Recently I’ve had a couple of ideas for posts on this criminally neglected blog, but a conversation I had last night pushed them aside for the moment.
I was talking to a principal whom I respect as a vanguard in ed-tech and with whom I agree 99% of the time. The topic of the iPad as a classroom device came up, and I found myself supporting these initiatives, while she was questioning the device as limited and therefore not the best classroom tool for learning 21st century skills. She spoke persuasively, and she uses an iPad, so she also came from an informed perspective. Ultimately, after boring everyone else at the table for 20 minutes, we had to agree to disagree.
I probably noted this exchange particularly because it followed on a discussion I joined in on Google+ last week on the same topic. The arguments went in the same direction; others talking about the limitation of the devices and I insisting that the device was far more capable than first impressions. At the beginning of one response, one of those arguing most earnestly wrote, “Well, obviously you’re in the bag for Apple, but…”
What?
Me “in the bag” for Apple?
Me? The ultimate Apple hater? The one with the “you’ll take my right-click button when you pry it from my cold, dead hands” bumper sticker? The one who used to go up to “Think Different” posters and add the -ly? The Steve Jobs schadefreudiest?
How can this be, that I’m arguing the case I used to stone. Is this a Pauline conversion, or just plain wishy-washiness?
Still, with all this history and acknowledging the limitations, I have to say it, “I love my iPad.” Or as I said last night, “I use a desktop when I have to, but I live in my iPad” (when I said this, my friend looked at me sadly, as if I needed to be kidnapped and deprogrammed). I also think that this platform, whether an iPad or another tablet (more on that in the next post) is the single best hope for 1:1 classroom technology initiatives.
I feel this for three reasons:
The power of the iPad as a reader far surpasses any conventional laptop. In order for electronic textbooks to make inroads into schools, students will need a reader. They can either purchase a kindle-like reader and a laptop, or they can buy one device.
The iPad has the public attention to support the costs and logistics of bringing it into the classroom. Here is where my “in the bagostity” shows the most, because right now the iPad is the machine, and no other pad has the traction. This public irrational embrace is actually vital to a school implementation. For years I championed the netbook (which I still think is an ideal device in many ways), but ultimately I had to admit that the public never caught on to this form factor, and therefore I was pushing uphill to excite them about students using it.
Finally, because of the immense popularity of the iPad, I see it as an incomplete but growing platform. In less than a year that I have had mine, I have seen the capability grow as new applications arrive and the operating system improves. In fact, I believe that this machine will actually change the evolution of computing. For example, the lack of flash is pushing developers to move away from flash in net applications. No educational app will be able to be flash only if they want to be part of the market. And this is just the beginning, like the early days of the PC, and the growth potential of the platform seems limitless…unlike that of the PC which feels to me like it is topped out.
I certainly could be wrong (I used to argue against the iPad, so I was wrong then or now), but I see immense potential for this device, and you’ll take mine from me when…well, you know.
As always, I invite your comments.