Comments on iPad 2 EDU Wish List

• How about an open system?
• Posted by Brian Mulligan , Open Learning Coordinator at IT Sligo, Ireland on January 11, 2011 at 6:45am EST
• Why get excited about the iPad 2 when the Androids are coming?
  
  Cheaper? This is Apple we are talking about?

• Posted by Mike Burke , asst prof English at St Louis CC on January 11, 2011 at 10:00am EST
• I would like to see Flash and a USB port or two.

• Flash content, folders & files, stylus annotating mode, VGA
• Posted by Ed Garay at University of Illinois at Chicago on January 11, 2011 at 10:00am EST
• I would love the iPad 2, and other next-gen upcoming versions of Android tablets, Windows tablets, and other slates running on webOS, Blackberry and other lightweight instant-on mobile systems to help facilitate the ubiquitous learning digital continuum that I evangelize about so much.
  
  For Apple to develop a new iPad with even higher value in education, quite a few things would need to happen. Below is a my quick short laundry list:
  
  1) The iPad needs to play Flash content -- there is so much amazing educational content out there, developed in Flash, that it seems unbelievable for Apple or any other company that claims to be in the Education industry to totally dismiss it. Interactive learning modules, animations, simulations, narrated PowerPoint presentations, adaptive instructional activities, educational games, lots of educational games, Flash Video, lecture capture recordings, so much of this developed by dedicated faculty members and instructional designed that cannot be tossed away. HTML5 will someday be great, but regardless of HTML5 eventual ubiquity, most of the aforementioned multimedia-rich educational content will never be converted to or re-developed for HTML5.
  
  Come Apple, give people what they want: let people have the option to decide to play Flash content on Apple mobile devices!
  
  2) files and folders -- The education market, the world still needs files and folders; we still think that way and with good reason. The lack of a central file system in the iPad in favor of some obscure compartmentalized app-specific files silo is absurd. Likewise, emailing PDFs, photos and miscellaneous files to ourselves so we could have these files handy is so, 1980's and ridiculous.
  
  Cloud storage is great and I wish everyone had access to and the desire to use Dropbox.com, UIC WebDisks, Google Docs and all, but just to deal with mundane day-to-day personal files and folders? Uhhhh... no!
  
  3) support for an optional stylus and precise annotating. -- the iPad is a wonderful devvice for consuming content, for experiencing the Internet, and even for composing some content with its virtual keyboard (as I am doing now to write this diatribe) or better yet, use a real keyboard with arrow keys and all. So why an optional stylus? Why precise annotating? What's wrong with your index finger?
  
  Well, let me remind everyone that students are intrincically mobile, and that writing at a keyboard resting on one's lap or one of those small classroom tables is, well, just too uncomfortable and inefficient :: it doesn't work very well. The world has been using pencil and paper for centuries because they work naturally well.
  
  Handwriting, annotating, drawing, mathematics, checmistry, foreign languages, diagraming, dare I say, doodling? They all cry for an optional stylus and for being able to set the iPad in stylus mode instead of content consuming-friendly multi-touch. Come Apple, spend some of your marketing billions in multi-touch and pen computing :: have the cake and eat it too.
  
  4) Why is the wonderful iPad incapable of displaying anything we do on the iPad on a big screen or projector? Why only very few apps like Keynote and Netflix have that privilege? The year is 2011. Enough said.
  
  5) One iPad, multiple flat screens. -- for extra credit, the new iPad 2 (and all new tablets running Android, Windows, webOS, etc) should be able to drive multiple display screens.
  
  As the use of the iPad significantly increases in our digital continuum lifestyle, I find myself wishing I could have the option to purchase an iPad mega dock (or some such) that would hardware-assist the iPad 3 in driving three big flat screens and other accessories. That would be awesome. Many people, I am sure would then indeed ditch their notebook computers and dock themselves at home or at work to exclusivelynuse the iPad for everything.
  
  For extra extra credit, Apple could keep our iPads untethered and stream its video to the dock driving the flat screens a la Air Video or wireless TV.
  
  For extra extra extra credit, we'd like to have the option to use our iPads as slave displays or as an input device to our notebook computers.
  
  
  These are just some of the things that Apple could do, in my opinion, to bring to market a new iPad model that would really be extremely useful to education. Not everyone in America has $500 and up to purchase a cute digital magazine dispenser. That would be too luxurious.
  
  Greetings from Chicago.

• iPad is for social networking - NOT college work
• Posted by Cynthia , Doctoral candidate at UMSL on January 11, 2011 at 11:00am EST
• I get weary reading about how the iPad (and now even the Android tablet) is going to revolutionize higher education. That's akin to the belief that this ‘younger’ generation is so technologically savvy. Sure they are, if one is talking about being able to text (while driving, eating, in class, etc) , play an amazing array of games, and update their Facebook page throughout the day. The question is – and should be - can they take notes, write and upload a paper to Blackboard, or take on online quiz? These tasks are the work of the college student that they should be able to do, but each semester I spend a great deal of time teaching them the basics, which is fine by me, but I certainly do not believe they are technologically proficient. At least not by my definition of college work. The iPad is just another distraction.
  
  What students NEED is a tool to help them to better succeed, to have more options if they do not have a computer at home or cannot always access one when they might have the time to put in some coursework. Don’t get me wrong – the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are beautiful. And let’s not forget the upcoming release of the Motorola Xoom. But they are not something meant for real productivity.
  
  If higher education (okay, any educational system) was really serious about using tablets to help students get a bigger bang for their buck, promote easy portability to do actual work, then they’d be discussing all the Windows 7 tablets, called slates, which unfortunately are mostly marketed to business.
  
  The Asus Slate EP121, all the Motion Computing slates, the new HP Slate 500, Fujitsu, and Leveno all make wonderful slates that run actual Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and above all OneNote. The digitizer pen (you know – to write notes with) works beautifully and converts to typed text on many of the slates. Install something like Dropbox or Evernote, and all the student’s work is available at all times from anywhere. Try doing that on an iPad or tablet. You can’t.
  
  No, I do not work for Microsoft or any of the above slate manufacturers. But I am an adjunct instructor as I write my dissertation. On any given day I am on several campuses before heading back to my real office to work on the dissertation. Slates afford me the opportunity to work between classes, have all my materials with me at all times (unlike having to carry the extra weight of a laptop and adapter). I cannot imagine working in higher education without a slate.
  
  The iPad? Sure it is fun, brilliant, and one can play a mean game of Angry Birds on it, but that’s just my point. It is a time waster – email, movies, music, games. Is that what we want our students to do more of? Not me.
  

• Posted by TWB on January 11, 2011 at 8:00pm EST
• It would be nice if the next iPad could handle footnotes in Word documents.

• Video out for class
• Posted by Richard Regan , Assistant Professor of English at Fairfield University on January 12, 2011 at 4:15am EST
• iPas 2 needs video out for the screen and all apps. Whether this was a battery issue or was connected to the choice of video card or both, the next hardware iteration needs classroom projection. Faculty who are not comfortable with a full featured laptop are likely to use such an iPad in class.

• So much potential--and so much frustration
• Posted by Cherie Dargan , Associate Professor, Communications at Hawkeye Community College on January 21, 2011 at 4:30am EST
• My husband and I are both geeks professionally and personally; we did research on all of the tablets and ereaders last summer and fall, and he got me the IPad for my birthday in late November.
  
  I love it: I'm hooked, but sometimes I also sort of hate it. I use it for a number of things and love how portable, powerful and versatile it is. However, it is missing several things that would be handy, such as a built in camera for skype.
  
  My number one gripe? I REALLY miss a USB port and HATE using Itunes for some kind of file management to get pictures of the new grandchild onto my iPad. I also hate seeing the messages about not being to look at something because Apple doesn't like flash.
  
  I have had MANY more problems downloading ebooks than I ever dreamed I would have, probably because I wanted to use several apps (such as Nook) to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. Joshua, you are a prophet in writing about ebooks and the need for publishers to keep things standard--I see already the madness of having half a dozen places where I have books on this device, and then trying to remember where to look for my next bookclub book.
  
  It is great fun and I don't regret buying it. However, for educational purposes, I agree with you that it not the thing that will transform the classroom. If I had to choose between a classroom set of iPads and netbooks, I think I would take the netbooks for working with students.

• High Hopes
• Posted by Nicole , Advance Tech Support on February 25, 2011 at 9:00pm EST
• I just recently purchased a Sling Adapter and I'm hoping that the newest iPad will work well with receiving my TV programming. I work for DISH Network and I know that the previous version of the iPad never gave any of my co-workers problems with their TV viewing. I'm excited to be able to watch all my favorite shows conveniently when I please. Now for the countdown...