I first published this on YouTube almost exactly a year ago and it has been viewed 33,000 times so far with 2,400 in the last month, so there is quite a lot of interest in handwriting recognition. WritePad is $A4.49 and really does work. It would be interesting to see how proficient some students can get with it over time.
A stylus can help this application, but they are about $30 and apart from high quality drawing, are not markedly better that a good old finger.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Best school utility apps for the iPad
First published just a year ago, Oct 2010, I still rank all of these highly.
- GoodReader - file management
- Quick Office - word processor, spreadsheet, file management (alternative to Pages and Numbers)
- iThought HD - mind mapping
- PhotoGene - photo editing
- Dropbox - cloud based storage, on mobile and PCs too
- Evernote - cloud based notes, audio, images storage and management, on mobile and PCs too
- Pages - Apple's word processor
- Numbers - Apple's spreadsheet
Updates:
- with iOS 5 and iPad 2, anything on the screen of an iPad can readily be projected (see Apple TV)
- The need for image editing is reduces with basic editing now available in Camera Roll
- with iCloud, there is less need for other online storage systems.
iPads and the business of reading
This was originally posted on Dec 1 2010 and is now somewhat out of date with the arrival of paywalls at the NY Times and News Limited in Australia. eBooks are already close to overtaking conventional books in sales in some market segments.
I am a news nut and so have been waiting eagerly for the arrival of the great ipad newspaper apps that make news worth paying for. The experience has been interesting.
In the beginning there was the New York Times with its standard web site. (All of the images are from an iPad.) A very good newspaper site. It looks a bit like a traditional newspaper, but each story has just a headline and a few sentences to provide an introduction. Lots of stories on one screen, and lots of small images and some video.
I like the way the home screen has a large number of stories on it, and there are also section headings, so you can scroll down the long home page and browse, or you can go to sections.
Then came the long anticipated iPad app and I find it boring, sterile and without much life at all. there are only a few images and an awful lot of text. There is a section menu that can be opened and the same material is there as on the original web site.
This is the front page of the Top Stories section, like a front page, but I find it dead. Maybe they are going to launch an attractive and interactive app early next year when they ask readers to start paying.
The
Sydney Morning Herald has taken a very different approach, pending Fairfax's launch of its 'proper' iPad app. They charge 65 c a day for this version, and it is simply a page by page view of the print edition. It has been overwhelmingly condemned by the reviewers because it is not a real iPad app, with different layout, links and nifty navigation. I love it, and read it from front to middle every morning.
The iPad view is sufficient to read the headlines and some of the text, and to get a clear sense of what the main stories are, and how the editor has placed them regarding prominence. You get the result of a hundred years of experience in laying out a newspaper, and slightly less experience as a reader.
To read a story in detail, simply pinch out on the page and you zoom in to normal size text. [right] The images look great. The experience is very similar to reading the paper version, but a little more convenient.
My next experience is of the Economist magazine which is an A4 size news magazine which looks very similar on the iPad. This has been my most satisfying experience of reading on the iPad. The view is very similar to the paper product but with the advantage of better navigation, illumination and clarity, and it is reproduced on one's iPhone almost as well. A major bonus is that the whole magazine is available in audio, so the reader can jump from reading to listening at the press of a button. This is particularly useful for iPhone users. It has proved surprisingly useful because it you read or listen depending on what you are doing. I prefer to read because i concentrate better, but if doing a menial chore, I can just keep 'reading'.
The cost difference is striking. An annual subscription to The Economist is $345 for 52 editions, but the iPad version is only $135, and it arrives three days earlier.
I don't think there is any doubt that eReaders are going to be as common as mobile phones in the near future. In fact, many of them will BE mobiles. But it is clearly going to be a difficult learning experience for publishers and readers to work out what format and presentation type suits them. The biggest surprise for me has been to discover the attractiveness of switching so easily from print to audio in one product. And I am a regular podcast listener, but it had not occurred to me that it is so appealing to switch back and forth. I expect there will be lots of surprises for all of us.
I am a news nut and so have been waiting eagerly for the arrival of the great ipad newspaper apps that make news worth paying for. The experience has been interesting.
In the beginning there was the New York Times with its standard web site. (All of the images are from an iPad.) A very good newspaper site. It looks a bit like a traditional newspaper, but each story has just a headline and a few sentences to provide an introduction. Lots of stories on one screen, and lots of small images and some video.
I like the way the home screen has a large number of stories on it, and there are also section headings, so you can scroll down the long home page and browse, or you can go to sections.
Then came the long anticipated iPad app and I find it boring, sterile and without much life at all. there are only a few images and an awful lot of text. There is a section menu that can be opened and the same material is there as on the original web site.
This is the front page of the Top Stories section, like a front page, but I find it dead. Maybe they are going to launch an attractive and interactive app early next year when they ask readers to start paying.
The
Sydney Morning Herald has taken a very different approach, pending Fairfax's launch of its 'proper' iPad app. They charge 65 c a day for this version, and it is simply a page by page view of the print edition. It has been overwhelmingly condemned by the reviewers because it is not a real iPad app, with different layout, links and nifty navigation. I love it, and read it from front to middle every morning.The iPad view is sufficient to read the headlines and some of the text, and to get a clear sense of what the main stories are, and how the editor has placed them regarding prominence. You get the result of a hundred years of experience in laying out a newspaper, and slightly less experience as a reader.
To read a story in detail, simply pinch out on the page and you zoom in to normal size text. [right] The images look great. The experience is very similar to reading the paper version, but a little more convenient.My next experience is of the Economist magazine which is an A4 size news magazine which looks very similar on the iPad. This has been my most satisfying experience of reading on the iPad. The view is very similar to the paper product but with the advantage of better navigation, illumination and clarity, and it is reproduced on one's iPhone almost as well. A major bonus is that the whole magazine is available in audio, so the reader can jump from reading to listening at the press of a button. This is particularly useful for iPhone users. It has proved surprisingly useful because it you read or listen depending on what you are doing. I prefer to read because i concentrate better, but if doing a menial chore, I can just keep 'reading'.
The cost difference is striking. An annual subscription to The Economist is $345 for 52 editions, but the iPad version is only $135, and it arrives three days earlier.
I don't think there is any doubt that eReaders are going to be as common as mobile phones in the near future. In fact, many of them will BE mobiles. But it is clearly going to be a difficult learning experience for publishers and readers to work out what format and presentation type suits them. The biggest surprise for me has been to discover the attractiveness of switching so easily from print to audio in one product. And I am a regular podcast listener, but it had not occurred to me that it is so appealing to switch back and forth. I expect there will be lots of surprises for all of us.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
iPad in schools
This post was originally made on June 10 th 2010 and is rather quaint now that iPads are so widespread, just 16 months later. The video has had nearly 24,000 views on YouTube, and the graph of hits is virtually a straight line to the present, which is surprising. Maybe lots of teachers and leadership people are seriously looking at the iPad for classroom use?
It is early days to decide whether the iPad has a significant role in schools and education in general, but I think it will. It is quite a different type of computer and many will just focus on what the iPad cannot do, not giving due attention to the thing it does better.
I have only been bonding with my iPad for a little over a week and I think its huge advantage is immediacy. It is quite different from a laptop because it is immediately available to use. In schools this is very valuable. In two minutes a student can switch on her iPad, open email, read a message and jump off to a web site. This is pretty important in engaging the attention of 30 students. There is virtually no delay, and the size of the ipad and the touch interface all make it significantly more personal interaction. Even the size on a desk is important. There is room on a desk for the iPad and books. The touch screen is a much better collaborative interface than mouse control.
The most significant limitation of the iPad that I can see is the reliance on the on-screen keyboard. This is fine for web browsing and short text input, for me, but then I am a touch typist. I suspect that two finger typers will find it quite satisfactory. However, for longer input sessions a bluetooth keyboard is an option. A class may well manage with a group of these for students who prefer them.
One thing we can be sure of is that the range of apps available for similar tablet computers will expand very quickly, making an assessment of the value of these computers a continuing feast.
I have only been bonding with my iPad for a little over a week and I think its huge advantage is immediacy. It is quite different from a laptop because it is immediately available to use. In schools this is very valuable. In two minutes a student can switch on her iPad, open email, read a message and jump off to a web site. This is pretty important in engaging the attention of 30 students. There is virtually no delay, and the size of the ipad and the touch interface all make it significantly more personal interaction. Even the size on a desk is important. There is room on a desk for the iPad and books. The touch screen is a much better collaborative interface than mouse control.
The most significant limitation of the iPad that I can see is the reliance on the on-screen keyboard. This is fine for web browsing and short text input, for me, but then I am a touch typist. I suspect that two finger typers will find it quite satisfactory. However, for longer input sessions a bluetooth keyboard is an option. A class may well manage with a group of these for students who prefer them.
One thing we can be sure of is that the range of apps available for similar tablet computers will expand very quickly, making an assessment of the value of these computers a continuing feast.
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