Childhood has no rewind

"Childhood has no rewind: Our children cannot go back to grade school and get another education when the times are better and we all have more to give. When the playground is empty and the children are gone, either we will have sacrificed for them, or we won't." - from a Parents United poster (via Parents United for Public Schools update.)

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Eating a little crow

My friend Ron over at GFW rightfully took me to task about some comments in my post about iPads earlier this week. I was operating only information that was contained in the short newspaper article about GFW's project and I came across more critical than I had really intended. I sent an apology to Ron and in the spirit of a more public apology I am sharing (with his permission), more information about the GFW iPad project.

Doug,

Thank you for the apology.  I must say that I read your blog for many years and I can't remember you cutting down another school district as you did to GFW.

   Ready. Fire. Aim.

    In one sense, the reaction to the iPad is very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy. It's ironic, but my prediction is that the more traditional one's approach to education, the more one will like  "iEducation."

    Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

A few words about our project.  We began with a technology consultant working with our staff.  We focused on technology for our staff.  Our school board held stakeholder sessions with our community, staff and students.  Teachers were consulted for their input.  From this, the District saw the need to enhance the technology program at GFW.

From there, we looked at some of the existing technologies:  new computer labs, computer carts, laptop computers, netbooks, iPods, iPads.  We decided we wanted to see the technology in the hands of students. Since we could not afford a laptop for each student, the decision came down to netbooks, iPods or the new iPad.

We don't have the support staff of a large district such as Mankato.  We currently are a Mac district.  We looked at the netbook and decided it would be difficult to support and integrate with the Mac.  The screen was very small and the devices seemed cheaply made.  It would essentially be use for word processing and Internet.

This left us with the iPod.  I was concerned that the iPod would have limited use, the screen size was small and it was difficult to enter text.  The rumors of the iPad were out for a long time.  The iPad was announced many weeks before its release, so we know many of the features and even several of the applications that would be available.  We also worked closely with Apple.   We developed a staff development program with Apple.  Teachers in this project will receive 5 days of staff development from Apple.

The iPads can be used wikis, blogs, keynote presentations.  We can do much with on-line research.  (Libraries in small schools have virtually disappeared.)  We have found many cool applications to enhance the curriculum in our classes.  (Try the programs Star Walk or The Elements.  Cool music programs that allow students to record music, electronic books, drawing applications, Numbers offers much flexibility for spreadsheets.)

We know many developers are developing educational applications and we know that the major textbook publishers are working on electronic textbooks.  This, combined with the Internet content and many applications can only help the students.  Add iCal where students can subscribe to their teachers calendars for their assignments.

Rolling this program out in a small school is probably simpler than rolling out in a large district such as yours. We have less than 20 teachers in our High School.  They (along with the Principal) have a commitment to making this work.

The days ahead for small schools will be difficult.  A lot of small districts will disappear.  We were lucky to receive a one time shot of funding for our consolidation with McLeod West.  We put the money into a wireless infrastructure for out 3 sites and for the iPads.  We haven't had the resources to enhance out technology program for many years.  I don't believe there is a "perfect" solution for technology in any district.  For some it may be SMART Boards, for others laptops, others netbooks.  For GFW, it will be iPads.  It's not the device.  It's how the teachers will use their device to improve instruction.  I hope it can work in our district.

All ready, this has brought much support from community members.  I visited with one student who made a comment, "I can't wait for school to start next year."  With teacher support, administrative support, school board support, and student support I think this project can work.  Bugs to work out---yes!!  There will be many.  With everyone working together, we can solve the problems and hopefully, this project will be a success.

Ron

I might add that among several very positive visions of how the iPad can be used in education, this guest post on Chris Dawson's blog seemed well thought out.

iEd?

This morning's newspaper gushed about a local school district already deciding to give an iPad to each of its high school students.  After the device being available for, what, less than a week?

Ready. Fire. Aim.

_________________

I've been experimenting with one of our district's "loaner" iPads since Thursday afternoon. Given the media hoopla and resulting interest by many of our staff members, we ordered a few for teachers, administrators and techs to try.

For the consumption of media. it is an amazing device. National Geographic Magazine, via Zinio, the New York Times and Marvel Comic books each looks fantastic - all colorful and high rez. The "printed" pages of various e-book readers are sharp and page turns are realistically rendered. (I am guessing the e-ink of the Kindle and Sony e-Reader will prove easier on the eyes for longer works, however.) The iPad makes a very pretty electronic photo frame. Games are easier to play given the bigger screen. But where this thing really shines, is playing streaming video. YouTube selections load fast and play well. Streaming Netflix movies seems like magic. Another sign of the apocalypse a post-literate society?

But at this time, the iPad is not a productivity machine. The biggest question I had about the device was whether it would play nicely with GoogleApps. It doesn't. You can read them, but not create or edit GoogleDocs. I've not figured out how to attach a file to Gmail. And Keynote for the iPad not only doesn't like exchanging files with PowerPoint, but it doesn't even work with the desktop version of Keynote (according to the help forums). I was really hoping this would have been the device for accessing cloud-based applications. But the featureless browser and lack of Flash support make it a techno-wimp.

In one sense, the reaction to the iPad is very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy. If you are a teacher, administrator or politician who sees the school's role as filling little empty buckets with prescribed information, the iPad is a potential fire hose. It CAN deliver content, and given Apple's control over the apps that run on the device, that content can be provided by a very select number of publishers.

But if your idea of an educated person is one who constructs knowledge, solves problems, and communicates effectively, this is not the tool for you - at least at the current time. Unlike a netbook, the iPad makes  creating, saving and sharing even simple written documents, let alone multi-media, nearly impossible.

It's ironic, but my prediction is that the more traditional one's approach to education, the more one will like  "iEducation."

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

Oh, for my personal use, the device is just a big iPod Touch. The increased screen size makes it easier (for me anyway) to read magazine and newspaper articles and the larger virtual keyboard is less frustrating to use for inputting small amounts of text. But I've not encountered the killer app that really floats my boat. Unlike my iPod Touch, it won't fit in my shirt pocket or allow discrete "under the table" access to the Internet.

And as a tech director, I am concerned that no one at Apple seems to have a good answer about managing sets of these devices. "The iPad is designed for end-user management" was the rather glib response we received from our local Apple rep. Buying software requires buying an iTunes gift card if one wants to use a PO. No attention that I can find has been given to educational licensing of any "apps" for the thing. Sigh...