If you are in the market for a new BYOD device, Microsoft are doing a great job with the September package deal on the Surface 3, Pen and Type Cover!
This truly is a great package that will empower your students and teachers through the power of the pen. By combining the Surface 3 with the bundled OneNote software, touch type cover and pen, Microsoft gives students and teachers the opportunity to work at the highest levels of blooms digital taxonomy, creating. The surface is truly a creative powerhouse as it is not targeted at passive consumers of information like the iPad and Galaxy tab. Having a pen bundled with the device allows a greater level of cognition, as evidenced by this great research on the effectiveness of different note taking modes.
I have been using a Surface 3 along side my i5 Surface 3 Pro, sharing with my teaching colleagues since it’s release earlier this year, you can read my initial impressions on my previous blog post. Three months on and the surface is proving to be the device of choice for our teachers and students just like those from Saint Andrews College, as discussed in their blog post. The graph below shows their teachers opinion of the Surface Pro 3 and how likely they would be to recommend it to another teacher. These devices truly make a difference.
You can get aftermarket pens for most devices and I have trailed many of them, on an iPad, Galaxy tab and Windows hybrid devices, but no other can perform as well as the Surface pen. It comes down to the combination between the screen and the Bluetooth paired pen, there is custom pressure sensitivity adjustment so that you can make it feel arguably better than writing on paper. At $799 for a Surface 3 with Keyboard and Pen, this is far better value for money than the recently released Samsung Galaxy A tab which is limited in screen size, memory and has a pen the size pencil I used to use as a child at Pizza Hut.
The Surface 3 runs the full version of Windows 10, unlike it’s poor little brother the Surface RT that was limited by the short lived BING OS, the Surface 3 can handle running teaching software like the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 suite without any noticeably lag, this is what truly sets the Surface 3 apart from an iPad or Galaxy Tab. Students and teachers can run the full versions of desktop applications like Adobe Photoshop and create artworks by painting on canvas using the pen, or develop cross platform applications for IOS, Andriod and Windows with Visual Studio or touch develop.
The Surface 3 is your device of choice to enable your learners to work creatively at a great competitive price!
Troy Smith Microsoft Expert Educator New Zealand 