- I am a high school social studies teacher. I am ditching my huge, monster 17" laptop for a 64GB Playbook. I teach on a college campus so my office is in one building and classroom is in another. I am tired of packing that huge thing around! I can't wait for my new toy to get here. It should arrive on the 21st! After my last class, I plan on picking it up from main office (had it mailed to school to keep it away from my own teens) and heading to the university's open source wifi to update to 2.0.
I live in the wilderness known as Montana. The valley I live in has about 4,000 residents. The cell service (Verizon) at my house is spotty (don't turn your head the wrong way) and my internet choices are dial-up or satellite. We splurged on WildBlue - its not great but better than dial-up.
I can update my cell soon. I am debating updating to a BB for the Bridge capabilities. I don't know as the reception/signal strength here is somewhat unreliable. They have been meaning to put in another cell tower out our way for about 6 years!
I am so excited!!! I should have had the PB sent via one day shipping!
I am rambling.
Susan02-20-12 12:06 AMLike 4 - I am excited for you, I hope that it does allow you to carry the files and information you need in a neat, light and very portable machine!02-20-12 12:12 AMLike 0
- Welcome to the forums. The playbook is very nice for portability. I've even got a good number of pants that the playbook will fit in the pocket of. (with the case on it)
The bridge is also nice, but I've noticed issues using bluetooth audio with bridge files. I'm hoping it'll be fixed on Tuesday.
Hope you enjoy your playbook as much as I have.02-20-12 01:44 AMLike 0 - Sucks that you have to use Wildblue. There may be hope, however:
Satellite web surfing at 40Mbps with ViaSat SurfBeam 2 Pro (video) -- Engadget02-20-12 02:08 AMLike 0 - Congrats on getting an awesome tablet BUT do not ditch your laptop!!! I have said this many times, tablets were not meant to replace laptops. Use the PlayBook to augment your monster 17". Check out this thread for a cool little experiment that was done to see how practical it is to replace a laptop with a tablet (in this case the PlayBook)02-20-12 03:21 AMLike 0
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I'm a STRONG believer that the 9900 is a perfect companion for the PB. It has the keyboard, & if you want a bigger screen, you have the PB.
........Depending on how quickly your doing the upgrade, come Christmas, there will be a rumoured 9900 replacement comming. (first BBX/BB10 device will be full touch screen)02-20-12 04:16 AMLike 0 - Get the BlackBerry, purely for the remote functionality coming in OS2. I can imagine it'll work really well working on documents etc. Either that or get a Bluetooth keyboard.
Welcome to the PB Club.02-20-12 04:33 AMLike 0 - I am a high school social studies teacher. I am ditching my huge, monster 17" laptop for a 64GB Playbook. I teach on a college campus so my office is in one building and classroom is in another. I am tired of packing that huge thing around! I can't wait for my new toy to get here.02-20-12 07:10 AMLike 0
- She's a social studies teacher, not an English teacher....she needs all the slack he can get.
Last edited by alnamvet68; 02-20-12 at 12:58 PM. Reason: gender mistake
02-20-12 07:15 AMLike 0 - Superfly_FRRetired ModeratorStrange, while English is not my mother tongue, I read "new toy" which seems idiomatic, while you read it "toy" literally ...02-20-12 07:25 AMLike 0
- I am leaving the laptop at home for two reasons: size and my two oldest teens need to be able to type papers for high school. It is hooked up with the satellite internet using my wifi router. Is there is a better way ... ?
During class I like to show pictures of the time period/places we are talking about; the PB will do that as well or better than my laptop. Our school bought us Promethian Boards (think smart boards but waaay better) and they are hooked up to a dedicated desktop. Now if I could get ActivInspire (Promethian software) on my PB I would be soooo psyched!!! Even just the ability to draw (on top of the projected image) without all the other bells and whistles. I'll use the desktop when I need to use the students' input devices.
There really are no "dumb ?'s" but I feel pretty ignorant about the PB (even though I have been stalking it all over the web)!
Dumb ? #1 - Is there a way to sort through the app world for playbook apps? If there is I haven't figured it out yet - I tried.
Dumb ? #2 - I would like to read books - If I want to use the Amazon Cloud Reader, which e-reader do you think works best with it?
Dumb ? #3 - Grade Book app - I see ones for students. Is there one for teachers (did I miss it?)
Yes I refer to it as my "toy" but it will end up being a "work horse". I was being silly - I just can't wait to get my PB.
Thanks! Susan02-20-12 10:26 AMLike 0 - I am a high school social studies teacher. I am ditching my huge, monster 17" laptop for a 64GB Playbook. I teach on a college campus so my office is in one building and classroom is in another. I am tired of packing that huge thing around! I can't wait for my new toy to get here. It should arrive on the 21st! After my last class, I plan on picking it up from main office (had it mailed to school to keep it away from my own teens) and heading to the university's open source wifi to update to 2.0.
I live in the wilderness known as Montana. The valley I live in has about 4,000 residents. The cell service (Verizon) at my house is spotty (don't turn your head the wrong way) and my internet choices are dial-up or satellite. We splurged on WildBlue - its not great but better than dial-up.
I can update my cell soon. I am debating updating to a BB for the Bridge capabilities. I don't know as the reception/signal strength here is somewhat unreliable. They have been meaning to put in another cell tower out our way for about 6 years!
I am so excited!!! I should have had the PB sent via one day shipping!
I am rambling.
Susan02-20-12 10:42 AMLike 0 - Hi Susan,
Congrats on your PB purchase. Working in a school district, with Promethean Activeboards, we are testing Ipads with some teachers. There is really nothing available from Promethean for any tablet at this point. If you want to project your playbook onto your activboard this is what you will need (assuming that your setup is similiar to ours with a wall box that uses vga to connect the PC to the projector).
First you will need is a micro hdmi to hdmi cable found here:
For]For only $6.80 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 15ft 34AWG Standard HDMI� Cable With Ethernet w/Ferrite Core - HDMI� Micro Connector male to HDMI� Connector male - Black | Micro-HDMI to HDMI Cables
Here is the adapter to go from HDMI to vga. I have been wanting to pick one up but haven't gotten around to it so I have never tried it but would assume it would work for what you need:
HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter | HP� Official Store
From that adapter you would take the vga plug that goes to the back of your pc and plug that into the HP adapter. You should then be able to project your playbooks image onto your activboard. If you want audio you would need another cable which I am going to assume uses the same end as on a set of headphones. This should work:
For only $0.88 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 12ft 3.5mm Stereo Plug/Plug M/M Cable - Black | 3.5mm Audio M/M Cables
Hope this helps. if you have any more questions ask away. Of course please review this with your tech department as our Activboard setup may be different then what your district is running. They would know if what I sent you is good and will work properly.Last edited by xxxmerlinxxx; 02-20-12 at 11:21 AM.
02-20-12 11:17 AMLike 0 -
- It's all good. I like your saying about reading ... I teach at a National Guard Challenge Academy for at risk teens. Most of our staff is current NG or veterans.
I think I may have come up with a solution for using my classrooms Promethian board and PB. I will just have to talk our IT into installing the free desktop version of Splashtop onto the dedicated computer. I think I should be able to control the Inspiron software from my PB.
Susanalnamvet68 likes this.02-20-12 01:51 PMLike 1 - It's all good. I like your saying about reading ... I teach at a National Guard Challenge Academy for at risk teens. Most of our staff is current NG or veterans.
I think I may have come up with a solution for using my classrooms Promethian board and PB. I will just have to talk our IT into installing the free desktop version of Splashtop onto the dedicated computer. I think I should be able to control the Inspiron software from my PB.
Susan02-20-12 02:00 PMLike 0
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