Surface 3 for Education, help me convince my school its better than iPad's.

[Milan Bassi]

Hello,

I dont post here often just lurk, and i need some help from you guys to help me convince my School Heads that for me it would benefit to use a Surface 3 over the iPad. I have a serious disgust against Apple but i really need a device to help me with my A-Levels since my Handwriting is really not good for note taking anyways. So the school has been using iPad's for learning in all the years par mine till now. So i would like to propose to them let me use a Surface 3 over the iPad but i cant really think of a lot of reasons i could present in a proffesional manner to the school to show why. Thats why i would appreciate it if someone could really help me, as all my notes had to be redone for my exams last month onto One Note for myself. Also my school uses Office365 as its method of sharing files using Sites, which i could argue works better with Surface 3.

Thanks for any help,
Milan

 

[Harrie-S]

To be honest I do not think it is a good idea to use the Surface if your school uses IPAD's because uniformity is more important.
So get used to the fact that you sometimes need to do things you may not like because that is live.

 

[cygnus11]

Check out this youtube video. It has a lot of great ideas for how students can benefit from using a Surface 3. This person does some awesome videos about using the Surface product line, so I recommend checking out his channel. Maybe you can get some ideas from the video to help you with your justification. Using a Surface seems like a no-brainer given that you use Office 365 at your school. Good luck.

 

[P_Devil]

Unfortunately I don't think this is something a single teach can do especially when it comes to convincing principals, school boards, and the superintendent. Things like notebook carts, iPad carts, etc. are big purchases and schools always act weird when it comes to spending money. I am not a teacher but my mother was a teacher for 20 years, some type of administrator (she went around "grading" the teachers and helping them with lesson plan problems) for 5 years, and has been an assistant principal for the last 5 years. So I've seen what school can do first hand.

The easiest way to spend money is to form an organization (science club, science Olympiad, science fair, history day), raise the funds, and then buy them. Otherwise schools tend to be set in their ways. They will always opt to buy the familiar and, if they have been buying iPads for a while now, they will continue to do so.

Honestly, I don't think that's all bad considering most people know how to use them (or can learn in 2 minutes), basic Office works on them, and, unless you need to run something that is Windows only, there really isn't a "requirement" for going with the Surface 3 over the iPad.

I agree with you (though not with your hatred of Apple), I think Surface 3 units would be better for a classroom setting but it's going to be neigh impossible to convince administrators into buying them. Now, it is different if you have a requirement for Windows and other teachers helping you.

 

[Milan Bassi]

Ah you see, Im not convicing the school to buy Surface 3 Im convincing them to let me Use my Surface 3 in school rather than use the Schools iPad's as most of the school runs on Windows anyways so i wont be an inconvenience I hope. I've emailed the head of the school now with a report of why i can benefit from bringing mine in to school, just hope they understand.

 

[P_Devil]

Ah, gotcha. I thought you wanted to replace classroom iPads with Surface 3 units. Using personal equipment for business (or, in this case, school) related tasks is often a big "no no" especially in the corporate and government worlds. Your school might be more OK with it but again, it's a fine line that they may not want to walk.

Like I said, my Mother has been in her public school district for a long time now. She has an iPad 4 but had an iPad 3 prior to that. I actually purchased the iPad 3 for her as a gift but the school didn't want her using it for administrative duties. So she gave it to me and used the iPad 4 they gave her. They were fine with her using the school's iPad 4 for personal business, they just didn't want her using her own iPad for the school's business (not that she had anything to do with the budget).

Good luck. I completely agree with you but it still might be a stretch. Your school's IT department might have a fit if you request internet access on your device too.