D2 – Ipad
Is there a market for this technology within education?
I believe iPad would have a place in education. But, it needs support.
The educators need to be creative in how to use iPad in their class. Without proper guidance and strategy, the learners might end-up taking class pictures and uploading them to Facebook.
Secondly, appropriate applications should be provided. The application can be web or install base.
If it is install base (from App Store), then we definitely need the support of the developers to come up with applications we could use in class.
If it is web base, there are several Web 2.0 tools that we could use to help us create our content and make it “web presentable”.
Some might argue that there are existing games that can be used to explain certain concepts. Example, Angry Birds to explain the concept of trajectory, This could be true… but .. to what extent. Can it explain the mathematical aspect behind the concept? Does a learner really learn trajectory when playing Angry Birds or something else ?
hahaha … It think as a class we might put up a new Venture. Developing Learning Applications for iPad. Our team would be different because we are practitioners. 🙂 (sorry, out of topic)
Do I use or want to use iPad in my class? No.
Hold on! don’t get upset.
I teach programming and the language we are using is not supported in iPad.
Secondly, it is difficult to write long line of codes in a “little” screen … and it becomes even smaller when the virtual keyboard appears.
cheers,
SMC
Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Kristopher 12:45 pm on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi SMC,
The presenting group discussed ‘the true cost of ownership’ and it was a really great way of conceptualizing how there are many other considerations beyond simply purchasing the tools.
You raise a good point that is echoed by others in their posts: iPads are not a blanket solution that will meet everyone’s needs. I think one of the clever things that Apple has done, is to require another computer for updating and some other tasks, which means that the user is going to be fooled into thinking the pad is a stand alone.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Deb Giesbrecht 6:08 pm on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I so wish that my physics classes taught through angry birds! I think people would have showed up to class more.!
You raise a very good point – programming technology and what it does and does not support. Apple provides many good educational apps -although I am unsure of how it fits into educator’s lesson plans.There has not been a lot of comments on that this week. It would be great to see people create more lesson plans and have an open source platform where you could not only share these ideas but assist in collaboration projects. This would prevent educators from re-inventing the wheel and promote usage and collaboration amongst colleagues.
By the way – a better app for demonstrating gravity, balance and skill is definitely ‘glass tower’!