Creating Websites with Android: Abort

I have high hopes for Android and I hope my current disappointment will be short-lived. I'm hoping that Android tablets can enter into the world of education and the classroom. I also hope that an Android tablet in the hands of students would be able to work for 80-90% of student computing tasks and needs. At the present it seems that Android can do a decent job of delivering web content as well as providing a number of specialized apps to take care of this or that. There's also a number of apps that allow you to be "social" and upload photos, videos, tweet and text. But it is all in an Android "box" powered by dedicated apps or mobile versions of websites.

Just at a time when the Internet has become a truly read/write web with an amazing choice of creative and interactive things to do "in the cloud" and personal computers are needing fewer and fewer installed applications, Android seems to be taking a technological regression step backwards to the time of DOS and $10 boxed floppy drive applications at the grocery store.

I'm talking about creating on the web, the write part of read/write. If students are to use tablets in school, they will need to be able to create with them. So far in my testing, creating with Android is painfully tedious and often impossible. Below are a few items I've been testing to see how things go.

• Goggle Documents: The mobile version only lets you type text. No formatting, no inserting, no sharing. The web/desktop/classic version just doesn't work. (Chrome Beta, Firefox Beta, Opera, Dolphin, stock browser) Download a doc, edit in an office program and upload back is not a workable option for students to learn and have to do. Google needs to have offline edit and sync for this to be workable.

Creating Websites from Scratch: Something 21st Century Skills schools would like their students to be able to do in one form or another.

• Google Sites: It just doesn't work to try to create a site from scratch on Android.

• trworkbench.com: keyboard is not available when you get to the login screen

• weebly.com: created new site but when assigning a URL, the "continue" button would not respond. Therefore, the site could not be published.  Trying to create' I could not add an element to a page. No creation possible. I did not test any further tools or site editing.

• wix.com: I was able to create a website (must allow popups) but once inside the editor the onscreen keyboard wouldn't appear. No creation possible.

• doodlekit.com: Account and new site creation OK, and working with various tools and features ok. I found a problem when editing content, the same problem I had while trying to edit a Blogger post. Once you add an image to a post/content area it becomes impossible to place the cursor anywhere after the image. Placing and moving the cursor above where there is an image works.

In the last example I think I have found a major bug and will work on trying to replicate it in other sites as well. I'm also going to be trying out some other onscreen keyboards, ones that more mimic a traditional keyboard with arrow keys.

Google must make Android so it can use the web like any other OS. Even though screen space on a 10" tablet with onscreen keyboard open is limited, we can work around this to still create. Students in schools who have adopted (Android) tablets for 1:1 should not have to schedule time on a PC to create. I'll be continuing my testing of creating on Android - there's so much to test.

Next I'm going to test some Wiki sites to see if any of those work for creating websites on Android.

Does anyone have any suggestions on website creating/editing on Android? Please share.

Google Blogger on Android

In trying to make some minor adjustments to this blog I was disappointed to find out that trying to edit anything in the layout didn't work using the tablet. I could not select anything. I tried to edit one of the sidebar gadgets and ended up with this using Firefox.

 

The stock Android browser didn't give me the above garble.

I had to upload this screenshot using file manager by the way. Trying to upload from Gallery doesn't work.

I tried editing Blogger with Firefox Beta, Opera, Chrome Beta, Dolphin and stock browser and none of them wouldn't let me edit the layout.

As much as I didn't want to do this, I'm finishing this post on my PC. After  saving the post and going to a different browser to continue, it is next to impossible to re-enter into the post to add more content. The cursor doesn't go where you want it to go. I also couldn't upload and add this next screenshot. It shows a blue rectangle around a portion of the text/post.

This blue rectangle really messes with you and it appeared in all browsers when re-editing the post after an initial save. You cannot place the cursor where you want it to go. I could not even upload this screenshot anywhere within the post including a random spot in the text where the cursor might have been. The dialog box that opens after clicking/pressing the image icon was unusable. Nothing except the cancel button would work.

What does this all mean?

It should be expected that if there is going to be 1:1 Android tablet programs in education, students should be able to create and work on something as simple as Blogger, start to finish using the tablet. Yet this task was extremely frustrating for me. I'm hoping to do as much work as I can with this blog and companion website using Andriod devices as possible.

Questions and Solutions:

What successes have you had with creating, designing, managing, posting and editing posts using Android? I know it is simple enough to send a text post to your blog. I think we will be wanting students to do more than just this.

Please share.
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Part 1: Asus Transformer Prime  Part 2: Lenovo AIO/ Mint 10

Keyboarding on Android

I've created the framework for the EdDroid website and now have my new Asus Transformer Prime tablet so it's time to get to work. Since this blog and site are about using Android in education I'm going to plan on using Andriod devices as much as possible in the creation and writing of everything. My first hurdle is getting used to typing on a screen.

RIght NOw I'm using The Android Keyboard(ICS). As you Can see, It keeps randomly Giving Me uppercase letters. ThIs iS A frustration. I don't believe I Am Touching anything T The KEYs I'M Also using GoOGle chrome beta so That may Be a problems. I'll Change Browsers.

Using Dolphin right now and things seem to work better. We'll give Google some time to work things out.

Though my tablet has the keyboard dock, I'll be testing without it because chances are that at least in the next year or two, tablet adopting schools probably won't be using one with keyboard docks.

One of my main frustrations with tablet keyboards is the missing arrow keys. I don,t like to tryand touch where I want to correct something or add something. Another is that while I'm typing, the text area doesn't scrool down as I type so I can see what I'm typing.

I changed over to Firefox now because I was having problems getting the keyboard abd touch cursor doing what I wanted while trying to correct errors. As my investigations continue I'll be sharing what browser works best for what as well. I'm writing this on the web version of Blogger. We'll see how other blogging tools work when I get that far.

I would like to make this a community forum so please help everyone by posting your thoughts, tips and tricks. Question: What do you find works best for keyboarding on tablets, Android specifically? How do we deal with keyboarding in the future? Will we teach on traditional pc keyboards and hope students will transition to tablet keyboards or should 1:1 schools begin keyboarding on tablets right away? Which keyboard to use?

EdDroid Begins

EdDroid is a site for using Andriod devices in education. It is hoped that those using Andriod in schools will build a community of sharing and best practices.

We are not haters of Apple or Windows or any other brand of OS or hardware. We welcome the sharing and input of anyone who knows something that will make education better. We want to focus on learning. Haters of any kind are not welcome to post. We're going to keep things positive here.