Life on an iPad 2

I have continued using my iPad as my device if choice. This post will be typed with the iPad and no corrections.

OnFriday I challenged myself to type as fast as I could. I tried a passage with a laptop , I typed 43 wpm. The same passage with touch typing on the iPad 18.6 wpm. Then with a stylus still 17 wpm

So typing is slower but when do I Ned to type large amounts?

Great that it has a 10 hour battery but the iPad gets used 10 hours a day and needs charging before going to work the next day.

My goal this weeks to move beyond caring about data entry. Last week I has the pleasure of wattending an iPad boot camp with Bryan Hughes. Teacher librarian in north Vancouver. Some great new apps and ways to consider their use.

Flowing from data entry though is being productive. The top 5 apps I use tobe productive included:
Mail/ First Class
Calendar
Paper port notes by nuance
Google docs
Dropbox

The obvious reasons fr a mail application apply but the productivity comes from not needing to be connected. I can get so much done in those 5 minutes waiting in line, for the water to boil, or before a meeting starts. I likely gain 2 hours a day having access with a device (I use my iPod touch a lot for that)

Calendar is fat as I don't worry about tomorrow. I always have it in my devices. I also can add information like phone, address, and agendas to the events

PaperPport Notes is much like notes but far better. It allows stickies, voice notes/ conversion, highlights, and drawing all in the same document and syncing between devices

Google docs has been amazing for our team. We organize events collaboratively, have registrations for events and download the lists to print name tags etc. so easy and shared access - anywhere with wifi

Dropbox. I can't say enough about it. It has changed the way I store information If I need to use it once, I don't put it in the cloud. If I just want an archive, such as a YouTube video, I store it locally, the best part is that the three of us on the team all have a shared Dropbox folder, we all can work on our documents and see them to answer questions for others when we aren't there. I even have a share now with my wife to keep some documents accessible at home or work for us both

I don't think I can live without these tools anymore. It does say some things about my life though. I rely on the technology and expect it to be there. To quote Lisa Domeier de Suarez, 'Internet access is the new electricity'. A teacher at a nearby school was allowing students to bring in their devices. They could take pictures of their notes or homework, until the admin heard about it and said,'they would have to discuss it.' which meant. Once I talk to your teacher the answer is no. Sad that a passionate knowledgable educator making connections for his students got shut down.

Just try to have an electricity free school.

Living on an iPad.

I have tried very hard to just use my iPad as my computing device for the last two days. It really is challenging. I dietary and prepare by enabling print sharing the night before. It configured at home but not within the district network. Took some MacBook time to try tweaking but to no avail(I have submitted a service page and will see if that provides an option)

I needed to break from the plan to:
1. Try tweaking a printing solution
2. Create a fireworks logo that needed printing. Since I had one that needed editing it was easier than creating a new one in a new software.
3. I also needed over the last two days to print.

Printing is not going away. When I work with teachers new to iPads I ask why you would need to print. I have now got several answers..
Printing posters for bulletin boards
Printing expense claims ( that I have to attach receipts and submit))
Printing a document requiring a signature
Printing an attendance sheet for a workshop. (I could have used an app and have them sign in on my device; however I would then dedicate a 500 device to act as a $0.05 piece of paper and not be able to use it myself while they sign in.)

Beyond the basics...
Multitasking
I am trying to be true to the concept; however, I find myself wanting to 'quickly' do some multitasking work while I was on my laptop to print. It brought to my attenttion that I multi task heavily. If a website takes time to load, I move to another task. If a file is uploading, I switch and do something else. If I am answering email, I like to have my calendar open at the same time (without switching)

Creative work ...
I haven't had time to do any today... My IPad is being used as a small laptop without a tactile keyboard. I am doing quite well atyping and allowing autocorrect to do its magic. Still slower than using a keyboard (when I am focused on typing I can type 60 wpm). Currently I am able to type about 30 wpm on the iPad. The iPad is not the best typing device. I personally miss the tab key, the underscore on the main keyboard, and cursor keys

Internet ...
Most websites are working fine. You learn some quirks like entering dates on calendars that are not optimized for mobile devices - zoom and slide etc. We are doing a pedometer challenge in our building and that site must use flash as it just appears blank. If it was just me, I would use a different site, but I have to use the site provided. (and they dont have an app).

I needed to edit a web page but the wysiwyg editor did not show properly on the iPad I managed to accomplish it but not as easy in a full browser.

I didn't realize just how much I did in emails / paperwork in a day. It was harder to be as efficient getting my regular work load done. That is real aha though.

I need to spend more time in the classroom. We have several key events coming up that require a level of productivity, but I will stick to using iPad. It will force me to think differently.

What if the iPad was the only device available to a teacher, a student, a class. Should it be wasted on productivity.... Perhaps there are other ways to get the desired result on an iPad by doing it differently or to quote APPLE Think different

Off to finish my emails today. Tomorrow I will do my blog without backspace for corrections...

Response to InnovativeLearningDesigns.ca - To Gel or Not to Gel

I read the blog post noted above, and posted a comment.  After seeing what I was able to articulate, I thought it was worthy of its own post....


1.  Living, Learning and Teaching in Transformation is tiring and uncomfortable.  I believe that new learning doesn't occur unless we are a place of transformation.  If we are not uncomfortable, we know it already and are not motivated to learn.  Equally though we may learn every single day; we don't need to be learning every moment of every day.  Everything I know says if I want to learn French, I need to be immersed in French and not have English as an option.  Certainly uncomfortable but I would learn the language better than being a 'Language Tourist' where I can step back to being comfortable.

2.  Digital is a language.  Many of our students are Digital Natives and speak Digital fluently; however, just like our classrooms, not everyone comes to school with the skills to speak and learn with the language proficiently - even though it is the expected norm.

With Marc Prensky's work came the term Digital Immigrant and Digital Native.  The concept was native speakers and second language learners.  Research shows learning multiple languages is easiest before 6 years and dramatically difficult after 10 years old.  If we remain as a Digital Tourist that can use the language for 'excursions' of learning but return 'home' and revert to our old language, then students lose the immersion experience and we actually make it harder for students to learn the language as they get older.

Many students are bi-lingual with English and Digital; most teachers are too old to be Digital Native speakers.  Rather than being a Digital Tourist, some teachers have chosen to immerse themselves in Digital.  These teachers can become fluent in Digital and English.  Ideally all teachers will be fluent in both languages, but the most impact would be for helping students be bi-lingual by the age of 10.