I wanted to take some time to capture my initial thoughts about the iPad both to give GVSU some immediate feedback and to see if anything changes over time.
I started this program skeptical that the iPad's usefulness in the classroom would be worth the price and currently I remain skeptical. Below I've made a couple bullet lists with comments and impressions the tool has made on me.
Pro's:
-Very portable and ready to use: I can whip out my iPad at any time and it's ready to go. It's lightweight and I don't have to wait for it to boot-up before I want to use it.
-Long battery life: I don't have to be concerned that it will die on me in the middle of class while I'm trying to take notes
-Screen: having a touchscreen makes scrolling fairly intuitive and offers new ways to interact with programs
Con's
-Keyboard is too limited/small: Compared to the netbook I'm currently typing on, the iPad's keyboard is very limited and I get impatient working with it-especially if I want to delete part of a word or have to scroll to get to an apostrophe.
-Incompatibility with flash: I know of lots and lots of cool animations and educational tools I'd love to use on such a portable device, but because it doesn't play flash animations I cannot use these. To be fair I've heard there is a work-around, but I haven't looked into it yet
-Lack of a word processor and other tools: I'm currently typing on a netbook that has the full MS Office suite, loads of memory (for a netbook), and is compatable with windows programs without using workarounds. It cost the same price but I can readily work on any document for class or a presentation without the frustrations of a tiny keyboard or lack of a word processor.
-Difficulty navigating websites: Some websites, programs, and downloads aren't happy with the way the iPad interprets them. For instance: when I log into my gmail account I cannot view emails that were forwarded to me by my other email accounts. It's also a pain to copy links into the browser as the text selection tool is clunky. This frustrates me big-time.
-No thumb-drive access: I can only really treat the iPad as a portable workstation IF the internet is running AND if I can actually adjust the text/document I want to work on. I really like being able to take documents anywhere, work on them, then transfer them to another computer via thumb-drive.
In short the con's have made larger impressions on me than the pro's. I will continue to try using my iPad because the technology and workarounds should continue to improve over time and perhaps I'll become greatly impressed with some function I discover soon. For now I would NOT recommend using these for future cohorts or other programs. If students were offered the choice between the iPad and the Dell netbook I'm working on right now (also purchased through GVSU for a different program for about the same price) I would recommend the netbook hands-down. In my eyes it's much more practical for the classroom.
