apple

Why the Apple event on Wednesday matters to teachers…

 Ideas, Information, Technology  1 Response »
Sep 102012
 

Not a fanboy.  Please try to keep that in the back of your mind.  Yes, I’m typing this on a Mac, yes I have an iPod.  BUT I have an android phone, several windows PCs and a healthy understanding of the real world.  So please, don’t think this is just a fanboy rant, it’s not.  What it is, is an attempt to point out that we’re at a tipping point in education technology and that the next step, probably made by Apple at their product launch in San Francisco on Wednesday, could change everything.

We’ve had the iPad since the Summer of 2010, an incredibly thin device which uses a touch screen and can fit in an A4 envelope. It can access the web, seamlessly handle your email, manage your media content and a host of other tasks through a wealth of apps. As Steve Jobs used to say it’s “insanely great”. The iPad launched an industry wide rethink of what IT is, what it’s for and who should have it.  Now just about every IT manufacturer has a tablet device, there are a variety of operating systems, and app development is a major growth industry. If you still think IT is sitting behind a massive grey box and a 15 inch CRT monitor or that Microsoft Word and spreadsheets is what the IT curriculum should teach you have missed this revolution completely.

Many schools have ridden the crest of this wave and already brought tablet computers into the classroom.  Schools which issue their learners with their own iPads do exist. Units are being written as we speak allowing you to use tablet computers and mobile devices in art, music and media exams. Companies are already writing apps for classroom teaching, classroom management, assessment and support. The education tablet revolution has started but it it is, at the moment, in the hands of the enthusiast.

It is widely expected that Apple will launch a smaller version of their iPad on Wednesday (I’m not an Apple pundit myself, but Engadget and Macrumors will back me up here) as well as a larger phone, refreshed iMacs and iPods. It could be quite a day. The smaller iPad is a very interesting idea as it comes hot on the heals of the Kindle Fire and a host of other Android based tablet devices.  A smaller screen would bring limitations but it would also bring a cheaper price and perhaps a price so compelling that buying a class set, or indeed one for every learner is financially wise. In the UK you can get an iPad for £329 from the apple store, it’s not the latest model but it’s cheaper than a typical PC laptop. The kindle Fire is £129, just how much would a smaller iPad cost?

The Apple argument will be that the iPad is the only real tablet proposition for schools as there are apps in place, robust app quality control and apps in every subject and for every use. Guaranteed learner engagement in a sleek, brushed aluminium case. Android and the new Windows operating system (which is just around the corner) might argue with that, but the condition is clear.  If Wednesday goes the way the pundits are telling us, we may well be seeing the argument crashing on our desks this week.

If you are not going in this direction, parents will want to know why.

eBookreaders

 Ideas, Technology  No Responses »
Sep 072012
 

So, yet more tech is released and more things to keep up to date with in the world of book readers.  I am of course refering to the new “Amazon Kindle Fire HD” which was released yesterday and can be bought through Amazon.co.uk right now.  This is great news for the UK who have not had the full range of kindle products, some of which were available in the US only.  The Fire HD is set to compete with the iPad.  At £159 it is considerably cheaper though and puts a huge challenge down to apple to make their next offering as compelling.  We should find out at the Apple product launch event next Wednesday… Sorry I digress.

Its eReaders which are interesting me today and in the Kindle range we have a number of models to tempt you.  The Kindle, Kindle touch and Kindle keyboard, as well as the Fire and Fire HD.  All at very compelling prices.  How long will it be before eReaders are given away free?  Not long I think.

Let’s also not forget the Nook and the other eReaders out there in the marketplace, a marketplace which is becoming crowded and confused.

My experience with my Kindle keyboard this Summer was great, I read Haruki Murakami’s IQ84 books 1 and 2 quite successfully on it, and then the family got hold of it for E L James’s 50 Shades of Grey and I never saw it again. There were loads of Kindles at the side of the pool as well as good old paperbacks and copies of the Sun. So the paperback is certainly not dead.

The thing that interested me though was that I saw no one younger than 30 using a Kindle.  Everyone younger than 30 was glued to their phone.  They may have been reading eBooks on them (indeed the Amazon App allows you to read your books on any device, not just kindle hardware) but they were more than likely texting, gaming, facebooking or youTubing. Kindles don’t have the coolness factor required to be seen in public with.

So should we be encouraging learners to use ebooks, paperbacks, phones or iPads (or Fire HDs)? Should we be spending our school budget on a set for each class?  Is the mobile phone ban still a sensible strategy on school?

The important thing is that learners read, and enjoy reading and surely anything and any technology which encourages that is a good thing. I’m very tempted by the Fire and Fire HD to replace our iPad which is off to university in a week or so (one of our children will be accompanying it) as I doubt I will see the kindle again for as long as they publish 50 shades books…

 

Laptops for every student…

 Inspiration, Technology  No Responses »
Jul 162012
 

It is a hard time to keep positive.  You can easily get the feeling that no one likes the direction education is going in this country, no one thinks teaching is the profession it once was, no one thinks free schools are the future.  But the holidays are here, the British Summer is just around the corner and the Jubilympics is just about to kick off.  Yay!

I’ve spoken many times about how IT needs to revitalise the curriculum and the teachers themselves, and I thought I would share this link with you to let you see just what can happen when innovation and creativity are allowed to get on with it.  I know it’s for a major US IT company who are not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you focus on the potential for learning it has lots of interesting stuff. I love the Greene County video (bottom left), congratulations to them for getting their progression turned around, and for the way they pronounce “niche”.

So in this country we are banning phones, locking down computers, slashing budgets, getting in a pickle about what “rigour” actually is and demotivating an entire workforce.  Don’t let them get away with it.

Briefing – Episode 55, Mac rumours

 Technology  No Responses »
Jun 192012
 

…and don’t even get me started on the difference between “want” and “need”.  The conversations recently have been “do I really need a laptop, should I get an iPad instead?” and I think I would walk away from that one too.  iPads are just amazing things in the classroom, great to teach with, super practical, very slick and helpful.  Perhaps the desktop machine is truly dead and the sensible choice is for a laptop and an iPad and we can re-claim the computer table.  Perhaps we can chuck the computer desk out of the living room at last and use the space for a new radiogram.

The Windows version of the iPad looks good as well, have a search for “Windows Surface” and see what you can find.

That’s enough technology for a while…. honest.

Briefing – Episode 34, iBooks news from Apple

 Information, Technology  No Responses »
Jan 202012
 

Got an iPad?. Use iPads in your classroom?  Well this move from Apple will make it rather likely that iPads might become as ubiquitous in the classroom as iPods are in the high street. Check out the entire presentation as a podcast in iTunes.  If you just want to see sickly advertorial demonstration have a look here.  Textbooks do need a nice disruptive challenge and this might be the right idea at the right time.

Here at A* to G we’re looking at ebooks at the moment and had just about decided to go for an epub format.  This means it would not work on iBooks, although you would be able to read it using a different App on your iPad. At the moment this whole area is a nightmare for small publishers like ourselves.  I wonder if this will help or hinder.

Are you going shopping for an iPad in the next few weeks now that Apple have announced their intention for world textbook domination?  Do let us know at info@astartog.co.uk and please do subscribe either here or at our youtube channel.