End of week one with an iPad. I’ll go through my thoughts and experiences with it and how I think it relates to education.
1) not a laptop. This was told to me before I got it and it helped. I have heard from several people that were anti-ipad people and from what I gathered, their failure in liking it was that they were looking for a laptop replacement. It isn’t. I have tried to carry it with me to class and only use it instead of taking my laptop. While this works for me some of the time, I have found that I need my laptop,at least in it’s bag with me for things that just will not work with the iPad. If you go at it with the philosophy that it is not a laptop but something different, your success might be greater. Using remote desktop apps is one way to bypass the shortcomings of the device, but even that is a little clunky.
2) Greatest consuming device I have ever used. If your objective is to read, browse, find information this is the greatest device. It’s light, flashy, the interface just screams “use me”, and it’s actually fun to find content on it. Does it work with every website, no, and that is its greatest downfall here. I wish it did, heck our own Student Information Program will not even load on it. But a vast majority of sites do, so that’s what important.
3) Apps, Apps, and more Apps. This is what led me to want to try it was the vast amount of applications that are available to the device. There are many sites that have created apps that make finding information even easier. For example, I am an IMDB fanatic. One of the most annoying things is to see an actor on some movie and not be able to place where I had seem them before. The IMDB app on the ipad makes it very quick and easy to find out information. This is the same for some other sites, such as Kayak. Same information as the full site, just easier to navigate. I wonder if the Android market will be the same soon, but currently the Apple is the best right now.
4) Use in classrooms. No, I don’t think it’s there quite yet. I have heard of some schools using them for textbooks. I will write another post soon about how I think textbooks on this format will be the best, but currently, not there. Using a $500 device to view a PDF on a device that doesn’t do everything you can on a netbook isn’t good use of school money. If there were MANY apps that were already installed that supported a teachers curriculum and were useful, this might be a viable approach. You cannot type a large amount of text comfortably, but then again most can’t on a netbook either. There is no multi-user support, so it isn’t great for a cart in the classroom. I can see the future, and these devices are the center of it, but I just don’t know if it is primetime for them right now as a classroom device.
- One thing I will say, I could see these devices as something for supplemental in a classroom. I can remember elementary school and there sitting in the corner was a shiny new apple IIe. There was hardly a use for this computer in a 3rd grade classroom other than “lemonade stand” or “Oregon Trail.” But it was technology and the school was right to allow students access to something that they might not have access to. As well, those games were enrichment that I believe had an effect on most kids. The iPad might be that Apple IIe in the classroom right now that just provides enrichment to some students.
That’s all for now. I enjoy using the iPad and hope that it stays as a cornerstone of my professional life. Apple is on the verge of a revolution, they have the opportunity to take the world by storm with this device if they don’t just cater it completely towards consumers and not have their eyes on education. Android devices may take them over and it will be interesting to watch how things develop. With the open source availability of Android you get go cheaper, and wider, but with the standards that Apple imposes, you have reliability and consistency that would make a great device for education.
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