Opinion: iPad – you either get it… or you will
There’s been so much speculation about Apple’s new iPad – both before it was launched, and now
it’s finally been unveiled in public as an upcoming product. Â The arguments are various, but they seem to mostly center upon whether this ’souped up iPod Touch’ is actually ‘all that’. Â In my opinion it is ‘all that’, and it does represent a major shift in human interface design. Â If you want to focus upon its reliance upon the iPhone OS, then consider the fact that so many people have worked out how to use that interface already. Â If you want to focus upon the fact that it doesn’t multitask, then maybe educators want to ask themselves how many times they’ve found students minimizing chats in their docks while they’re supposed to be working on dedicated tasks.
There is a place for iPad in education, and as the new apps evolve all of this will become strikingly clear. Â This device is portable, tactile, and capable of expanding our ideas of how to access and synthesize information. Â It’s not ‘perfect’ or ‘finished’ (camera capabilities are surely forthcoming), but it immediately presents us with an opportunity to touch, create, paint, explore, and interact with each other that we have not yet seen in classrooms. Â iPad is not just an ‘inflated’ iPod Touch – it’s so much more, and leading schools will be adopting this device (and its successors) as their primary choice in years to come.
Does it allow us to paint? If it doesn’t run apps like ‘photoshop’ or ‘painter’, are we stuck with iPhone painting apps (not that those are bad, just that they aren’t as comprehensive).
I have to respectfully disagree with you (see my post here as well). I don’t see any creating opportunities in this device. None above low level skills that I feel would not push us to do new things in new ways. No camera, and no mic is just one aspect that shocks me that the iPad did not come with.
Not running multiple apps is another. I already have a device that does that in my iPhone, if this is going to replace something I’m already using it need to do those things and do them better…..I don’t think this does.
I find myself thinking that if I have one of these, or if a student has one of these they still need something else to create with. This does not replace the computer we give them, sure the design and potential is there, but this isn’t the device that’s going to do that. Give me an laptop device that’s about 8 1/2 x 11 inches in size that has a couple of USBs a camera, mic, and all the Apple creation goodies that we like and then we’ll talk. Until then this is just a Kindle killer…..and where are those in education? Were we not suppose to all flock to those when they came out too?
Design = fantastic! Consumption of media = fantastic! Creating of content….not so good…and that’s what we need/want in education. Something that allows us to create new knowledge together.
It has a built-in mic. It has the potential run thousands of multi-touch apps – that’s not just a “Kindle killer”. iWork has already been developed for it, and other media creation apps are surely in the works. If we must take a conservative line, “Let’s wait and see.”
I have written a post how the iPad IS a media creation device. I am tired of pundits saying it lacks the ability to create media, especially in schools. The iPad will revolutionize schools. Read my post at http://www.edutechnophobia.com/2010/02/the-ipad-is-a-media-creation-device/ and other posts about the iPad at http://www.edutechnophobia.com/.
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