[elearning] [Year 12 SofDev] Ipad in schools

Sun Nov 14 22:26:02 EST 2010

We are looking at possibilities for the future of computing in the classroom. Although the iPad has taken the world by storm, in my opinion it isn't that great.

Students who have them struggle with video formats and flash websites. Also for learning most of the apps are based at the junior level.

I am interested in looking into devices which are portable, i.e. more portable than a laptop (yes good english, more portable, I mean tablets, slates etc), and there seems to be a plethora of them coming onto the market. Devices which run android or win 7 look more appealing especially as the school is already running a heavily windows biased network, although many apps such as Synergetic (which we use for our DB) are becoming available through browsers. I tend to think this will happen more so. My prediction is that within 2 years a large amount of our applications will become browser based therefor doing away with the restriction of which OS we are running. However this said, I think it is far too early to dive in and roll out iPads throughout whole year levels. I personally think some schools have done it for publicity. (shock horror).

I don't mind the notion of trialling iPads in libraries but rolling them out as a solution across the school seems ludicrous. 

Anyway, next year I will be doing a study into the for mentioned devices. If anyone wants to help out or be involved, let me know.

David Howard
St Michaels Grammar School

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From: elearning-bounces at edulists.com.au [elearning-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen [rgesthuizen at gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, 14 November 2010 10:06 PM
To: elearning Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [elearning] [Year 12 SofDev] Ipad in schools

Many reckon that Adobe have already quietly given up on Flash and are preparing behnd the scenes the HTML5 export for their applications. You may notice that websites such as Matheletics can now easily just as easily be accessed on the iPad or even on smart phones such as the iPhone. Many video websites now work on iPhones (not all but those that don't are slowly evaporating) .. even whilst google makes use of Flash for street view, they are one of the big champions to push for the early adoption of the subset of HTML5.
     http://news.softpedia.com/news/Adobe-Flash-CS5-Can-Export-to-HTML5-Canvas-139597.shtml

I don't have flash turned on my desktop and really, dont miss it all that much. You can suggest to your eLearing team that they do the same as it will help nail down this behaviour. We deploy Safari without flash on all the desktops so users dont have to second guess what works with flash and what does not, they can just test their link in another browser.

It is also worth read the thinking behind this from Steve Jobs at Apple and the opinion of Microsoft.
     http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash
     http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/30/microsoft-weighs-in-the-future-of-the-web-is-html5/
     http://hothardware.com/News/Microsofts-Take-On-Flash-HTML5-Is-The-Future-But-Well-Support-Adobe/

My personal take on this is that the it is that there is a good case to be made for open standards such as HTML5. We have seen this before when sites started playing about with fancy browser features such as layers, Just a matter of time ..

Regards Roland

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 10:22 AM, Kevork Krozian <K.Krozian at fhc.vic.edu.au<mailto:K.Krozian at fhc.vic.edu.au>> wrote:
Hi Folks,

Sorry for cross posting but very topical for our elearning colleagues ...
I have spoken to 3 schools who are doing just this, Ipads at year 7 and when I raise these concerns with Flash and Java not running I get a blank stare.
Is there anyone out there who has considered the issues and found a resolution/workaround or other approach apart from html5 will solve all the problems which may or may not happen and may or may not take 3 to 5 years ....

Kind Regards

Kevork

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Don Morelli (Optus)
Sent: Thursday, 4 November 2010 6:45 PM
To: 'Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] Ipad in schools

The decision has been made Allison which is unfortunate for your school as not only does the iPad not support Flash but it also does not support Java. So you can’t run java apps like Geogebra in Maths, which is worth its weight in gold. There are many programs that teachers use to help students to understand concepts in particular learning areas that are not about communication, collaboration and research (some of the web 2.0 stuff). These will not run on the iPad. It will be interesting to see how much of the “cloud computing software “ will run on it without problems.  Try running Mathletics and I think that you will have a problem with that as well.  I am sure that in the next year or so things will change, but the range of activities that you can carry out on the iPad now, that have educational value is limited.
Good luck in trying to develop a curriculum-at least it is only year 7
Cheers Don

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Allison KENINS
Sent: Thursday, 4 November 2010 6:00 PM
To: sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Ipad in schools

Hi All

Sorry for not being specific to Software Development.
My school is introducing iPads to our incoming year 7’s and throwing out the textbooks in all subjects. As my other method is maths and this is a concern to a few of the other teachers, I was wondering if anyone else’s school is doing something similar and wanting to know what you think. Major concern for us is that we use lots of websites that are Flash based and therefore wont work (as far as I’ve been told) and we now need to redevelop our year 7 curriculum before the start of next year.

Any comments would be welcome.

Allison
Ringwood Secondary College
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