Ipad—not a laptop

My hesitation about setting up and using the ipad was misplaced. Turns out, you just have to turn it on and it appears ready for action. There was some organization required (if you prefer a clutter-free screen).  I spent some time just getting to know some apps that came on the tablet. I already had an Apple id (required to download anything) so I shooed my salivating children away and sat down to do some serious research on the device.

I intend to use the ipad in VIS 332 and VIS 334. These courses are upper division classes where students are immersed in interactive web design including designing for different digital devices. Yes, that means they will be designing for tablets. This involves fluid grids, flexible images, media queries, and dynamic content. While you can complete this task on a desktop, there are a lot of applications that can aid in development for the ipad. Finding the most efficient ones is on my summer to do list. But at the orientation, Michael Knauth indicated that we should consider how to use the ipad in the classroom as a teaching tool. 

I began exploring with some games. Can you blame me? To appease my children, I downloaded a fairy fashion game (where you pick clothes out for the fairy "model"), a dentist game (where you clean characters teeth…I am not kidding), Interactive Pet  (where you take care of your pet), Smurf build a town, Candy Crush, Bubble Breaker, word games and more. In fact, it appears that my children have downloaded every free game available. But I would recommend skipping this step because I became obsessed with candy crush and can't remember one whole week before summer session A began. Once I realized how much time I was devoting to the game, I deleted it from the device.

Armed with my beginning-of-summer willpower, I began to investigate 21st century literacy applications and processes. I went to search for information by browsing. But browsing on the ipad was slow because it difficult to type on the virtual keyboard. Additionally, not all sites were easy to navigate.  When I research a topic, I gather data first. I create bookmarks and sometimes copy and paste into word files to review later. This takes seconds on the laptop but much longer on the ipad.  I wondered if I should invest in an external keyboard to see if I could work better, but I already have a laptop and a desktop. Apparently I am not alone in thinking that browsing the internet on an ipad is not ideal.

That said, I did enjoy watching things in the ipad. I like learning via tutorials, videos and webinars. Currently,  Lynda.com or Learnable are my go to sites for software tutorials. While waiting for my daughter's dance class, I brought the ipad and watched a video. I would never have brought my laptop (I was already weighed down with all the girls stuff—change of clothes, shoes, snacks, water bottles.) Lightweight and slim, the ipad took no extra space than a magazine. I popped in my earbuds and the hour flew by. I would think watching anything [videos, tv programs and movies] would work great. In fact, I have a friend who commutes to Manhattan from Holbrook and watches movies on her ipad.

So my results after a month in summary—Ipad—not a laptop but a good device for consuming media. While I don't plan on requiring students to use an ipad in my courses, my conclusions are shared by other teachers.