I can totally relate. I have a 5K iMac at home for doing anything that requires any heavy lifting, but for absolutely everything else whether I'm at home or out somewhere, I use a 9.7" iPad Pro. I actually haven't had the need for a MacBook at all anymore ever since the first iPad Air with the A7 came out.
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Apple Offers to Replace iPads With MacBooks in Maine State Classrooms
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I can totally relate. I have a 5K iMac at home for doing anything that requires any heavy lifting, but for absolutely everything else whether I'm at home or out somewhere, I use a 9.7" iPad Pro. I actually haven't had the need for a MacBook at all anymore ever since the first iPad Air with the A7 came out.
- iPads are lighter than laptops, and have better battery life than many also (which is important for school
- iPads are more 'cross platform' than a Windows PC or a Mac is. If you give out Macs, then a lot of people with PCs are alienated and Vice Versa, where as the iPad is a bit more neutral.
- iPads are a bit better in terms of textbooks - always have found it easy (till this day) to read a textbook off an iPad than a laptop.
- Some schools do not want the technology they introduce to completely replace everything. Similar to my use of an iPad in high school, there is the idea that the iPad compliments other forms of learning (e.g. written) instead of completely replacing them, like a laptop is bound to do.
- There are a lot of good educational apps
- iPads (As of iOS 9.3) have good management systems for class control.
This assumes that proper planning is done and teachers are trained in appropriate integration of technology.
Thats not to say there are downsides. This system would assume that students would have access to a desktop computer for doing any serious writing and things that the iPad can't achieve.
Also:
- While cheaper in the short term, iPads will not last as long as laptops before software updates slow them down.
- Schools with iPads will need to retain laptops for a lot of activities
Cost. If the base price is at 2k US or higher it would be a no-go.
Still, a very good idea. Still far tougher than it sounds. A totally new OS
Do you understand photography? The 6S camera doesn't touch a DSLR sensor, or the professional movie cameras used. For the consumer, sure the iPad Pro has a nice camera, but it doesn't come close to what professionals use. I can guarantee you professionals are NOT filming and editing on iPad Pros. It is impractical given how much storage you need and how hopeless the iPad is at file management and external storage, and from a quality point of view and thats not even mentioning the lack of basic professional features such as the lack of zoom in the iPad Pro Camera.
One tweet from an Apple lover does not prove anything.
Since Tim Cook said "who needs a computer anymore?" when showing off the iPad Pro, punctuated by the dearth of new computer updates especially at the Pro level, I have been in a stupor. I have the iPad Pro, and I need a MacPro worthy of the title too. Tim. You can sell me both? iOS simply cannot do Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc. And worst of all, it is almost impossible to manage your files. I can hardly wait for the outcry of people in a few years that they cannot find their videos and other items they created on the iPads. On a side note, I had WebDAV working perfectly on my Mac Server before the Server 5 upgrade, and I have not been able to connect since. I even reformatted the drive and did a clean install. Lot of hours just to be able to manage my files like I can on any Mac. And worst of all it still doesn't work.
What for you jumping through hoops for me is normal. You talking from your previous experience. You probably used Mac for a long time and you have specific mindset and understanding how computers should work.
I don't use computers for such a long time and I choose to change my expectations. For me lots of Mac stuff driving me crazy and you don't notice it.
When using Mac I have different kind of hoops: it's noisy, hot and heavy. I have to manage all this windows which don't remember its position so often. Deleting and installing applications is not user friendly. Keyboard doesn't change when I change app or language. I have to manage process, file system. There's much more things that can go wrong. When I start playing movie, I have to stop music manually. I have to memorise keyboard short cuts.When playing games some of them can lag and some of them not, I have to adjust video preferences for each game while on iPad it just works.
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iOS keeps all videos in "Videos" album. Easy ti find. You can use Transmit app for connecting to WebDAV. Plus you just described how complex and old PC / Mac architecture is and how many problems it gives you.
I'm not sure iPads require so much time for planning and training. Whether going with iPad or laptop, there needs to be a proper plan and sufficient training on the apps and tools that will be used. If iPads provide some benefit over laptops that should be discussed before the order process even begins. Seems like these people didn't do anything but order iPads and hope for the best.
My daughter's school opted for Chromebooks. They spoke with parents, looked at the curriculum, figured the best way to implement, considered budget/student pop, and went with the CB. So far the kids seem to love it. Had they gone with iPads I think kids would have loved it just as much since the school had a plan and knew what they were doing.
No, Mac is a toy, my Commodore Terminal is a real work tool. Who needs GUI?
And Chromebooks are just a web browser.
Oh they'll someday be able to run Android apps... but those will just be blown up phone apps.
I'm curious... are Chromebooks good because they are shaped like a laptop? Because from a software standpoint... Chromebooks don't seem to offer as much as an iPad.
I'd be interested to know what software is available for Chromebooks but not for iPads.
Things changing.
This iPhone-only professional photographer is the future of sports photography http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/23/th...ographer-is-the-future-of-sports-photography/
There are things the iPad is really really good at and some things it is not. So what may work for lower grades won't work as well for high grades. I would hate to have to compose reports, papers solely on an iPad. Even with a keyboard I'm not nearly as efficient as I would be on a laptop. And coding/development is a total non starter.
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
This iPhone-only professional photographer is the future of sports photography.
http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/23/th...ographer-is-the-future-of-sports-photography/
What a load of rubbish haha if you actually believe that you're delusional.
I'm perfectly aware of how an iPad works, I've used them since they came out and am perfectly happy to adjust If that adjustment will give a better or easier way of doing a task.
Your needs are obviously basic, and as such the iPad probably suits you well. For tasks that are beyond basic, many of which are more complex to do on the iPad and far simpler on a desktop machine. The simplicity of the iPad makes it too complex often.
If you want to use or two windows at a time on the iPad, then thats fine, window management on a desktop computer is not difficult and allows for a lot more ease of use in multitasking.
Noisy, Hot and Heavy?
If I want to watch a university lecture, I've got to first go to safari, look it up on my University's website, then copy that url, exit safari, open a video download app, download the video, convert it, and then open it in another app so I can have that open while having other notes open. Its a complex way of doing things that offers NO benefits.
On a Mac (or any desktop computer for that matter) I go to safari, go to the university website, go to the lecture and press download, and it opens straight away, and I can drag it next to another window.
If I want to have two internet tabs open at the same time, I've got to have two seperate web browsers. If I want to open a link in a new tab, I've got to copy and past that link, slide over chrome, put that URL in and often re-log in as I won't be logged in on chrome. Again, no benefits to on a Mac right clicking and pressing 'open in new tab'.
Another good one is word processing. What if I want two pages documents open? Very common if you're doing a university essay or assessment task. Well I've got to open one document and take a screen shot, then open the document I do want, then open spit screen multitasking, select photos, then open the photo. However, if I then want to edit both documents, I've got to share the document from pages, to another word processor (Eg word), save in iCloud drive and then open in word, but then copy and past any changes back into pages, because I can't just open the file back into pages, once its in word. On a desktop machine, I simply double click the other document I want to work on, and work on it.
Working on two pages documents at the same time, catching up on a uni lecture with notes open or using two or more internet tabs are simple, simple tasks that require no thought on a desktop machine. Doing those same things on an iPad are complex, and serve NO benefit.
The iPad is a great device and consuming on the iPad is great, it simplifies things and offers a great alternative to a desktop machine, However it does not hold a torch to a desktop machine for many productivity tasks - because for the iPad to be 'better' for that, your tasks have to be extremely simple, or otherwise you are jumping through hoops to do tasks that are simple on a desktop machine.
Agree. My kids (12th and 8th) grade are in a 1:X school district that gave them iPads 3 years ago. My son's uses some of the school apps - but a whole bunch of games/junk as well.
He does a lot of his school work on the Chromebook we bought him. Since most of his classes live off google.docs, it was a natural fit. The keyboard is much better as input device and it's crazy portable/durable. The prices are so cheap, I think the school would have been much better getting them Chromebooks - even if they needed to replace them more often than iPads.
I always thought the principal benefit of the iPad is as a reading tablet. I find it a lot easier to read from a handheld device than from a screen at a distance. The iPad as a replacement for textbooks strikes me as an ideal companion to go along with a notebook and pen. I can see how especially students from poorer areas who may lack an adequate PC in the home would benefit more from a laptop, both for typing reports, organising research, and, importantly, for preparing university applications.
You obviously have no idea about photography whatsoever. If you understood the difference between the image sensor in an iPhone and the image sensors used in high end equipment you would understand.
The only thing that he claims the uPhone does is to allow access where he couldn't before take a camera. He could achieve the same thing with good compact digital camera, with the added advantage of better quality, some level of zoom and far more flexiablitly. The relatively poor quality and lack of optical zoom on the iPhone is enough to write it off for anything other than what he does with it. Start reading the comments on the article.
Does this basically come down to mouse support? Because that's the only thing an iPad really lacks support for for students compared to a Macbook. I mean "word processing is all but impossible" really?
Not really in totality. Mouse/pointer support, apps that have the same ability as pc apps, split window file view/share (aka multi active window support), basic file system management of some type, ability to access current teaching material, and... a use case teachers, students, and parents can get behind.
There are a lot of pieces. The use of a tablet in school is a great vision. We are not there yet from a use and infrastructure perspective. With hard work, some places have been successful. Unfortunately they are the minority.
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For commodity hardware this is no surprise.
Yes - this is my point. I find reading textbooks from laptops.. not ideal? weird? I'm not sure, but from an iPad it is great and as you say, with a pen and book it is great. This is how I used my iPad. Not as a replacement for everything in the classroom, but as a supplement. However as you say, there comes the point that some students would prefer a laptop, because the iPad works when there is a desktop computer to do the heavy lifting, which is inconvenient to do on nana iPad.
Interesting but at the same time iPad has better screen quality. Latests iPad devices even adjust screen temperature depending on lights outside, it is more comfortable.
They never are. I have some local government clients. In many cases, there was so much buzz about how revolutionary - dare I say magical? the iPad was, that it was political suicide for an IT department to say or do anything that would delay the purchase of the devices. Things like content control, mobile device management, training, whatever were totally ignored because administrators wanted to buy iPads right now.
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014...l-a-school-ipad-scandal-what-you-need-to-know
There's enough blame to go around, but the people for whom I have the least sympathy are the ones who mindlessly repeated Apple keynote talking points and applied pressure to skip product evaluation or any kind of planning. It's fair play for a company trying to sell stuff to make outrageous claims about the stuff. But it's just embarrassing when they get their customers to parrot the same talking points.
As a technology coordinator in Maine the headline is a tad misleading. The refresh was offered because there was enough of a difference in what we have now and what they could offer us. We also have Casper Suite at our disposal for managing our devices so management is not an issue, though we had limited access to it which is now being fully opened up to us...finally, with this refresh. There are a number of districts switching away from iPads to MacBooks as there are going to iPads from what I've heard of other districts talking. Our district was very close to making the switch to iPads but the cost would have been very hard to justify as it would have been a decent increase over the MacBooks which the price is dropping for us. If price wasn't an issue I would have fought hard for switching to iPads as I use one everyday as a teacher with no issues at all.