Homemade ginger biscuits with a mug of ginger tea – perfect
Monthly Archives: March 2011
Teaching Twitter to Teachers
Recently I decided to start running some more informal relaxed training sessions at school for staff. Not the sort of official ‘boring’ ones where staff have to learn how to do mail merge but fun ones like YouTube and Twitter.
So for this week’s Twitter sessions I set out with an easy aim – I wasn’t trying to convert teachers into using Twitter extensively but instead just show them how it worked and some of the benefits it can bring. I wrote the PowerPoint which is attached to the blog as the basis for the lesson and it proved to be reasonably successful as a resource. I sometimes write PowerPoints which don’t end up getting used for one reason or another so it felt good to use one properly. Of course it could be improved even further but at least I’ve got one I can revisit.
As for the training itself that went reasonably well. I had 4 in one session and a single person in another session which for my school is a good turnout. All staff bar one either had a Twitter account or set one up in the session. We went through most of the basic features including @replies, DM’s, Hashtags and favourites. Some staff asked some pretty specific questions which showed that they were taking it all in.
None of the staff since the sessions have tweeted again but I’m not concerned about that. I at least managed to educate people about Twitter so that it is something which is less ‘alien’ to them and therefore I think it will increase the chance of them possibly getting into Twitter at the right time.
Till next time …
ps: Don’t you just love alliteration?
Why I don’t think the iPad2 is better than the iPad1 for schools (for now …) #ipadedu
So the new iPad has arrived. This time around I thought I would be a lot more open than I was last time about it which is obviously easier having now seen how powerful the iPad is not just within itself but as a device within a community. However after reading through all the hoopla I've come to the conclusion that I am not especially that impressed with the new iPad when it comes to its potential within schools compared to the iPad1.
What got me thinking about this was reading a blogpost by Doug Belshaw entitled 'Less shiny' in which he rather brilliantly talks about the "difference between recognising the appropriate use of technology and being the equivalent of a dog chasing shiny cars". I think this applies quite appropriately to Apple's yearly update cycle and how much many of us have become trapped into thinking that just because a new iPad or iPhone has been released that the old one no longer has any value whatsoever.In looking at the specs and overall look of the new iPad2 I think that definitely applies here when comparing it the old iPad and in doing a comparison one can see that the old iPad remains a very capable and powerful machine still for schools.
So to start off I have taken the following table from an Engadget post comparing the two devices found here. I will then go through each spec – look at some performance data from another blog and then finish off with a conclusion. Remember that my comparison is aimed at school usage – not home usage.
iPad |
iPad 2 |
| Display | 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD |
9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD |
| Resolution | 1024 x 768 | 1024 x 768 |
| Processor | 1GHz Apple A4 | 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 |
| Graphics | PowerVR SGX 535 | ? |
| Memory | 256MB RAM | ? |
| Storage | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB |
| Front camera | none | VGA |
| Rear camera | none | 720p |
| Cellular radio | EDGE plus triband HSPA | EDGE plus quadband HSPA or CDMA / EV-DO Rev. A |
| WiFi | 802.11a/b/g/n | 802.11a/b/g/n |
| Bluetooth | 2.1 + EDR | 2.1 + EDR |
| Accelerometer | 3-axis | 3-axis |
| Gyroscope | No | 3-axis |
| Thickness | 13.4mm | 8.8mm |
| Weight | 680g (WiFi), 730g (WiFi + 3G) |
601g (WiFi), 607g (Verizon), 613g (AT&T) |
Display and Resolution:
There were many rumours about Apple putting in the retina display – fuelled by the discovery of much larger graphical elements in some Apple code. It became fairly clear eventually that the retina display would have been too expensive and Apple stuck with the old model display.
So ask yourself – as the biggest part of the iPad (the one which you will be interacting with) hasn't changed is there any compelling reason here to upgrade?
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Processor, Graphics and Memory
By going to a dual core processor the new iPad is clearly quite impressive but as you will see in one blog's speed tests the old Ipad running iOS 4.3 beta is quite close to the new iPad. As the new processor has been put in to clearly handle heavier video and CG heavy apps I've got to wonder whether the majority of educational apps are going to require that amount of raw power. The majority of apps which are going to access that sort of power are probably still to be written so by the time they become heavily mainstream we will probably be looking at the iPad3.
With no specs yet on graphics and memory it's hard to judge however they will almost certainly have been bumped. Same argument applies though as to whether it's actually worth it for educational usage.
WINNER for school: iPad original
WINNER for home: iPad2
Storage:
No change there – besides for a school system do you really need 32gb?
Easy one
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Camera:
OK this is a big difference between the two however my evaluation of this comes down to two points
- Do you need facetime at school? For now no … (can you imagine what it would do to your bandwidth?)
- For evidence gathering pupils have camera's both normal and on mobile phones
WINNER for school: iPad original
WINNER for home: iPad2
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Accelerometer:
No change …
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Gyroscope:
So it's meant to aid apps in detecting which way the phone is pointing. So for those teachers who have iPhones – how many educational apps have you bought which rely on the gyroscope? I would hazard a guess as to say not very many. It seems clear to me that the majority of usage of the gyroscope will take place within high end games. Even if it starts to be used for augmented reality applications the lack of the gyroscope is certainly not going to hold you back.
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Thickness and Weight:
I have used the original iPad a couple of times and I did not find the thickness or weight to be an issue at all. One adapts to it very quickly without any problems. Besides the extra weight of the original iPad can only help pupils get just a little bit more exercise.
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Processor speed tests:
The following graph and table comes from http://www.iphonehacks.com article on speed comparisons between the iPads, iPhone 4 (all running either iOS 4.2 or 4.3 beta) and other similar devices. The original article can be found here.
If one discounts the original iPad running iOS 4.2 to the right one can see that the old iPad not only is a shade off the new iPad (running the same version of the OS!) but also faster than the iPhone 4. Clearly lack of memory of graphics processing power and RAM in comparison will mean there may be some bottlenecks on the iPad but again are the apps we use at school going to hit those bottlenecks?
Cost:
iPad original £329 for 16gb wi-fi only
iPad2 for same device almost certainly £429 when released
WINNER for school and home: iPad original
Conclusion:
I am not advocating schools go out and just purchase any iPad 1's they can get their hands on but if you are in the position in your educational establishment to still get the original iPad especially if you have done the evaluations and are ready to then I would say get them. It's a massive saving if buying many of them and frankly to me whilst the iPad1 remains available it makes sense to get it.
Sure there are apps and functionality such as Projector mirroring which the iPad1 misses but by the time you have embedded the iPad1 I am sure we will all be looking at what new shiny thing comes our way from Apple.
"Car!"
