Everyone who has an iPad seems already to have posted something to explain their initial impressions. I guess this should not be a surprise – there seemed to be a great deal of commentary, both pro and con, before anyone actually had the opportunity to use one themselves. Why would this change when the iPad became available. I have been trying to determine what I might add based on my brief experience with the device.
How about this – a pre-experience issue within the educational community concerned whether the device would encourage production as well as consumption. In other words, it seemed obvious that the device would be a great way to read books, explore web resources, and watch videos. However, information consumption according to some is over emphasized in education – for some reason listening to lectures is too passive and even reading books seems to be on the outs. Man – seems like just a few years ago we were worried that Johnny could not read and now we are concerned that learning from books is over emphasized. Experiences relayed from experienced and recognized authorities are possibly less valuable than personal experiences. This post is not about this “discussion”.
What about the production capabilities of the iPad? Well, it is widely known that you cannot take pictures or video. You can record audio. I was disappointed that I was unable to write in Google docs and I am not sure why. You can actually enter data in a spreadsheet (use the desktop and not the Google Mobile option), but I cannot find a way to enter text in Google docs. This disappoints me – I do most of my writing in docs. You can do gmail, Twitter apps, and blog entries (with one of my blog apps I could enter text in HTML, but not WYSIWYG mode). I do not understand these inconsistencies. I have been impressed by Pages (the $10 word processing app from Apple).
Here is a comment I have not seen addressed elsewhere. What about the ease of entering text? You can add an external keyboard, but what about the build in keyboard? I find that it was as easy and possibly easier to enter text using the on screen keyboard than from the keyboard of my netbook. Neither, in my experience, is as easy as using a standard keyboard. I had a hunch about why this was my experience so I lined up the iPad with my Lenovo S10. I would suggest that the iPad keys are larger and more widely spaced on the iPad. If you look at the image I have provided, you should be able to see why this is the case. The netbook keyboard is a bit wider, but the netbook “wastes” this extra space and more on keys the iPad does not have. The letters on the iPad are actually larger and more widely spaced.
Do note the size of my hand relative to either keyboard and it is probably obvious why I do better on a standard keyboard. Both the iPad and netbooks force me out of my well practiced keyboarding style. Still the iPad is a reasonable device for text input at least equivalent to a netbook and superior to mobile handheld devices (smartphones) some are willing to argue are effective in an educational setting.
