[Offtopic] Ipads

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Having jumped from an iPad to a netbook school .. the things that the iPad
does well (eBook, battery life, robust etc etc.) it does blindingly better
than a netbook. During a recent meeting, I had a word document for
discussion open on both my laptop and iPad (shared by DropBox of course) ..
you can guess what I handed around during the meeting to reinforce a point
about something that I wanted us to delibrate on. I see the same happening
when groups of kids are working on iPads (oddly enough, it is easier to see
what they are doing and keep them on task as the tablets sit flatter on the
desk).

I think we need to stop thinking that the way we prefer to work with our
laptops as educators will directly map onto how students should use and work
with tablet devices. Yes, they are not laptops .. but then again, laptops
don't fit as well into the cooperative learning spaces that we are building
for students.

This is the clincher and increasingly convinces me that when it comes to 1:1
computing, tablet computers are the way to go. All that a classroom perhaps
needs then is access to a lab or couple of desktops for specialist tools and
some legacy applications.

Sadly, Flash is dying and not because of Apple. Increasingly HTML5 is taking
over, just a matter of time.

You raise a very good point about the future of huge school IT networks and
the need for continuous connectivity beyond a school LAN. I do have a
concern, how do we disassemble and redirect the energy we have tied up in
this empire of wire?

Regards Roland

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 1:22 PM, Paul Chandler <paul.chandler at une.edu.au>wrote:

>
>> I think to truly drive the pedagogical change you can envisage these
>> devices creating, they need to be the 3G version and GPS enabled - many
>> schools are hamstringing any developments by locking them to their wireless
>> infrastructure (due to cost).
>>
>
> I often find myself wondering what the difference would really be if a
> school provided each student with a netbook, 3G modem and some credit and
> did away with the large proportion of their LAN infrastructure.  I rather
> suspect that the cost differential wouldn't be very much.
>
>
> --
> Dr Paul Chandler
> Research Fellow: Multimedia grammatical design and authoring pedagogy
> (Kahootz) project,
> School of Education, University of New England
> (Project website: http://www.une.edu.au/kahootzresearch)
>
> located at Australian Children's Television Foundation
> 145 Smith Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 3065
> e-mail: paul.chandler at une.edu.au
> Ph: 0400 198 187
> Fax: (03) 9419 0660
> Skype: paul.d.chandler
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-- 
--
Roland Gesthuizen - eLearning Coordinator - Keysborough Secondary College

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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