Using Miracast

The new learning spaces at CPIT have screens with Miracast, which is where we are able to project the image from a tablet on to a large flat screen. There are pros and cons, discussed here and there is always a need to assist tutors in 'thinking outside the box'. Many teachers plan to use Miracast to enhance their use of powerpoint - some tips here for powerpoint on surface tablets.

However, Miracast is also a powerful tool if used to share 'learning moments' in the form of examples of students' own work, videos of stduents' practice or role plays etc. Our work has shown students take ownership and are more likely to re-watch learning resources, if students' work is incorporated into the teaching resource. A power point up loaded on to Moodle, means much more if examples of students' work from a class session, form part of the resource.

The opportunity to use students' work as 'learning conversation starters' is also a focus of our use of Miracast. Students' progressive work can be shared via Miracast on tutors' tablets if the work is transferred on to a shared class folder (say on OneDrive or Moodle or Dropbox) or transferred physically using a memory stick. We are using Surface RT tablets which have a usb, making physical transfer in a BYOD environment workable during tutorials. Five wired PCs around the room provide students without a device with digital hardware.

The rooms also have glass 'whiteboards' allowing for the use of 'office lens'. Office lens provides the facility to take images off surfaces with a bit of glare or crop pieces of work taken off note books etc. Office lens is linked to One Note, allowing for ease of transferability within the Windows OS.

I will undertake a series of class observations this semester to improve the deployment of Miracast though supporting tutors. In particular, to assist the building of a trusting learning culture within our classrooms to allow for co-construction of students' work as their learning progresses and to maximise opportunities for peer and tutor feedback.

Surface Pro 3 - user review

Last week, had the chance to have a play with a Surface Pro 3 with attached keyboard. Collation of reviews available via endgadget and techradar.

The powder light grey backing on the tablet looks classy and the matt surface means the tablet is less likely to slip off books / folders when being carried around. The tablet has, by far the largest tablet screen I have worked with. With the larger screen, the attachable keyboard becomes similar to small laptop size and therefore comfortable to use. However, I am of two minds when using the tablet without the keyboard. Although the tablet is light to hold, reading while lying down, with the tablet is less comfortable then with an ipad or surface pro 1. However, the larger screen comes into its own when viewing webpages or Google maps.

The tablet ‘kick-stand’ now has the ability to fold almost right back, so the angle of the screen when used with or without the keyboard attached, can be adjusted. Writing on the tablet is enhanced when the kick stand allows the tablet to sit at a natural angle. I have always been impressed with the predictive text ability to work out my terrible writing. Few mistakes are made even when I scrawl out words. The stylus / pen works well and is comfortable to hold and manipulate.

Tablet boots up quickly and windows 8.1 works well either with touch interface, through ‘cursor’ control via the keyboard touch pad, or through keyboard input.

The on/off switch has been shifted up to the top of the tablet and the windows button now sits on the right side of the screen, when the tablet is used in landscape mode / or attached to keyboard. The new power cord attaches to the right hand side and a tighter fit then with previous surface tablets.

Overall, you pay for higher quality performance. The Surface Pro 3 will no doubt retail in NZ for double the price of, for example of the Aspire Switch 10. You would get a high end laptop for similar price. So important to weight up WHY you need a tablet plus keyboard when a laptop / ultrabook may be just as appropriate. The advantage of the tablet, especially one like the Pro which is set up to be used as a slate, is keyboardless input, quick and easy web surfing and high quality camera/video to record experiences for upload to the cloud. So, as always, important to work out what needs to be achieved and match hardware accordingly.

HP elite pro tablet - try out

Our IT division is shuffling Windows 8 tablets across as they come available for evaluation. We hope to purchase at least four windows tablets to complement the iPads and Android tablets we currently use for various situated technology enhanced learning projects at CPIT. The HP elite pro tablet comes 'naked' or with a protective case with a booster battery or a keyboard cum case arrangement. Both arrangements work well but I was keen to see how the keyboard worked. Generally positive reviews from the UK register and the UK PC review and also from NZ business review and PC world.

Key board that comes with the tablet is well designed. The table slips into a rubberised holding sleeve. The keyboard has chiclet style keys which are comfortable to type on. The whole arrangement sits comfortably on a desk but feels top heavy when perched on your lap.When not in use, the pseudo laptop closes up neatly and weights about the size of my present netbook.The tablet itself does not have many ports, so the keyboard or protective case, adds usb ports. No HTML slot but an adaptor is available.

Tablet has front and back cameras. Easy to use and photos can be stored in the pictures folder, on the cloud in skydrive or emailed. Intuitive to work out, especially for people used to the windows interface.

As a whole, the tablet touch interface is responsive and the tiles front page is generally intuitive to use. The ‘desktop’ tile brings you into the familiar Windows desktop area and working with Word and Excel and apart from touch screed access, pretty much similar to working from a desktop.Searching within windows store requires pressing the windows and q keys, not obvious immediately and I required a google search to find out how. Will need to explore more of the windows short cut keys when we have the purchased tablet.

Pairing the tablet with the keyboard brings up the perennial question of whether going for an ultra book or laptop running the windows 8 system should be the way to go.I use a zaggmate keyboard attachment for my ipad when i need to do lots of typing but have found the arrangement to be less effective than using a netbook or laptop. Mainly due to the fragile nature of the connection between the ipad and the keyboard.However, the HP tablet's keyboard case is designed for a more stable fit although the arrangement is top heavy sitting on one's lap. 

All in, IT is happy to support the device so we will purchase a couple to add to our inventory. One with a case and one with a keyboard. I will bring the tablets to the manufacturing team for them to use with their integrated project-based teaching approach. The workshop environment will be a good test for the tablets' resilience and the ease of syncing files through skydrive.

HP elite pad

Had the opportunity to try out the HP elite pad late last week for a day. A heftier tablet than the ipad or the Lenova but the elite pad was encased in the elite expansion jacket which increases the ports to include a HDMI port. Without the jacket, the tablet has usual USB and mini USB. Pricing is at the top end, around NZ$900. The tablets have been purchased for use by our carpentry tutors who use them to record workplace based skill and knowledge acquisition of apprentices learning in the workplace.

Generally positive reviews on the net from the uk, usa and laptopmag. I am now familiar with the Windows 8 tiles format having used a Windows 7.5 phone for a couple of months. The two tutors  who had a play with the tablet also found the interface to be easy to use.

The main advantage, from a corporate point of view, is the alignment of the Windows 8 tablet. Windows office can be assessed and when you go to Windows desktop, the familiar windows screen with documents on the desktop comes up. The lack of the ‘start’ button on the bottom left hand corner is a bit confusing at first though.

Had a very quick play with Word, Excel and Powerpoint and they have all been adapted to have the various drop down menus and icons work with touch. The multiplicity of icons etc. may be confusing to the beginner but reassuring to people moving from a windows desktop environment into the tablet interface. Did not have time to fully work through all the various capabilities I would usually use on so unsure if I would use a tablet to fully replace what I now do on a desktop. Will need more time to try things out. The onscreen keyboard could have keyboard click sounds turned on. A reassuring feedback for people unused to typing on a glass screen.

At last, window 8 tablets are starting to arrive in NZ. We will evaluate a few more tablets before purchasing a few. Then do a comparative exercise between the tablets we now have – ipads, the Toshiba Thrive running on Android and the Windows tablet.  The main objective would be ease of use for the variety of projects we now use tablets with for technology-enhanced learning (TEL).