That still counts as handwritten to me. My point is not about university, more about primary school and high school, where hand writing is still important given exams (in my country) are hand written and will be for a while yet. I also believe studies have shown that handwritten (on whatever medium) lead to better retention.
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Apple Offers to Replace iPads With MacBooks in Maine State Classrooms
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That still counts as handwritten to me. My point is not about university, more about primary school and high school, where hand writing is still important given exams (in my country) are hand written and will be for a while yet. I also believe studies have shown that handwritten (on whatever medium) lead to better retention.
I think the issue is with the teachers not the technology. I'm a governor for two schools, both use iPads and use them properly. If you use the correctly as a teacher you can see what the students are doing, they can't game without you knowing. The way they can support students to learn makes a huge difference, students can ask for help without calling out or showing they need help (some students don't like to show they need support), teachers can track work, progress, homework. Sure this can be done on a laptop too, but that wasn't the argument. The schools are saying the students game, so I blame the teaching skills.
Also, sitting and 'word processing' for a length of time is not really the most effective way of learning. Easy teaching though, give them a subject and let them get on with it, less work for the teacher.
One of the schools I'm a governor for is a special school for the most disabled children in the area. Some have no communication skills (one of them is my son), all have severe learning disabilities, none can learn in any sort of traditional style. The iPads have transformed the way the students can learn and interact, every day we see mini miracles from the children. The best part is so much of it can be instantly saved as evidence through the camera - photo or video - to share with the parents.
Again, none of the students play games (unless they are allowed to, some games are great for learning), and many of them can and do when not in lessons, but they love to learn with the iPads.
I no longer use a laptop, I sold mine nearly 4 years ago now, I had an iPad mini 2 at first and that was a struggle, way too slow, but since upgrading to an Air 2 things have got a lot easier. For nearly 3 years I ran a charity using an iPad, I didn't touch a laptop or desktop computer once, even when things sometimes were a little tricky. I left the charity last year for a quieter life in the country, but still the iPad is my computer, and it does everything I want, it's easy to use, comfortable, flexible, I don't miss a laptop one bit. It's most certainly not a toy, I worked for many hours a day and night on the iPad, they ran POS in the charities coffee shop, they managed accounts, email campaigns, design, marketing, document management, recruitment, memeets hip development, presentations, managed admittance to events, fully managed specialist day care services (children and staffing) through a specialist website we had built that I designed, and iPads ran and still run a toy library for disabled children. We even used iPads connected to Numark mixers to run the charity owned function venue for parties and music nights. But the iPads are most definitely not toys, and going back to a standard laptop device with a hanged screen and keyboard is a huge step backwards in my opinion.
Also, sitting and 'word processing' for a length of time is not really the most effective way of learning. Easy teaching though, give them a subject and let them get on with it, less work for the teacher.
One of the schools I'm a governor for is a special school for the most disabled children in the area. Some have no communication skills (one of them is my son), all have severe learning disabilities, none can learn in any sort of traditional style. The iPads have transformed the way the students can learn and interact, every day we see mini miracles from the children. The best part is so much of it can be instantly saved as evidence through the camera - photo or video - to share with the parents.
Again, none of the students play games (unless they are allowed to, some games are great for learning), and many of them can and do when not in lessons, but they love to learn with the iPads.
I no longer use a laptop, I sold mine nearly 4 years ago now, I had an iPad mini 2 at first and that was a struggle, way too slow, but since upgrading to an Air 2 things have got a lot easier. For nearly 3 years I ran a charity using an iPad, I didn't touch a laptop or desktop computer once, even when things sometimes were a little tricky. I left the charity last year for a quieter life in the country, but still the iPad is my computer, and it does everything I want, it's easy to use, comfortable, flexible, I don't miss a laptop one bit. It's most certainly not a toy, I worked for many hours a day and night on the iPad, they ran POS in the charities coffee shop, they managed accounts, email campaigns, design, marketing, document management, recruitment, memeets hip development, presentations, managed admittance to events, fully managed specialist day care services (children and staffing) through a specialist website we had built that I designed, and iPads ran and still run a toy library for disabled children. We even used iPads connected to Numark mixers to run the charity owned function venue for parties and music nights. But the iPads are most definitely not toys, and going back to a standard laptop device with a hanged screen and keyboard is a huge step backwards in my opinion.
If that is the case, Apple may have to be prepared to go one step further and start bringing in experts to oversee the rollout of iPads and the implementation of a suitable curriculum.
We have people like Frasier Spiers successfully overseeing the use of iPads in his school. Apple might want to learn from him, specifically the challenges in deploying iPads and see if those can be rectified in subsequent software updates.
From my experience as a teacher in an elementary school with a B121 programme (students have their own laptops at the age of 10, classrooms come equipped with laptops for those younger), the biggest problem flooring such programmers is indifference on the part of the teaching staff.
You can have the best hardware, but if the teachers don't think the use of ICT is worth the time compared to pen-and-paper drills, they may not carry out the programmers in the classroom, or only give it token attention. Or they may be genuinely interested, but lack the pedagogical skills to properly carry out an ICT lesson in the classroom. Because if you want to be pragmatic about it, the benefits of values taught like problem solving may not make itself felt for many years, while teachers will still be evaluated on the test results of their students at the end of the year.
For the money the schools are paying, I think they deserve more than just the hardware.
Duh..
iOS sucks as a "be productive with everything OS". It's so frustratingly claustrophobic and limited. Fine for casual stuff on a phone though.
iOS sucks as a "be productive with everything OS". It's so frustratingly claustrophobic and limited. Fine for casual stuff on a phone though.
Epic fail by the state of Maine but good on Apple for agreeing to exchange. The new 12" MacBooks are ideal school laptops.
An iPad for productivity is either much more limiting, more cumbersome or both. I'm quite opposed to iCloud lockdown for file storage and management and it isn't exactly easy to use USB with the iPad. Forget any kind of network drive access also.
There's so much fantastic open-source software that will never make it to iOS and schools often rely on cheap or free software. If a student wants to learn programming they really need a Mac to test and develop on.
The iPad is best at home or as a travel accessory.
An iPad for productivity is either much more limiting, more cumbersome or both. I'm quite opposed to iCloud lockdown for file storage and management and it isn't exactly easy to use USB with the iPad. Forget any kind of network drive access also.
There's so much fantastic open-source software that will never make it to iOS and schools often rely on cheap or free software. If a student wants to learn programming they really need a Mac to test and develop on.
The iPad is best at home or as a travel accessory.
Really? That's your article you referenced is your defense? Because some guy with cancer needs something very portable to be able to continue to post is web articles, that is supposed to be the case for everyone? And, to say an iPad is more powerful than a classic PC leads me to believe you're still rocking a Pentium 4 PC. An iPad is NOT more powerful by any means.
Obviously whatever you do with your iPad works for you, but you're case is not the only one in the world. Think about other scenarios before getting sick.
I was the first student in my class to have a laptop that I brought to school, back in 1996, and it was a PowerBook 5300cs - I didn't even even get my first cell phone until I was a Junior in HS and that was a Nokia 5120. Times have changed!
I mowed lawns all summer to save up enough money to buy that PowerBook, by the way....
I mowed lawns all summer to save up enough money to buy that PowerBook, by the way....
This reads like a long way of saying that they were "holding it wrong"
You know, reading the comments here, I can't help but wonder just how much of the problem is due to the limitations of the iPad, and how much is due to the close-mindedness of the people using them and their unwillingness / inability to change their usage patterns.
I mean, we have people maintaining entire websites using their iPad, like Macstories. Sure, it's more the exception than the norm for now, but it also shows what is possible if the user cares enough to want to master the iPad in its entirety.
I mean, we have people maintaining entire websites using their iPad, like Macstories. Sure, it's more the exception than the norm for now, but it also shows what is possible if the user cares enough to want to master the iPad in its entirety.
I have read plenty of articles where iPad was very successful in class.
But it is also face palm obvious there is subjects where the iPad is far from ideal, like Programming and Writing.
There is also age groups. Younger (elementary) would do very well with iPad, but older (high school) would be better with laptops.
ANYWAY, this "one size fits all" approach may be a holy grail for everything, but in long run "one size fits all" is more expensive (see the F-35 program)
But it is also face palm obvious there is subjects where the iPad is far from ideal, like Programming and Writing.
There is also age groups. Younger (elementary) would do very well with iPad, but older (high school) would be better with laptops.
ANYWAY, this "one size fits all" approach may be a holy grail for everything, but in long run "one size fits all" is more expensive (see the F-35 program)
My iPad (iPad Air) doesn't even support multitasking. The iPad Pro supports it, the iPad Air 2 supports it. But only two applications at the same time maximum.
Switching between apps especially the web browser with lots of tabs causes refreshing. Sometimes just trying to enter a form in a web tab in Safari while needing to cross reference data (shipping info, addresses, phone numbers, whatever else you need to enter) can cause the tab to refresh losing all your form data.
These are the kind of issues that were solved in conventional computers decades ago. Using an iPad for any kind of proper work is a chore, it's inefficient, slower to complete tasks and generally aggravating. You need to burden your mind with a lot more information.
Heck just try using a password manager on it. You have to switch between the app you're logging into and the password manager app every time, it's just such a pain. There's almost no app cross-integration, copy and paste is a chore. Even when you attach a keyboard there is no cursor on the screen requiring you to remove your hands from the keyboard to go to the screen to do things. Just a pain.
People that use the iPad as their only computer who do any kind of content creation (even writing) are putting themselves at a disadvantage.
I found the Chromebook confusing because everything happened in Chrome and it needed to be online. So I didn't really know why I'd need a Chromebook when I could just use Chrome on my computer - the computer that did all the other stuff too.
Is this a revelation? iPads suck for doing actual work... I don't think this is a surprise for anyone.
While I don't think students need a laptop, either, I would definitely say that a laptop is more versatile for students than an iPad. At the high end of the spectrum, a laptop is really needed to code. At the low end, i.e. basic tasks... Word processing sucks on an iPad compared to a laptop. At least in ease of use.
I LOVE iPads and even I don't use one to write on when I have a laptop nearby...
I know someone here will say, "No, it is easy, I write EXCLUSIVELY on an iPad".... You're a minority even on the Macrumors forum. The vast majority of people don't want to write papers on an iPad because it is tedious. It can be done, but should it be done? Only as a last resort at this point.
It's just not a fun experience and incredibly annoying.
I LOVE iPads and even I don't use one to write on when I have a laptop nearby...
I know someone here will say, "No, it is easy, I write EXCLUSIVELY on an iPad".... You're a minority even on the Macrumors forum. The vast majority of people don't want to write papers on an iPad because it is tedious. It can be done, but should it be done? Only as a last resort at this point.
It's just not a fun experience and incredibly annoying.
It's mildly amusing to read the defensive posts insisting that there must be something wrong with the administrators, the teachers, the students or all three to not realize the amazing capabilities of the iPad. It's pretty obvious that a student can't efficiently type a paper or report on an iPad unless the district springs for a keyboard -- which they aren't going to do. Even with a keyboard, serious data entry into an iPad is a straining and inefficient experience.
What's interesting about this story is how contrary it runs to Apple's claims that for "most" people an iPad can replace a laptop. It adds to the growing number of reports where iPads used for purposes other than entertainment are failing.
I just got a top of the line iPad Pro 9.7 myself and I'm very happy with it--but it has very limited work uses. It's fantastic for me to entertain myself with which is the reason I bought it and comprises the vast majority of my use. A few years ago my employer issued everyone an iPad and after a few months they all ended up unused in desk drawers. The remaining unopened supply are given away as prizes at various events. I realize my post may generate a furious reply by someone who manages to use their iPad for work in a niche industry but for the rest of us that's not the case at this time.
I'm glad Apple is willing to replace the iPads with a useful device for the students. It's a win for them and that's the important part.
What's interesting about this story is how contrary it runs to Apple's claims that for "most" people an iPad can replace a laptop. It adds to the growing number of reports where iPads used for purposes other than entertainment are failing.
I just got a top of the line iPad Pro 9.7 myself and I'm very happy with it--but it has very limited work uses. It's fantastic for me to entertain myself with which is the reason I bought it and comprises the vast majority of my use. A few years ago my employer issued everyone an iPad and after a few months they all ended up unused in desk drawers. The remaining unopened supply are given away as prizes at various events. I realize my post may generate a furious reply by someone who manages to use their iPad for work in a niche industry but for the rest of us that's not the case at this time.
I'm glad Apple is willing to replace the iPads with a useful device for the students. It's a win for them and that's the important part.
The main reason, iPads are too expensive. Purchase 3 Chromebooks for one iPad.
You can use slide over to access 1password, though logging in can be a tad inconvenient without Touch ID. I know. I just upgraded to the iPad Pro a month ago and multitasking and Touch ID really make all the difference.
For inputting data, what I am doing is to use 3rd party keyboards such as Copied and Kuaiboard to save the data I need, then insert them directly into the text fields all at one go.
It's not perfect, but I find that I can sometimes be more efficient than if the same thing were to be done on a desktop. Copied especially, it's part of my workflow for inserting multiple quotes into a forum reply like Theverge.
Sounds like you're doing a lot of mental gymnastics to overcome the iPads frailties. I'd rather just use a proper computer.
I love my iPad for games, occasional light non-interactive web browsing, ebook reading. But making music, coding, writing stuff, doing ebay listings, posting on this forum even instant messaging with friends is not something I find it is a good device for.
At the end of the day these products are marketed as a way to improve our lives, make things easier and more enjoyable. Installing a third party keyboard (which loses you Siri btw) just to paste content into a web form is a workaround to a problem the iPad creates.
9 times out of 10 I'm going to use my 15" MacBook Pro which I find easy to use, intuitive and with all the software I want to run. If it had a touch screen and the iOS environment as a docked app (similar to how Launch Pad is I suppose) it would negate my need to even buy an iPad to be honest. Best of both.
As someone with two school age kids, I can re-write this story to succinctly say:
"Classroom policies are not enforced, therefore the kids are using iPads as gaming devices. Also, teachers don't know how to use iPads". As pointed out in other comments, MBPs can be used for gaming too. Instead of giving teachers the training needed and strictly enforcing gaming rules, schools blame the technology.
My kid's school has a mix of Dell Desktops (some new, some from the 18th century) and iPads. The kids overwhelmingly like using the iPads and they are much easier for them to use. Schools using MacBooks or MacBook pros are going to bankrupt themselves. Maine is lucky Apple did an even swap.
"Classroom policies are not enforced, therefore the kids are using iPads as gaming devices. Also, teachers don't know how to use iPads". As pointed out in other comments, MBPs can be used for gaming too. Instead of giving teachers the training needed and strictly enforcing gaming rules, schools blame the technology.
My kid's school has a mix of Dell Desktops (some new, some from the 18th century) and iPads. The kids overwhelmingly like using the iPads and they are much easier for them to use. Schools using MacBooks or MacBook pros are going to bankrupt themselves. Maine is lucky Apple did an even swap.
Its part of the reason I love my Surface Pro 3, it is very flexible device. I have the touch/tablet capability if I need it, but most of the time, the Type Cover is attached. You get more value out of it as laptop device. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple follows other operating systems like Windows, Chrome and its own OS X and make iOS windowed with true multi-tasking. It just makes sense on a device as large as the iPad Pro.
How do you explain even 88% of the students asking for laptops over iPads though?
Clearly the students themselves didn't even want them even when they could play games on them.
Masteries is not a blog, that's a website with multiple people working on it, it has paid subscriptions and ePub books.
If you take iPad Pro and compare it to average PC, iPad Pro software would work much faster, people edit 4K videos on it which still laggy on medium PCs you can buy today. Also by powerful I don't just mean spec numbers. Ability to take your computer anywhere and work wirelessly is another power, ability to draw on the screen and see results without any lag is another kind of power. Ability to do automation with apps like Workflow without knowledges of script language is another power. Power is an ability to do new things, not spec tables.
Yep totally agree.
My large iPad Pro basically runs one app - Logic Remote.
My smaller iPad Pro I just use like all my other iPads, which is not to do any typing or work at all on, just media consumption, mainly reading on a nice portrait screen.
I play around with the Pencil on both, but i'm not a good enough artist to make it worthwhile really (i'm not an artist full stop!)