[Offtopic] Ipads

[Paul Chandler]

Thanks to everyone for their various contributions.

To some extent, this discussion about netbooks/pads/pod/etc has some
features of the platform wars of years ago - it's not my intention to
escalate a debate.

In my first e-mail, I'd noted that the ipad is really nice to use, has found
a home in our family, but I'd also asked - in the classroom context - what
teachers are ACTUALLY DOING with it.  I don't know that I've actually go any
answers to this.  Tim has elaborated it's possibilities (and with very few
exceptions, they are all things that can be done with a netbook), and Roland
has described what he does.

Hey Roland, funny isn't it? I can't stand lugging the bulky iPad around. I
> do a lot of the same things on my iPod touch that fits in my pocket.  ;)
>

I think there's something to be said for that.


> 1) There is a government funded trial of iPads. This has been at no cost to
> the parents. Why aren't people waiting to see the results of the trial? What
> is the rush?
> (Although if you look at http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au/  there
> is absolutely no mention (that I can find) about exactly how they intend to
> measure/quantify the results of the trial.) I suppose a "trial" is not a
> "study"?
>

... and my initial question was from the point of view of a parent of a
student in a non-trial school which has nevertheless decided to go with
ipads (in lieu of textbooks).

2) I agree that tablets seem to be the way we are going
>

Agree.


> 3) The iPad is very much a personal device.  Put yourself into the position
> of a "working family" to borrow a phrase, a notebook can be easily used and
> shared amongst family members with appropriate security and separation of
> work. More than one family member can use the device if needed. We have had
> some issues in my household with younger brothers wanting to play with my
> daughters iPad. Family harmony dictates that we have a policy of sharing
> just about everything. This has been a bit of an issue when 3 year old
> starts meddling with daughters school work, rather than simply playing Angry
> Birds.
>

It's a challenge.  Maybe ipad users need to be more into dropbox or
googledocs.  But the mind-shift there is cloud computing as the baseline for
educational documents, not the platforms its done on.


> 4) I am trying to use the iPads in the Science classroom - schools often
> have lots of money/resources/experience tied up in Dataloggers and other
> peripherals (microscopes etc) which almost universally use a USB. Must we
> need to double up and have both notebooks for hooking up peripherals, and
> iPads for recording and reporting, or just use one device and sacrifice
> something?
>

Agree that this is a level of duplication which should not need to exist.
If the ipad (or ipod) were to provide (a) USB interface and (b) some level
of virtualisation (eg java, or qemu running a win32 box 'inside' the iOS),
then I think the discussion about desirability would be a different one.
But my question of "what are you doing with it" would stand.

As to affordability, the school communities where our children go are far
from affluent.  There has been no hue-and-cry about the ipads in lieu
textbooks, because they are mainly compliant communities.  But some families
will have genuinely struggled to provide for it.

I bought a new PC for about $750 last year. A good deal for what I wanted
(for a small office which I support voluntarily).  A netbook-style machine
was purchased for $180, too.  You could add $129 for a 3G modem, and another
$129 for 12GB over 12 months. If you're pessimistic, and say that the
machine might only last 2 years, then it's about $280 pa for a
fully-working, anywhere anytime system.  If I were asked to set up a school
from scratch these days, I wouldn't be sinking $1M into infrastructure and
buying PCs for $700 a pop.  And if it was happening in a relatively
disadvantaged community, I'd be hard pressed (and this stage) to adopt the
ipad.

Cheers,

-- 
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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