Tablet Wired Keyboards – An Education Must Have

Tablet Wired Keyboards – An Education Must Have appeared first on DiscountCell Reviews.

Bluetooth keyboards and folios have become inexpensive and popular.  For most these are a great solution when a keyboard is needed to be coupled with your tablet.  Bluetooth keyboard folios provide both a keyboard and a case to protect the tablet.  For K-12 though, Bluetooth keyboards can be a major headache and may not comply with state law regarding testing.

Bluetooth keyboards can be used by students to control tablets other than their own.  As a result, they are not secure for PARCC or other electronic standardized testing.  Wired keyboards, considered secure based on the direct connection to the tablet, are required by many states and school districts to ensure cheating by keyboard does not take place.  If an iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3 or other tablet is used, there is a secure wired keyboard available.

With wired tablet keyboards being a new product (only introduced in the last two years or so), updates and changes have been made as educators discover weaknesses with current products.  Some keyboard manufacturers produced products that had easy to remove keys.  As a result kids would move keys to different locations on the keyboard much to the annoyance of the next student to use the keyboard.  Even worse, keys would be removed and lost often requiring the purchase of an entirely new keyboard.

Belkin has spent considerable time and resources developing keyboards that are functional, secure, and student proof (as much as any product can be).  The new series of keyboards not only has pry proof keys but also built in stands for the tablet as well as stacking.  These keyboards come with either an Apple Lightning connector, Apple 30 pin connector or micro-usb connector.  The stand fits all cases we tested with the keyboards and worked well in securing the tablet.  One warning, the Apple connectors are not compatible with all cases including the Otterbox Defender and LifeProof cases.  These cases only fit the OEM charging connector so the Belkin connector is too wide for the case port opening.  With multiple contract solutions including WSCA-NASPO 1907, Digital Edge, Erie 1 Boces and multiple Texas Education District contracts, Discountcell has an easy path to purchase for almost any government or education entity.

Belkin Stacking Tablet Keyboard