Hi everyone. I've been looking into buying an iPad for my child's remote distance learning but I'm not sure which one I should get him or if I should wait for a refresh in October. I've been looking at the basic iPad and the iPad Air but not sure if I need an iPad Air for google classroom video chat and to do homework when assigned. He isn't doing anything too intensive since he's in 1st grade but maybe my wife can use it as well for typing in pages for here college work. Any suggestions guys?
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iPad Looking to buy an iPad for child for remote learning but which one?
- Thread starter jackclown813
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Not that I know of. They were issuing Chromebooks and iPad's at the end of last school year but I want my child to have his own.
Either should work fine for the mentioned usage. Consider how much storage you'll need. iPad 10.2 is 32GB/$329 and 128GB/$429 while iPad Air 3 is 64GB/$499 and 256GB/$649.
Repairs are cheaper for the iPad 10.2 with non-laminated display and it feels more sturdy than the Air 3. No white spot issue, either.
If you don't need one asap though, it's probably worth waiting to see what's available in October.
Repairs are cheaper for the iPad 10.2 with non-laminated display and it feels more sturdy than the Air 3. No white spot issue, either.
If you don't need one asap though, it's probably worth waiting to see what's available in October.
Assuming hes going to be zooming with his teachers and such, you should probably get the iPad Air 3. It has a higher quality 1080p 7MP front facing camera.
My 2nd grader used an iPad when kids were sent home last year. I’m not recommending against an iPad but I think it might be a good idea to see what the teacher/classmates are using because I feel like I allowed my personal love of iPads to over-influence choose the wrong tool for her needs.
The problems (and solutions) we had were:
- Multitasking. It was either awkward or not supported. Zoom, google Classroom, Safari. Research etc. She started with just a Mini but I ended up adding a 2nd ipad (9.7” Pro) in order to get the multitasking done.
- Typing. She had a 9.7” Pro with Smart Keyboard. Typing class was fine but I wonder about learning on a non-full-size keyboard with mushy keys.
- Multi User. No multiuser meant the iPad had to be cleared and set ONLY for her (or else she would have access to our personal data). And since she needed two iPads then that meant both went to her. *With Chromebook we had multiple user login So it was easy to switch.
- Apps. I was surprised that some apps were not full versions. For some projects we had to borrow her sisters chromebook.
- Price. I bought the older kid a $100 Chromebook and the younger one had an iPad Mini + Pro 9.7. I’m very tempted to use the kids as an excuse to get a MacBook Air as a “family computer” but to be honest I am feeling a personal and disposable-priced Chromebook may be the better choice for this age.
Again, I’m not recommending against an IPad. Outside of school then I love that my kids each have one. But (for us) they were pretty disappointing. We haven’t gotten our curriculum yet for this year so maybe they will fit better now that schools have a plan (crosses fingers). But for now we’re waiting things out.
The low end iPad 128GB should work just fine. Being in first grade shouldn’t require a lot of storage space.
Depends. My daughter looooooooooves to take pictures and videos. Storage is a battle.
That is a good point I had not considered. Being single it didn’t cross my mind.
Hmm, I guess a Chromebook might work better than an iPad. I'm just not sure which one is best and I was really looking forward to getting an iPad that he might use for reading or doing assignments with an Apple Pencil. Maybe I'll rent one from his school to test out before we buy him his own.
I ran into many of those same problems as well. I don’t think Zoom is well optimized in iPadOS at all, but the cameras are better than the cheap Chromebook our school issued to us.
When it came to education apps that the teachers used, the iPads were better hands down. I think the only use case scenario in which I preferred the Chromebook was using Google classroom, but only because I didn’t really try to use Google classroom on the iPad. I just naturally assumed a Chromebook would be better.
We are also looking to purchase the next interaction of the base iPad for this upcoming school year. I want to make it work on iPads but if it doesn’t, give my kids my old Mac mini.
Kudos for the comprehensive post.
I wonder if perhaps a $100 Chromebook paired with $249-329 base iPad would be a better combo to get rather than iPad+keyboard.