Month: January 2011

I’ve found myself slipping on my commitment to use the iPad  exclusively over the last two days.  I’ve had some trouble with the remote access feature and I haven’t been able to log in to a machine unless I am already on that network.  It is likely over time that this issue will be resolved, but until it is,  I am finding myself machine jumping.  That being said, I encountered two tasks that were more challenging than anticipated.

• I was writing an email on the iPad, and I needed to attach a document from my office machine.  This turned out to be a larger challenge than I expected.  Since there is no way to store non-native files on the iPad, I had to save the file in the cloud and then link to it in my email.  There might be easier ways to do this, but I think the broader point is that file management is not instinctive.
• Later I was working on fine tuning a PowerPoint presentation.  I started to work on the iPad via remote desktop access, but I grew frustrated trying to do fine work on the small screen.  Since I was in a time crunch, I dumped the iPad and finished up using the desktop.
• This morning I stopped at Starbucks on the way to an appointment.  I think I can say without a doubt that the iPad is the world’s best Starbucks machine.  If the remote access to my office desktop had been working, I could have stayed all day and accomplished everything I could have done in the office.

OK, moving to a new level today.  I installed Splashtop Remote on my iPad and work machine.  So for this post I’m working in the WordPress site on my desktop from the iPad.  It’s nice to have so many controls that I am used to restored.  It is also easier to navigate in this version of the program.

• Ahhh, nice to have bullet points returned.  Also I have the advantage of having directional arrows, ctrl, shift, alt, and other keys.
• I’m noticing a slight bit of latency in the text appearing, but nothing serious.  There are several other remote access programs, so I don’t know if this is the best; frankly, I chose it because it was cheapest!  It seems somewhat full-featured, and if the latency doesn’t get any worse than this, I can get used to it.
• Of course, now that I’m back in my comfortable environment, I’m missing the iPad keyboard shortcuts.  I’m having a hard time remembering to enter periods, capitalize first words of sentences, and add apostrophes for contractions
• Using this I am very conscious of the space taken up by the onboard keyboard.  I’m finding that I often hide the keyboard to see the entire screen.  I’ll have to monitor to see if this is a good thing.
• Now extrapolating to student use, this would be advantageous for students and teachers to have regular access to a full powered machine (assuming, of course, that they have a second computer with a broadband connection).  However, access like this would cancel out any content filtering on the school side, so I doubt that it could be allowed for students.  This would answer some of the questions for teachers, though.  A teacher could have access to all capability, including older databases and Prezi editing.  Now how you set up the school filter to allow this for teachers and not for students, that’s another question.
• I also just discovered something else that’s interesting.  Although I can charge my iPhone from my office computer via USB cable, there is apparently insufficient power to charge the iPad. I don’t know how necessary this is since I have been able to get by on a day’s charge.

As always, I welcome your comment and discussion.  I would also love for people to start talking the “what if’s,” suggesting challenges that I could try to solve.

Didn’t write anything on Sunday, though I did use the iPad for things around the house. I found a pretty good recipe app, and I loaded all my recipes. I like this much more than the app I have on my iPhone which is too small for practical use in the kitchen (and isn’t a good app anyway). With the iPad app, I can set the screen up and see it easily as I move around the kitchen.

Today’s observations:

Keyboard gripe: I wish the onboard keyboard had a delete key. To delete a single letter, you always have to use the backspace key, which is a pain if you didn’t het the insertion point in exactly the right place (see earlier comment about placing the insertion point). I suppose this is corrected if you use an external keyboard, but I don’t want to carry around another keyboard. I would place a delete key in place of the second “keyboard switch” key, since I never use that. I’ve looked online for any tricks for this, but I have found none. If you know something, please tell me!

Formatting in the native iPad email app is a pain. If you copy in text from another source in another font, it seems to be impossible to go forward in your original font unless you copy some text from the first part of the email.

For my first post of the new year, I want to approach a topic that has galled me throughout the past year.

The introduction of the iPad in 2010 was heralded as a new paradigm that would change mobile computing for good.  Among the champions of this new device were many educators, some of whom I like and respect, who praised the form factor and immediately saw the value as an ideal classroom device.  One cannot deny the appeal of an intuitive classroom tool providing resources and connectivity at the seat of every child.  The elimination of heavy and expensive textbooks alone will have financial (and health) benefits for students and schools.  Even recognizing the well-documented limitations of the device (no camera, no USB ports, no HDMI port, no Flash, no multi-tasking), it is easy to assume that this is a solid educational platform which will clearly improve over time (it is generally anticipated that an iPad 2 will be announced early this year).  Sales figures indicate public acceptance for this new machine beyond what was anticipated.  As an advocate for 1:1 programs, I should be thrilled by this.

Then why am I so irritated?

Anyone who has followed my writing through the past years (or spoken to me for more than five minutes) knows that I have long been a proponent of the netbook as a classroom device.  From my first 7″ ASUS running Linux I saw the potential for low-cost, small form-factor, long battery life devices as the answer to the main hurdles to 1:1 programs.  As these machines improved in size, processing speed, and battery life, I became more convinced that we were approaching a netbook world, and growth of cloud-based services indicated that a mobile device did not have to be completely self-contained, and students could start projects at school and easily complete them on a larger, more powerful home system.

However, speaking to salespeople, reading tech blogs, and following education literature, I am becoming convinced that this is not the direction that the world will take.  The heat of netbooks has long cooled, and all companies talk about are competing products to the iPad.  To some extent, this was a business inevitability.  The margins on netbooks are so small, that there is little motivation for companies to support the platform.  Now that the iPad has redefined the price point from  $500 – $800, it doesn’t make much business sense to push the $300 product.  This is coupled with the “coolness factor” of the iPad.  As much as we would like to be purists about this, part of an effective 1:1 program is salesmanship, and when parents, schools, and districts are asked to fund technology purchases they see the iPad as cutting edge and the netbook as dated and boring.

So is it sour grapes (or sour apples) that makes me so resistant?  Am I becoming a curmudgeon, a DOS user, mocking the “soft” Windows users as I sink into the primordial ooze?  Maybe.  Perhaps I don’t have the vision and imagination to see how this is a superior path.

But…Someone has to tell me

• How are we not getting less for more, a machine with dramatic limitations for nearly twice the cost?
• How are students going to write at any length with a flat keyboard that takes up a good portion of the screen space?
• How is a student going to show her or his presentation without retrofitting classroom projectors?
• How will this device eliminate the need for computer labs, when traditional computers are still needed for so many functions?

Finally, I’m irritated by the fact that a split market slows progress.  I know several schools who were on the verge of embracing a laptop/netbook program who have put these plans on hold in fear of backing a losing platform.

Again, I may be wrong here (and if things indeed do go the iPad path, it doesn’t matter if I’m wrong or right).  I admire the iPad (though I have only played with it in a BestBuy), and I would love to have one…in my case right beside my netbook!

As always, I invite your comments.