What is an iPad? Consumer delight, or education folly?

I pose the question simply because some people seem confused, especially in the education sector, not because I don’t know the answer. To me, an iPad is a large screen smartphone that isn’t even that smart, not least because it can’t make phone calls. Of course, that doesn’t make an iPad any less desirable. Anyone who has ever used one, or even handled one, immediately wants one. It is as seductive and appealing as any gadget on the market. That doesn’t necessarily qualify it as the personal device of choice for learners in the classroom. The trouble is, because we don’t agree what an iPad actually is, we don’t agree on whether we should go out and buy lots of them for use in schools.

With Netbooks it is easy. If you spend most of your time on the web, and only want to do fairly low level tasks with installed software, then a Netbook represents fantastic value for money. It is cheaper than a laptop, it lasts longer, the battery life is better and it is lighter and easier to carry around than conventional laptops. Importantly, it will run all the web-enabled content out there that any other computer will do. It will handle authentication, printing, and through a wide range of browser plugins will provide access to any feature-rich content going, be it using Flash, Java or Silverlight.

Therein lies the rub. Browser plugins. Apple has decreed that Safari on the iPad cannot be modified, so that means no plugins. Instead, the feature-rich content that would normally be displayed seamlessly on any other computer will only be available on an iPad if the content owner produces an iPad App which can then be downloaded from the iTunes Store. Apple itself then becomes the gatekeeper for all of this content.

Netbook users can browse the web, downloading plugins as they go, and view everything out there from the whole of the internet, in their browser. On an iPad it is very different. Content that would normally require a plugin will be invisible in the iPad’s browser, and instead the user has to switch to a downloaded App. So, to get the same sort of coverage, you would have to install a great many Apps – one for every site that needed it. This is very different to what we are used to. Once you have downloaded a particular plugin for, say, Firefox, you then have access to all of the websites that use the technology requiring that plugin. That is, one plugin gives access to a lot of content. With an iPad App, you just get access to the one website.

Once all the web sites have converted their content to HTML 5, it won’t be a problem. Apple has committed to its Safari browser not only being up there with the rest, but ahead of the pack. However, this day is a long way off. It would take a lot of investment to convert educational content to move away from, for example, Flash, at a time when spending on ICT in education generally is being squeezed more than at any time since the 1980s. I have read many reports of professional users getting around the lack of Java by using Citrix or remote desktop connections, effectively accessing the feature-rich content by using another computer somewhere else via the iPad as a thin client device. The infrastructure required to do this is expensive, and likely to be beyond the reach of many education users.

I am reminded of the days before the Internet when we had an icon on our desktop for each chunk of content we wanted, and there were no relationships between them. On an iPad you have an icon for each chunk of content, the only difference now being that it is delivered from the Internet rather than from a CD or local hard disk. I can’t help feeling we are sliding backwards.

On the plus side, the iPad is extremely desirable. The multi-touch screen is a delight to use – zooming in and out, for example with a flick of the fingers. Although some might say you only need to use this because the screen is small to start with, even though it is bigger than many of its Android based rivals.

The main issue for educators, it seems to me, is to be absolutely sure that an iPad does what you need it to do. As a general purpose web browsing device it has many limitations. It’s no use buying a class set and then everyone needs to access content that won’t work. In a walled-garden of Internet web sites, you can control the user experience. You only set users loose among web sites that work properly. For another set of web sites, you make sure they all have the correct installed Apps. Personally, I wouldn’t want to restrict users in that way. I am more worried about users only being able to view what an App exists for, rather than what is freely available to users of conventional, or should I say, proper computers. And just how does a teacher manage the Apps on a class set?

Compared to Netbooks, the iPad is certainly not cheap. A triumph of style over function carries a heavy price premium. Why is it then, that people want to pay more to be able to do less? Apple themselves are honest about the iPad being complementary to your main computing device. We should therefore think very carefully before making it a pupil’s main device.

Share this article on Twitter

Tweet

Infotech - a snapshot of the world of computing in 1988

Back in 1988 I published a book of photocopy masters for use in secondary schools called 'Infotech'. I still have a copy, so I decided to scan the pages and create a PDF version. The idea of the book was to give a comprehensive view of the ways computers were impacting on the world, with an introduction to as many applications as possible, from farming to air travel, and from medicine to war. What I find fascinating looking back is that all of this was before the Internet. It is easy to forget how things were done in those days. I've made the publication available here as an historical curiosity, to show just how far we have come in such as short time. I find it amusing that at the time I thought it was important to devote a whole page to the humble mouse! Notable omissions, apart from the Internet, were mobile and wireless technologies. Click on the cover image to download and view the PDF file. The file is only suitable for on-screen viewing, to keep the size down.

Share this article on Twitter

Tweet

Huge learning spaces

Yesterday I was privileged to take part in a visit to the latest prototype Learning Plaza at the New Line Learning Academy in Maidstone, Kent, along with a number of colleagues from Barking and Dagenham and elsewhere. The visit was hosted by Lanway, the technology integrators for the project.

Essentially the Learning Plaza is a huge rectangular cavernous space with room for 90+ pupils, plush carpet and wheelable tables, chairs and raised benching units. Perhaps the most striking feature in walking into the space is the huge 'cinemascope' style projection screen with accompanying twin (and very noisy) projectors. At one end of the space was an impressive video wall made up of nine 40" active panels (although the frames were thick and intrusive), and at the other end a single very large high definition panel. The lighting in the room was fully programmable so that different colours and intensity could be set for different moods. All of this technology was controlled by a single hand held device, so that all of the different inputs (e.g. visualiser, laptops, video conferencing) could be targeted at any or all of the displays. In the case of the wide centre projection screen, two different images could be displayed side by side if required, or one large centered image.

All of this technology was expertly demonstrated to the visitors, but as the event was in the evening there were no teachers or pupils to show how it might be used in lessons. I hope there might be an opportunity in the future to see some teaching and learning going on.

What were my impressions? Well the first one was astonishment at being asked to take off our shoes - a policy that was explained to us as 'creating a business environment'. Personally I have never been in a business environment in which people pad about in their socks, even in Japan. Perhaps they should just be honest about the need to keep the carpets nice. The second impression was the 'wow' factor at the size of the central screen with its twin projectors, although this quickly turned to disappointment at the poor quality of its low contrast image, and the fact that nobody has yet thought about how to get the image aspect ratios right. Nothing wrong with the image quality of the video wall though, just the intrusive screen frames, which was a shame as panels exist with extremely narrow frames for this purpose.

Overall though, I think the thoughts many of us were wrestling with were to do with practical pedagogical issues, and the difficulties there might be in getting prolonged and high quality dialogue in a space with so many pupils and presumably a range of activities happening simultaneously. There is no doubt that the bigger the space the more flexibility you have, which is why in Barking and Dagenham we hope that BSF will give us bigger classrooms. There is often the need to get large numbers of pupils together at one time for demonstrations, lectures, performances etc, but a classroom which is sound-proofed and can be arranged in a horseshoe is best suited for the dialogic teaching we are aspiring to, and which the Learning Plaza most certainly wouldn't allow.

Our ICT Output Specification for BSF indicates a wish for split screen technology - the ability to display, for example, and object on the visualiser and a video side by side. Having now seen this at the Learning Plaza, I am even more keen that the money will stretch to it.

Many thanks to Lanway and the New Line Learning Academy for allowing us to visit.

This is a link to an article in 'The Independent':
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/lessons-without-walls-inside-the-school-of-the-future-1049793.html

What future for the projector?

There was a time not so long ago when we dreamed of being able to afford a projector in a classroom so that everyone in the class could see what was being displayed by the computer.

I remember when we bought our first projector for the ICT training room at the Westbury Centre - a phenomenal £4500 which represented much more in today's money. Now a much more powerful and sophisticated version costs just £500.

However, in spite of the technological developments over the intervening years, we still need to sit in a darkened room to get a decent image. That is why active panels (LCD or Plasma) are so attractive because they don't require the lights to be dimmed and the blinds drawn. At the moment though they are too expensive and too small. There is little possibility in the next few years of screens the size we have come to expect when using projectors being either possible or affordable as active panels.

Up to now when we have had the opportunity to build new schools or classrooms we have had to design to overcome the limitations of projectors by cutting down on the natural light hitting the display wall - and actually cutting down on light altogether, so that the displayed image is as clear as possible. It seems problematical to continue to do this, especially for the Building Schools for the Future programme, when the new classrooms are expected to last up to 30 years. During this timescale it is highly likely that we will be able to afford large active panels of some kind. Maybe even LED technology with a high enough reslution which doesn't mind bright sunlight on it.

At last there appears to be a solution to this problem. It doesn't involve making the projectors even brighter and it will allow designers to make the windows bigger. The answer lies in the projection screen - a hitherto neglected component of the interactive whole class teaching kit.

There are not one, but three competing technologies, all designed to allow high contrast and bright images in well lit rooms. They all work by having a surface that absorbs light coming from the top and the sides, while reflecting light from the projector. This gives an image as bright as you would normally only get when the lights are off and the blinds are drawn.

Two of these new products are flexible and one uses a 4mm glass panel behind the surface and therefore only suitable for fixed screens.

We are currently evaluating these new screen technolgies and they look very promising indeed. I'll give an update on this in a future post.