The Amplify Tablet is an
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
-based
tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...
. The Amplify Tablet is bundled with custom software designed to enable a "personalized" learning experience for students, allowing them to manage classwork, access online resources, and interact with class assignments or other students. A new version of the tablet was released in 2014 in order to contend with problems its predecessor had encountered in the classroom environment.
Development and release
The Amplify Tablet was developed by
Amplify Education—the education subsidiary of
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's
News Corp
News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...
, in conjunction with its
Common Core
The Common Core State Standards Initiative, also known as simply Common Core, is an educational initiative from 2010 that details what K–12 students throughout the United States should know in English language arts and mathematics at the conc ...
-based digital
curriculum
In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
products. Amplify's CEO
Joel Klein
Joel Irwin Klein (born October 25, 1946) is an American lawyer and school superintendent. He was the New York City School Chancellor, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district, public school system in t ...
stated that the goal of the device was to help "to transform the way teachers teach and students learn." The device emphasizes a "blended learning" model built around the "language of the
web
Web most often refers to:
* Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal
* World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to:
Computing
* WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
", which combines digital means of teaching with traditional means inside and outside a classroom. Amplify began trialing the platform at schools in November 2012, before its general launch at
SXSWedu on March 6, 2013. Guilford County Schools became the first school board to officially deploy Amplify, with the announcement that it would distribute 15,450 Amplify Tablets to the students and staff of its middle schools for the 2013-14 school year.
[
]
Specifications
Intel Education designed the current version of the Amplify Tablet, which connects to the Internet through a dual-band dual-antenna WiFi radio, added to help with general connectivity challenges in school environments. It comes with a dual-core Intel Atom Processor Z2580 running at 2.0 GHz with Android 4.2 according to Intel. The devices also come with Bluetooth and a battery charge that lasts the length of the school day. It is also equipped with two cameras, a 1.3 mp camera on the front and 5mp camera on the back. Entering the 2014 school year, devices are leased to schools on a three-year contract. It comes pre-loaded with educational material from publishers like ''Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...
'' and ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary
''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...
'', in addition to apps like Desmos Graphic Calculator and StudyBlue.
Previous versions of the Amplify Tablet used similar hardware to the Asus Transformer Pad TF300T
The Asus Transformer Pad TF300T is a 2-in-1 detachable tablet from the Asus Transformer Pad series. It runs Android, has a quad-core processor, and a successor to Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The Transformer design includes an optional dockin ...
, with a screen, Nvidia
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
Tegra 3
Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics proc ...
quad-core system-on-chip, and a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera. The Amplify Tablet was available in two models, a Wi-Fi only model, and an "Amplify Tablet Plus" model which added support for AT&T Mobility
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the thi ...
's LTE
LTE may refer to:
Science and technology
* LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard
** LTE Advanced, an enhancement
*** LTE Advanced Pro
* Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq
* ...
network.
The tablet's home screen displays an application launcher and a sidebar organizing class subjects into a list of "Notebooks". The software also enables a suite of classroom management
Classroom management is the process teachers use to ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly without disruptive behavior from students compromising the delivery of instruction. It includes the prevention of disruptive behavior preemptively, as ...
functions for teachers, such as automatically determining attendance, collecting feedback, taking class polls, tracking users who are on task, blocking access to apps, and distributing classroom material.
Guilford County distribution
On October 4, 2013, Guilford County Schools announced that it would recall all of the Amplify Tablets and accessories that it had deployed for quality and safety concerns, after reports that a student's charger had overheated and melted.[ The recall by Guilford County was also intended to address other hardware faults with the tablets; the board stated that around 1,500 of the tablets already had broken screens (and did not use ]Gorilla Glass
Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its seventh generation. Designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant, the glass gains its surface strength, ability to contain flaws, and c ...
, as they had specifically requested), and about 175 of their chargers were broken. An external evaluator stated that there were no manufacturing defects in the devices sent to Guilford County. Amplify spokesperson Justin Hamilton noted that the defective charger was an isolated occurrence, but that Guilford's deployment had a larger number of broken screens than other deployments. Guilford County Schools resumed using the devices in 2014 following a pilot program that showed the initial problems had been resolved, stating that Amplify's response to their situation was part of the reason they would continue to work with them. A 2015 agreement between GCS and Amplify Education permanently severed their relationship at the end of the 2015-16 school year.
References
See also
* Comparison of tablet computers
This is a list of tablet computers, grouped by intended audience and form factor.
Media tablets
Multimedia tablets are compared in the following tables.
Larger than screen
Following two tables compare larger than screen multimedia tablets rele ...
* One Laptop Per Child
{{ASUS, computers=yes, tablets=yes, phones=yes, other1=yes, other2=yes, below=yes
Amplify
Tablet computers
Android (operating system) devices
Tablet computers introduced in 2013
Intel products