Question: Is there a market for this technology within education? I believe that there is a market for this technology in education, albeit quite limited. Steve Kaufman’s reasons on why the iPad will change education are all valid, but they don’t necessarily speak to the market itself, as is. The iPad in its current incarnation […]
Continue reading Discussion #2 – iPad in education Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Prior to the start of the school year, and this MET course, I attended a workshop in my school district which asked a question similar to the one above, whether the iPad will provide useful educational content for teachers and students, or if it will be used for games and other distractions. The principal who […]
Continue reading Educational Tool or Toy? – Week 9 Discussion #2 Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think that creating a conscience among students that they are a community, and as a community, they are responsible of the learning process of all its members (in this case by taking care of the iPads) is great.
Angela.
@kstooshnove
I didn’t know about the 12 minute rule – thanks for that!
Your story about the locked away devices reminds me of a study I did a few years back for BCNet about the educational use of video conferencing across a few Universities engaging in a pilot program. A minority of pilot users kept their video conferencing equipment locked in a closet. There stories were failures where almost everyone else was a huge success. It seems that the difficult access kept everyone on their teams, including themselves, from using the technology. The equipment may be safe but does it matter if it’s not going to get used?
I’m also interested in the GPS capabilities. I think this is one of the most high potential areas for learning. Getting outside and interactive will be huge fun for the kids.
There is an article (GPS mobile phones but not Macs – it’s flash based) – Mobile Game Based Learning: Designing a Mobile Locaiton Based Game by Sandra Schadenbauer, that you may be interested in. They describe a game in the framework of Moodle. It’s clear and has conceptual model screen shots.
Cheers,
Julie
Hi kstooshnov,
Your post was very informative. Thank you for sharing your experience which has proved useful in classes with limited resources. Through your post I saw the use of technology can be effective in cooperative groups.
Thank you for the tips on the “12 minutes”. It was a very informative post.
I haven’t used the iPad for formal or informal learning, but have been considering to purchase one for educational purposes (especially for my teaching) since I couldn’t afford to purchase a tabletPC.
Deb
Please join us in an exciting week as we uncover and discover the many uses of the iPad and its apps in the realm of education. You can view our Introduction on VoiceThread. Connect with us on our wikispace dedicated to the ipad. You can also find our class wiki from the landing page or […]
Continue reading Welcome to the ETEC 522 Market Analysis of the iPad Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps Thank you for taking part in the poll: Which handheld device would work best in the K-12 classroom? Kindle leads the way, catching 6/15 votes, and discussion on this topic shows that price and ease of use are two of the most attractive features, while on-line tools added to the latest version, Kindle Fire, make […]
Continue reading Results of eReader poll Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
Thanks for the update on the poll. Definitely will help me on my quest for my own eReader!
I know, it doesn’t seem fair, but it is what it is. The ipad, right now, is the main game in town (wow – I just can’t stop with the game references). Why? It has the e-reader plus more. I am a recent user of an ipad 2, and a veteran user of a Kobo. […]
Continue reading iPad vs everything else… Posted in: Week 06: eBooks
Hey Emily,
Very interesting post! I currently have a kobo, although I am very interested in upgrading to the one and only “Ipad”! I think your title is dead on…Ipads are the number one device that can virtually do everything! I really don’t think others compare, unless you are only interested in reading. Then I would have to compare the features of the ereaders more specifically.
Jenaca
Hi Emily,
It would be a great thing to have school boards have their own ebook stores or library and students can come with their own ereaders (possessing all these features you have mentioned in the last paragraph) to access whatever text in class and study and discuss together, enabling collaboration in class with the ereaders. What a wonderful world of ereading 🙂
Before you publish your posting, please make sure that you select a category (eg. Introductions) as well as assign some meaningful tags (keywords).
Deb Giesbrecht 6:19 pm on November 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
If Apple strategically places itself in educational institutions – similar to what Gates did with Microsoft – the potential future market would be expansive. I think you are right though – the present incarnation of the ipad is limiting. It will be interesting to see where they will go from here – post Steve Jobs.
Presently there are limitations. I agree with you – I am not sure the cost outweighs the benefits. As well, the durability of the device amongst school age children may be more of a problem then school boards want to take on right now. Maybe a highly indestructible design would assist in opening the market a bit. However, the biggest obstacle is likely the inability to run Flash media.
Doug Smith 8:59 pm on November 3, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
There are workarounds for Flash, albeit probably not ones that a school will want to engage in.
Unless there is a massive change in the way public schools are run, I have no doubts that the iPad market in Canadian public education will stay around zero. There is no way that each student will be given a $600 device that has a shelf-life of maybe 2 years (not counting devices that get broken). It’s not even close. Perhaps universities are a better place to look, but then again, I don’t think university students are that interested in apps that have primary level math games.
A typical secondary school in Vancouver can barely keep computer labs running with 3 year old computers at a ratio of around 14 to 20 students per $450 computer (latest quote for a Dell PC purchased by the school district).