John Woodring

Okay, I guess I have become an Apple Fan Boy, drinking the Kool-Aid Steve Jobs sold at yesterday's iPad announcement. My wife is almost ready to divorce me because I told her we are getting one of these and there will be no discussion about it. My teenage son will have something new to hate me for because his days of having the coolest and latest technology are numbered. Sometime in March I will be standing in line on what is sure to be a near freezing raining days waiting in line to get an iPad. After that I will be headed for the unemployment line because I missed too much work. Yet, I do feel compelled to get an iPad. This is the type of device that will eventually change face of education as we know it.

Funny but I do feel a bit of irony that we are actually headed backwards in time. Students used slates such as the one pictured for various class assignments in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries. Colonial students carried a tablet called

a Hornbook. The name of these books comes from the animal horns used to make the learning device. These are the probably the first educational materials to have "apps". The apps might include the alphabet, numbers, vowel and consonant sounds, and the Lord's Prayer. Later tablets became truly interactive because students could write on them using chalk. Students used these devices to learn to read and write for many years until Big Chief notebooks and actual real books became the staple of all classrooms.

So what does the iPad have that could revolutionize education? First off the device is realitively inexpensive. With the $499 starting point it is in the reach of many families. As time goes on this price is sure to come down. Look at what has happened with iPods over the last few years. Other companies, such as Google will also manufacture similar devices which should lower the price. Next  it has a book reader with titles you can purchase from the iTunes Store. During his demonstration, Steve Jobs said textbooks would be coming.

Apple says the device weighs 1.5 pounds. Expect lots of studies to come out for the first time again about how textbook laden backpacks are harming the backs of young people. The iPad can surf the web which means students can access more information than what is in the textbook. Expect an explosion of apps for education to go along with the over 140,000 apps already in the iTunes App Store. Video and audio can be shared to create a true multimedia experience.

While the iPad is not a perfect device, this is a huge step in the right direction. There are some things that should be on future models. For examples, a webcam would be nice for adding to presentations or distance learning. An ability to show the screen on another display such as an interactive whiteboard would be nice too. There are some other tools that could and probably will be thought of as time goes on.

Get ready teachers, students will want to bring them to class. Administrators, teachers will want class sets. Network Administrators, start figuring out how to tie this devices into your networks. Everyone, start thinking of ways for students to use them productively. The educational device of our ancstors is making a comeback.

Not long ago I had a dialog with my Sister-in-Law regarding cellphone use in the classroom. She could not believe I was discussing the possiblility of students actually bringing the devices into the classroom. I tried to explain to her that just about every cell phone now is essentially a mini-computer. I gave up the dialog and decided to blog about it here. I will make sure she gets the link to this post. She must have missed her calling because the last thing she stated was "not every kid has a BlackBerry." I often hear the 'not every kid' line used by teachers who are reluctant to integrate technology in the classroom. This irritates me but that is the subject for another blog post. Think back to the last three months or so. How many phones were introduced to the marketplace that was not a smartphone of some kind or at least had a keyboard and applications? I can't think of any. T-Mobile already sells a BlackBerry Curve for it's prepaid market. 

Earlier I posted about a device Research in Motion will soon sell that will allow PowerPoints on BlackBerries to be shown on projectors via Bluetooth. The BlackBerry Presenter sells for $199 which puts it out of reach of most students. However, there is a new application which allows presentations to be controlled from an iPhone, iPod Touch, Android device, or the web. MightyMeeting allows presentations to shown from the cloud via a 3G or WiFi connection. The video below shows how this application works. Another thing MightyMeeting can do is store various documents in the cloud which could help students with storage problems such as not being allowed to bring flash drives for fear of viruses or not enough network storage. Accounts are free along with the app which can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store or Android app stores. I tried this app out with my wife's iPod Touch and it works great.

 Here is more proof legitimate cellphones are coming to the classroom quickly. Instead of bringing flashdrives with the potential of viruses to show presentations, students can start using their phones. What about those students who don't have a smart phone? Most phones sold in the last few years can usually do at least three things: talk, text, and take pictures. Some can even do crude videos. Students can use photosharing sites like flickr and Photobucket to upload photos from their phones. YouTube even allows video submission by e-mail. These sites give you e-mail addresses and other methods to send photos straight from your phone to the site. The sites can also connect to a blog and allows you to send photos directly to the blog. Internet hosted blogsites such as Blogger and microblogs like Twitter now have ways to use a phone to post content directly from a phone. Don't forget using cellphones as classroom response systems using webapps such as Poll Everywhere or TextTheMob. Even classroom response system companies are working on iPhone apps. 

I have probably just scratched the surface with what cellphones will be able to do now and can only imagine what they will be able to do in the near future. What do you think? Take the Poll Everywhere poll.

Two posts in Teacherbytes were featured in Livescribe Smartpen Applications blog. The Livescribe blog is written by Tim Fahlberg, Wisconsin Educational Representative for Livescribe, to highlight educational uses of the Pulse smartpen by students, teachers, administrators, and parents. In "Grandson of the Echo Pen", I talked about how I started using the Livescribe Pulse smartpen to record technology integration observations in classrooms. In the post I questioned if the optional MyScript for Livescribe application which converts written text into editable text. Tim took up the challenge by sending me a video of him successfully converting my sample. This led to the Teacherbytes post "Your Challenge is Accepted!" which Tim also mentioned in his blog.

The Livescribe Pulse smartpen records hand written notes and any video and saves them to your computer. Also, you can tap on any section of the notes to playback audio at the point the note was written.

Photo courtesy of Avatar photo stream on Flickr

Over the holiday break my wife and I saw the 3-D version of Avatar. If you have not seen this version of the movie, go watch it to see how the use of technology gives the audience a better experience. What movie makers can do to enhance films is amazing. At least that was what I thought after watching the movie. After reflection, I have thoughts about Avatar. However, remember I said to go see the movie for the technology, the movie as a story is something different. 

The plot is an old story. A group of natives happen to be sitting on some valuable real estate and won't give it up because of some spiritual connection to the land. An organization, who stands to make lots of money off the land, decides the natives have to go and attempts to use it's technological superiority to evict them. Sounds like Dances with Wolves and other movies of that sort? How about history? North and South American conquest by Europeans. Africa and Asia too. Stories always have some hero who either by chance or design mixes with the native population, learns it's ways, then adopts the native culture. The hero learns of the impending onslaught and leads the natives in a defense of their land and way of life. Usually, the natives win the battle but history says the natives will be crushed in the end.

However, what grade would you give the story itself? While the story was entertaining I thought it was average. All I hear in the press is about the 3-D technology used in the movie. After my reflection I asked myself if the technology glitz mask a mediocre story? Would I purchase this movie when it comes out on DVD or Blue Ray (which I don't have yet)? Would I see this movie a second time in a theater without 3-D? The answer I came up with is probably not. 

After this reflection that I thought of what I always tell teachers about integrating technology, don't get caught up in the glitz. No amount of technology will make up for a poorly written content. Yet, I have seen teachers give high marks to an otherwise average or poor project because it was a blog post, podcast, video, or some other technology because technology was used. Nothing beats good planning and writing, something teachers and now movie critics need to remember.

Enjoy Avatar. See you at the movies!