Comments on: How Apple is replacing Macs with iPads at school

By: celiaclife

celiaclife — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:53:12 +0000

I would think this seems like a good opportunity for kids to learn the real work/world experience of having distractions and still being responsible and getting your work done. At college, work, etc people are not watched every second and manage to make the responsible decision most of the time. If this opportunity for distraction is presented earlier, perhaps it will help train them for the future. Also, kids have always written notes, played games with the kids next to them doodled, texted on their phones (in recent years), etc when the teacher isn’t looking – so this isn’t unheard of.

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:20:29 +0000

I agree its just Apple marking hype. These devices are terrible for ergonomics and productivity. My test with students proved they just switch apps and play games when the teacher is not working directly with them. We are not going to adopt any table until these issues are resolved. The Windows 8 tables look like a possibility but we will wait and see.

By: Jay Em Tucker

Jay Em Tucker — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:00:45 +0000

I couldn’t disagree more with your position. I agree that some Web-based services don’t work well on the iPad, especially if they have Flash-based components, but I have successfully used most Google Apps on the iPad (worked best in desktop/classic mode), Docs to Go (but I prefer to use Pages for word processing), and have had NO issues at all with setup or entering comments in TodaysMeet. Using alternative browsers such as Puffin, iSwifter, or Rover usually gets me around any issues with Flash. I think our students will be able to adapt to the real world just fine…

By: Dane Barse

Dane Barse — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:13:05 +0000

The PC is dead. Anyone with any vision knew that two years ago- now watch the struggle as Microsoft and the ingrained PC Police lose the battle to hold on to their terrible monopoly, which held back innovation for twenty years until the Internet finally pried their grip

By: Justin Baeder

Justin Baeder — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:38:50 +0000

I agree that the adoption rate of the iPad is unprecedented in the history educational technology.

The phrase “Apple’s total education apps package” is a bit misleading – it’s not Apple’s apps that are drawing educators to the iPad, but the 200,000-plus third-party apps that they can use with their students.

iTunes U is also not a good indication of how the iPad is being used in the classroom, as it solves only a narrow problem. They are, for the most part, not being used as textbooks or lesson delivery platforms, but as computers on which students do their work.

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:03:39 +0000

I am a secondary math teacher and have not found any useful apps to use. (specifically Algebra apps)
Recommendations, please!

By: NJ

NJ — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:10:27 +0000

Its’ terrible. The iPad is blocking students from meeting the real world – the closed ecosystem of Apple will make them stumble the first time they set foot in the real world, and meet Google Apps, MS Office and the thousands of free webbased services like bubbl.us, diipo, TodaysMeet and others, that the iPad is not suited for.

Besides, the ergonomics of the iPad will make the students hate them in a few years. Apple marketing and blinded teachers and bloggers won’t change these facts.

By: Eunice

Eunice — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 18:00:01 +0000

I think this is the best thing to happen in a school since sliced bread. If we want our kids to succeed academically and be able to compete with other students globally we need to move from the industrial age of teaching into the technological age. The students in this school will probably become more interested in doing school work and enjoy learning more because someone had the foresight to put technology into the classroom. Kudo’s to all involved.

By: downhousesoftware

downhousesoftware — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:48:27 +0000

I agree, the difference this time around is that content is being taken seriously. It’s not the technology itself that will help improve education (except perhaps computer science), but fact that iPads place great content right into students’ hands.
Furthermore, because of the single-app interface (i.e. no multitasking on iPads), these devices don’t have as much potential for distracting students away from the primary content.
As I’ve written on my blog (appcampus.wordpress.com), the iBooks authoring is a powerful tool that is changing education by allowing educators to create high production value content specifically tailored to their courses.

By: Simon Cohen

Simon Cohen — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 18:45:10 +0000

Much like with the enterprise adoption of the iPhone, the education sector’s adoption of the iPad isn’t being driven by Apple, but rather by educator’s enthusiasm for the device and the plethora of educational apps available. From what I’ve seen at our local schools, principals are making the decision (with the board’s help) to allocate funds to iPads. It’s really a bottom-up scenario.