1 click purchasing problem.
Mobicip for Android is currently in Beta. The iOS version left Beta
The Kindle Fire:
Appropriate for the
School Environment?
KySTE 2012
Bryan Sweasy
Chief Information Officer
Erlanger-Elsmere School District