A New Tablet Designed for Education

By Sean Scarpiello

Earlier this month, Amplify, a New York based education-based technology company, released a new tablet designed solely for educational purposes. The Amplify Tablet is currently available for sale to schools only. Amplify hopes to completely revolutionize education through their new tablet which makes teaching easier for educators and learning easier for students. The features of the new Amplify Tablet are built in for students and teachers, unlike other tablets which include entertainment and other utilities.

The Amplify Tablet’s most useful features aim to improve education by improving the communication that occurs between teachers and students. The first of these is the “Eyes on Teacher” function, which enable the teachers to send out messages to all of their students instantly. In addition to this, teachers are also able to poll students instantly to get their students ideas on certain class topics. By improving the communication that occurs during class, teachers can learn more about their students and can understand how their students feel about a particular subject or other class material. Furthermore, teachers can also hone in on individual students. Through the Amplify Tablet, teachers can send individual messages and ask questions instantly to students who may be struggling in class. By putting a greater focus on these students, teachers can tailor their lessons to help those who have a difficult time grasping tough concepts to ensure that no one falls behind. Beyond the benefits of added communication in class, there is even more that the Amplify Tablet offers.

The Amplify Tablets come pre-loaded with all the eBooks, lessons, applications, and simulations that students need all year. This allows students to complete their homework all through their tablet. Also, it cuts down on the expenses for schools. With eBooks, there are no costs for replacing beat up textbooks every few years and buying updated textbooks is easy and even less expensive. By including the needed lessons and simulations, Amplify Tablets allows learning to be fun and more visual for students, so they are less likely to become bored and lose interest in their lessons.

In addition all of the educational based material included on the tablets, tablets have 4G capabilities which let students connect to the WiFi in school or the 4G network when they are on the go. One of the last benefits of the Amplify Tablet is the price. Schools can buy a tablet for $299 for the WiFi only tablet or $349 for the 4G model. Also, there is a $99 annual charge for the materials bundle (including all of the lessons and eBooks for class) for the WiFi only model, and $179 annual charge for the 4G model. This means a school can have a high quality tablet utilizing today’s best technology in their students’ hands for a practical price.

Overall, the new Amplify Tablet will definitely work well to improve education. Since it was designed solely for teachers and students, it has everything that is needed for a full school year included. Its added benefits of improved communications, fully included class materials, and access to the internet gives schools the biggest bang for their buck. While it keeps students more involved in their class work, it remains a much more cost effective method of implementing technology in school when compared to other current methods.