Is the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 a Teacher's Dream?...Update

Samsung released a ton of new products yesterday, most notably it's latest version of the Galaxy Note Series.  These are cell phones with large screens and stylus for note taking.  Gottabemobile has a great review of some of the more interesting qualities of the new note.

While at ISTE 2013, I ran into several...at least 10...K-12 teachers who use the Galaxy Note II as their cell phone and absolutely love it, IN and out of the classroom.  I was surprised by their IN use at all, and asked them why and how they used the Galaxy Note in the classroom.  I paraphrase a few comments made be to me at ISTE:

• 'It is my 'device' in a BYOD classroom.  Big screen but easy to carry.  I'm a small girl and don't want that big tablet to lug around.'
• 'I can take notes on my students in the note program.  I walk around while the kids are doing things, and I can make notes to refer to later.  I don't forget so much anymore.'
• 'We have fast wireless in our school, so I can search as fast as the kids on the computer with this phone.  I can keep in touch with other teachers at my school by text, which is nice.  I feel more secure with my phone on me at all times, in case something crazy happens here.'
• 'It's great for making drawings to help students and taking notes about my students.  Parent teacher meetings have more meat to them.  I really want to use it to control my powerpoints, too.  Do you know how I can do that?'

There were many more.  The main points were taking notes, connected, communications, and portable.  The teachers with the Note II were all female, by the way.  So, the size of the device hit the sweet spot for the ladies...carried mainly in a bag, not as big as a tablet but a big enough screen that eyes didn't need to suffer.  And, the pen.  All of the ladies loved the pen and would not get another device that didn't have a stylus.

How would you want to use a 'phablet' device in your classroom?

Here's a nice video of the features of the new Galaxy Note 3.