Tag Archives: school

Why I don’t think the iPad2 is better than the iPad1 for schools (for now …) #ipadedu

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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

  1. Do you need facetime at school? For now no … (can you imagine what it would do to your bandwidth?)
  2. 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.

ipad-2-javascript-graph.jpg
ipad-2-javascript-numbers-centre1.jpg

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!"

My response to @WiredUK post on iPad being the death of creation in schools #ipadedu

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Recently the Geekdad writer on Wired (who I follow regularly) posted an interesting article on whether the iPad is the death of creation.

The article can be found here:

I agree with his concerns and I think he has raised a valid point.  I think it's quite possible to come to the conclusion that Apple users have now become sheep who avidly consume all content which appears the App store.  I myself am a case in point as I spend a fair bit of time working on Angry Birds levels.  The new Motorola Xoom tablet ad shown during the Super Bowl in the states alluded to this as well showing automatons blinkered from the world quite literally through their hoods but also their headphones.  For anyone who missed the  Apple allusion the main character was reading 1984 on his tablet.

As a teacher working on the problem of iPads in education the issue of consumption versus creation is a thorny one.  I would certainly not want to suggest the use of tablets if they were only consumption devices (eg the Kindle which is a pseudo-tablet) but rather if they were used regularly as creation devices.  The Geekdad writer acknowledges that there is some content creation aspect to the iPad but it merely abstracts the nuts and bolts of the technology.  I'm not sure what he is getting at but perhaps the following outline of how to approach the iPand and creation versus consumption may help.

I would propose that in assessing the iPad for school one would need to look at three aspects:
  1. Consumption of Content
  2. Content Creation
  3. Assistance with Content Creation
1.  Consumption of content

This has to happen regardless of how you view the iPad.  One aspect of education itself is being able to make sense of the reams of information available to one and if your device can help you make sense of that then fantastic.  The ability to use the iPad to access information in the form of ebooks, websites, RSS readers etc would be a great way for a pupil to harness what they have available to them.  Doing it using a form factor which is engaging and simple (no keyboard getting in the way) to use is a plus point.

2. Content Creation

Admittedly this is an area which could grow a bit more as the freedom of full desktop applications such as programming or graphic design applications may not be as readily available for the iPad but as the device grows in power and capability this may change.  Certainly there are  applications like Brushes which allow for full scale drawing on the iPad and this is a start.

Where I feel the iPad wins is its ability to allow pupils to easily add straight forward written content on social networks and blogs.  Does this turn it into a glorified typewriter? Possibly but when you consider that these contributions to social networks and blogs open up the avenue towards collaboration with other pupils in not just their own school but other schools as well the iPad becomes a lot more powerful.

3.  Assistance with Content Creation

This aspect I am still thrashing out as I only came up with it in response to the article!  I have seen pictures of iPads being used in various lessons like Art and Drama or being used as a storyboard utility for pupil film editing.  This I feel is a prime example of how the iPad could be used to assist pupils in creating content and work outside of the iPad which has been enhanced or made easier through the use of the iPad.

In conclusion I would say the iPad does have a way to go before it becomes a must use utility in schools.  I am wary of schools which have simply rolled them out and hoped the educational usage will come to them after that – I think that is an irresponsible way of doing it and could probably put off staff and pupils if managed badly.  School's need bullet proof plans for rolling them out especially if one looks at the cost not just of the devices (I can't even afford one yet) but also of the support systems such as Wi-Fi.

Effective and critical questioning from parents such as the sentiments expressed in this article are valid and necessary in being able to see a way forward for iPads.  I hope we get there at some point as I think they are brilliant devices.

Our school will be joining the #classblogs revolution this year

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Posterous

I’ve been thinking that this should be the year our school finally joins the growing number of #classblogs out there.  This is how we are going to do it.

1.  As the above image hints we will be using Posterous as our blogging platform.  We are familiar with it and although I wouldn’t be able to manage all other teachers class blogs (like edublogs could do) I still think the basic management tools for each blog are sufficiently powerful to make it worthwhile as our main tool.
2.  Come up with a common naming strategy for classblogs around the school.  This will help when students need to know what posterous email address to use when submitting a blogpost.
3.  Setup a common clearing house (preferably a masterblog) containing links to all the other classblogs.
4.  Establish guidelines for students (no surnames mentioned on blogs – esafety and all that)
5.  Link all blogs to twitter accounts and follow them from the school account
6.  Have fun!

As soon as we are up and running I will begin posting links to #classblogs.

:-)

Developing an effective teaching solution during snow closure

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Our school site says we might be open on Monday however looking at the
weather report this may be a bit unlikely (or will open just with very
few pupils). Now the three days of snow have meant that I have missed
about four hours of GCSE teaching and about five hours of A level
teaching. This is quite concerning as exams and coursework becomes
quite urgent.

So this blog is a bit of a thought exercise on how to deliver lessons
with pupils and teachers both stuck at home. The following ideas are
designed for my own school.

Two points to consider:

1 – we don’t currently have Moodle installed and we are unlikely to
install anything similar. I am not sold on moodle in any case partly
due to the second point below.
2 – I am looking for services or websites which teachers and students
can use which are not hosted or managed by the school. This is I think
a necessary strategy to ensure that in the case of extreme weather
lessons can continue without relying on the school.

So how to do it?

1 – firstly students need a central point to which they can go which
lists all the teachers in the school and what services those teachers
use. This is because I think some teachers may use more than one
website than other teachers. For example I could be using, Edmodo,
posterous and Twitter whilst another teacher could just be using
Posterous.
2 – secondly use free services like posterous or edmodo. Both I have
only recently come across and they work an absolute treat for
organising lessons and delivering content.

Certainly at the very minimum teachers could use edmodo to notify
students of what they ate doing on posterous. Posterous itself could
then contain the nuts and bolts of a lesson. With the ability to
rapidly upload content of just about any type teachers can rapidly
push out content to students.

The killer feature of posterous though is the ability to create ‘sub’
blogs to which students can submit their own work too. This would
allow teachers to pretty rapidly get work back from students and allow
those same students to comment on each others work.

Ultimately doing something like this to support lessons is quite
tricky and will run into teething problems. But if it has the support
of the school and the students it could very easily continue to
provide educational value to students during situations like school
closures due to snow.

Ofsted Report on ICT in schools

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The following may be a bit dry for some – I do apologise. It’s basically my own summary of the key points contained within a recent report released by Ofsted on the state of ICT education in schools. Ive summarised my points into three key sections.

Secondary School ICT

Management of ICT department

· Provide full statutory National Curriculum requirement

· Make sure that teacher’s subject knowledge and training needs are fully audited

o Provide continued support to ensure that their skills remain relevant

· Make sure that National Guidance on ICT is embedded within the department

· Plan for the long term skills of pupils (what they will need when they leave school)

· Provide demonstration lessons within the department and also to the wider school

· Achievement of girls in the subject is essential

· VLE is essential for providing structure in the department

· A portfolio of assessed work is established with examples of ICT work at different levels

· A range of qualifications must be in place to support students of different abilities

 

Management of ICT across school

· ICT must not be taught in isolation but should be embedded in other subjects

· Assessment of ICT progress must be school wide

o School should be assessing progress in ICT in other subject (assessment led by individual department areas rather than reliant on ICT)

· Provide full statutory National Curriculum requirement

· Evaluate impact of ICT resources on learning

· Ensure teaching assistants are also fully trained in ICT

· Include internet safety teaching at regular points – not once a year

· IEP’s should include ICT targets as well

· Ensure Local Authority support for ICT where appropriate is used to its fullest extent

· Make sure that National Guidance on ICT is embedded across the school

· Provide adequate resources for teachers

o Laptops

· Provide adequate access to resources for students

o Use of computers whenever required

o Use of handheld devices

o Alternative office suites and operating systems

· Audit which students have access to ICT at home

o Develop a strategy (possible with LA assistance) to support those students

· Plan for the long term skills of pupils (what they will need when they leave school)

· Evaluate as often as possible the implementation and impact of ICT

o Detailed development plans should be written by all subject areas on their own ICT implementation

o Targets should be set which are fully costed

Teaching and learning in the classroom

· Provide exposure to alternative office suites and operating systems

· Ensure assessment is front and centre within the department

o Establish attainment of pupils on entry into secondary school

o Continue to track progress

· Provide full spreadsheet and database instruction

· A VLE is essential for providing detailed information for students on all aspects of the subject

· Effective teaching and learning

o Planning is meticulous with assessment used precisely to inform tasks and the next stages of learning.

o Make sure learning objectives are explicit

o Teaching motivates pupils and uses engaging and relevant contexts

o Teachers ask challenging questions to assess pupils’ understanding and to build on their knowledge

o The lesson itself must remain at a good pace

o Teachers provided regular feedback to pupils on how well they were doing.

o Pupils are given the opportunity to collaborate and critically review their own work and that of others; as a result, they were able to demonstrate ICT capability at a higher level.

o Good use is made of teacher assessment to track pupils’ progress and achievement and pupils knew the areas they needed to improve.

o Transitions between activities were managed well

o The teacher must have excellent subject knowledge

o The teacher must have high expectations of students

o Explanations were clear and accurate

o Students were engaged, challenged and required to review, evaluate and improve their own work

o Used quick fire question and answer sessions to elicit knowledge and understanding and clear up misunderstandings

o Planned for the needs of individuals and groups of students including Gifted and Talented, boys and girls and SEN students

o Lessons include a variety of tasks which tackled the more challenging aspects of the National Curriculum

o A good plenary session must be used to test pupils’ understanding and achievement of the lesson objectives