Cooper-Taylor Training

The iPad isn’t available in New Zealand yet (pity), but when it arrives, and for those who can already get hold of one, will it be worth considering for educational use?

The Yes’s:

1. It’s cheaper than a laptop or tablet PC. I think this will have a big impact and could see one iPad per child.
2. There will be no, “I forgot my text book” or “The dog ate my homework”. The latter of course has been the case for some time in tertiary since most students do their assignments on a computer. But imagine not having to lug all those text books around with you. I know how my shoulders used to ache carrying books home for home work and back to school again the next day.
3. For tertiary teachers, you will no longer have to be glued to the podium. You will be able to move around the lecture theatre and have your PowerPoint, notes, access to the web etc. etc. right there. This should have a big impact on tertiary teaching in lecture theatres. I really want to get those teachers who can only stand at the front to teach, to reach out and get amongst their students as they teach.
4. Not only will it be easier for lecturers to move around with an iPad it should be a lot easier to move around the tight confines of the university library stacks with your iPad in hand. Not something I would want to do with a heavy cumbersome laptop.
5. Digital books are cheaper, so a school can afford to update texts more frequently.
6. And for the same reason, tertiary students will be able to afford more books for their studies.
7. Keep the cost of photocopying down but still give handouts to students. Again tertiary have been pushing the cost of printing onto students for some time. But if you have an iPad you don’t need to print, your handouts are right there in your iPad.
8. The appeal of Apples products will make it popular to use with teens.

The No’s:

1. There aren’t many education apps available at the moment (but this is changing by the day), but if the iPad takes off and stays the distance, I am sure there will be.
2. The current version doesn’t have a camera. Now how lame is that?
3. No handwriting recognition or writing of any sort. For schools the ability to do writing practice will still be required for some time to come.
4. No multi tasking, so you can’t have the web open and a word-processor for doing your assignment. This might of course be useful for some who get distracted by having constant interruptions from  email, twitter etc.
5. For institutions that already cater for laptops needing power, there will be no issue, but for those first heading that way with the iPad, remember there will be a cost involved with students needing to plug into power or their iPad will die, along with their work and their books.
6. I don’t see any huge discounts for education. Now if I was running Apple I would be giving real big discounts for education. Get your customers while they are young and get them to stick with the brand into adulthood.

And the May be’s:

1. Will university/college libraries be able to loan digital texts that students have on their iPad for the typical loan period. Any librarians out there with the answer?
2. If the iPad stays the distance the availability of eBooks may help bring reading back into “fashion”.
3. At the moment their is no plug in keyboard so I will wait to see how the integrated screen KB fairs in use. Will we see a foldaway KB like those used with Palm come on the market?
4. Apple has said it will not be supporting Flash. It remains to be seen whether this will be a draw back or not with HTML5 now around.
5. Network security in education establishments may give problems for using the iPad there. I think this will be an initial glitch.

So on balance, I think iPad will have a place in education. So I’m watching with interest to see where it goes

What do YOU think? Will you be using one?

Interestingly as I write this the iPad is #1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9 in Amazon’s Tablet Best Seller List. Get your iPad here