Thank you for including the article in your wiki that discusses the game-changing ability of iPads. I agree that this is a cool tool that students will enjoy and engagement will likely follow…but I noted 2 comments that tell me that the iPad, as it stands now, will not be as globally accepted as hoped: […]
Continue reading Game Changer? Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Actually, I don’t use an iPad – or any other tablet. Never have beyond the aisle of a store. It’s not that I’m not interested in one, it’s just that I don’t see enough personal benefit in them to justify the large pricetag at the moment. What about student benefits, though? Surely, we can all […]
Continue reading Discussion #2 – iPad, uPad, willweallPad? Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Any chance of theft of these devices in schools? How do teachers deal with that? Or is it a concern at all?
Brenda
It must be a concern. I wonder if there could be some remote bricking command that could be transmitted to an iPad recognized as stolen…
One story I heard before of a school that got one iPad for every student went something like this:
Someone asked the principal what they would do if one of them broke. The principal said they would replace it. Expensive, but a clear solution!
Hi Stephen, I do agree with you about the Flash issue. However, as I mentioned before, there are some tools based on Flash that are working on developing apps for iPad and overcome this issue (e.g. Prezi, http://www.prezi.com).
About the Internet connection (WiFi), you argue that it is not a device fault. Do you have in mind some options that might overcome this?
And, Brenda, theft of these devices in schools is a relevant issue to consider. Educators must inspire a their students of taking care of technologies. However, some precautions must be taken. Any thoughts about what precautions should we take?
I suppose it is up to each school board as to what policies they have in place for any kind of theft – cell phones, school equipment, iPods etc.
I wonder if any schools have students rent them or put damage deposits down on them (similar to the use of instruments in a band program).
Angela, I know there are some tools based on Flash that are becoming compatible, but I don’t want some. I want all! I don’t want some device I use to not be able to handle something that is a fairly standard file type, plugin, etc.
As for WiFi, it’s not so much that I am arguing but just saying it in passing – the fact that it needs WiFi to function fully isn’t the device’s “fault” – it just needs it. It puts the pressure on schools or places of work to have the infrastructure in place to do such things. I think that at this time, education / the work world needs to have things like wireless access set up to enable people to do more things. To me, there’s no point in even investigating them / inquiring about them until our school gets such access. The only options I can think of that would overcome that hurdle would be wired network access (talk about annoying on a device like that), or to have large chunks of information stored on it to use it offline.
I love the cartoon – that’s great and I agree we all go a little crazy over new technology.
I too have not found a good enough reason to get one. One of my friends have one and they happen to mention they were downloading apps to replace some of the other ‘tools’ in their house – like a calculator, etc. I cannot find good enough reasons to justify the cost – even if I replaced all my calculators, rulers, etc.
I do a lot of word processing and find the touch screen difficult to manage my typing – although you can get keyboards for them now. I still need a better reason to get one though.
It’s great to have a new toy – but lets call it what it is. If we are using it for gaming and videos than it is an entertainment system and depending on how many games you play depends if the end justifies the means.
I think that there is a market for the IPad in K-12 but I work in the area of corporate training programs and I think that this market is a long way off. One major strike against it is that the IPad is Mac based instead of PC based. This is a disadvantage because the […]
Continue reading Discussion 2 – corporate training perspective Posted in: Uncategorized, Week 09: iPad Apps
Hi Julie,
I definitely agree with you that changing to iPads will take time, which depends highly on the use of which computer companies are used to: PC or Macs.
i believe the Mac generation is aimed towards younger students, who are mostly trained using
macs, therefore may see a major shift in the future. As for now, most companies are familiar with PC because that’s what they’ve been using for so many years.
I wonder what the shift will look like years from now? PC or Macs?
Jenaca
@jenaca – I find your question intriguing – what will be next PCs or MACs? It’s the same question that has been asked since the Mac first came out and focussed so much on the education sector. Exactly your argument – surely the technology of the younger generation will prevail has been used before. But that didn’t happen with the first round of competition for the workplace desktop marketplace and I’m curious to see what will happen next.
The closed architecture of the Mac is part of the reason they haven’t ended up being adopted as well in business. Quite simply there are far fewer applications designed for the Mac because the system is proprietary and therefore it’s more costly to design for. Right now, in Canada anyway, from a mobile application perspetive, the Blackberry has a stronghold over the Iphone. If this were to change then I think we could see a strong impetus for other changes to follow -including the Ipad, including more Mac desktops/laptops.
One thing to think about is the heavy investment in PC infrastructure across so many companies. The cost of transitioning a whole company’s infrastructure from PC to Mac, and the cost of an interim transition of maintaining and providing support for two architectures, and the staff training that would be required. This is surely to prevent a massive transition from happening for a while. Which is not to say it will never happen. I like both platforms for different reasons. Mac is better for design and entertainment and the PC is better for business. Which one is better for learning? Personally, I think Mac wins hands down, particularly with the invention of the IPad and it’s potential. I’m not sure Mac will ever want or need to go into the business specfic market. Interesting thoughts to contemplate.
Hi Julie,
Thanks for touching on a perspective that we didn’t give all that much attention to; the corporate sector. The fact that so many companies are entrenched in PCs really disadvantages the iPad in moving into this market. The cost and time to make the switch may outweigh the actual benefits if what the iPad has to offer is not that much more than what can be done now current devices.
You mentioned some companies actually blocking iPads from the network. I wonder if this is due to the perception of the iPad as still a media consumption device so companies are trying to discourage iPad network use for gaming, video and music downloads?
As you mentioned, with more businesses creating mobile applications this may open the market and create a shift to the iPad but as other tablet devices compete closely, companies may decide to go with android device to avoid the shift from PC to apple OS.
@Jay. Good question – why were they blocking the IPad. I had a chance to ask a bit about this question and in one case the answer was the additional load on the corporate network. IT didn’t want the network to slow down for the business applications. This implies as you suggested, that the employees would be using it for non business purposes. In the second case the IT department wasn’t ready to support these devices. They were testing and doing analysis on them and it would only be a matter of time before they eventually added them to the ‘acceptable and suppported’ device list. I found it interesting that it was even physically possible to blog a connection to the internet based on the type of device.
I think you’re right that the increasing applications for mobility and non traditional interfaces (finger vs. mouse), motion sensing and the like may speed up advances in technologies like Android devices and provide options to the IPad. It sometimes seems to me that the IPad is the only ‘game’ in town because I own one and am so intrigued by it. It will be great if the IPad drives further innovation in the Android market.
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Jay 8:37 am on November 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Brenda. The two comments you have highlighted that the iPad as an educational technology device does not fill a need or aim to solve a problem since it cannot replace other “computing or communication devices”. While it offers features and applications that other devices may not, the cost of supplementing computing devices instead of replacing them is too high to be considered a good investment for some.
What features would Apple have to include in their next model for you, as an administrator, to consider its purchase and see it as a device more able to meet the needs in schools?
jenaca 4:06 am on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Brenda,
I am very curious about the second question you posted here.
“At what point do we have too many devices and choose to buy the one device that combines the features of two? “
I think that because there are so many different kinds of technologies available, we are all becoming unsure of which “new” device to buy. Right when we think we’ve decided to purchase something, a new and upgraded version comes out on the market.
Jenaca
jenaca 10:27 am on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ~Albert Einstein
andrea 11:21 am on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This is an interesting point, because we want to have devices that do things *well* but we also don’t want to have 10 devices each with only a specialized purpose. For example I’ve heard that the Kindle app on the iPad isn’t as good as Kindle itself, and while the camera in my iPhone is really good it’s not quite as good as my other camera. I wouldn’t trade my iPhone for anything, but it would be nice if the screen was a bit better for reading… You know how it goes!