iPad Revisited
It’s been a few weeks since we offered our First Look at iPad for eLearning.
Now that the iPad has been successfully launched it’s probably an appropriate time to revisit it as a tool for education in either a live classroom setting, a blended program or a fully online eLearning program.
Clearly the iPad has captured people’s imagination much more than any previous tablet. The form factor, hi quality multi touch screen, build quality and the temptation of over 100,000 apps in the app store have tapped a market, hungry for a easily readable, relatively lightweight device that lets one surf the net, email, work on documents, view and play videos and the numerous other functions the device is capable of. Admittedly, all of this is available on Blackberries, iPhones and other smart phones, but their physical screen size limitations simply make them not practical for many as a primary device for some of the above functions.
I believe this, along with build quality, reputation for excellence, as well as the simple cool factor is what triggers such a nice initial weekend of sale activity for the iPad.
iPad for Education
Apple has courted the academic market since its inception. With the iPad it’s no different.
There have already been schools announcing free iPads to all new students.
http://www.setonhill.edu/ipad/
I expect we’ll see many more as the year unfolds. Apple is clearly going after the market. The idea of a classroom of college students using an iPad for note taking and numerous other functions is quite a visual.
On the other hand, Apple is not making it easy for schools and content developers that have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of course elements built in tools that deploy their material via Flash. Most professional content development tool, such as Adobe’s suite, Articulate and others are using Flash to present their output.
As recent as April 8, 2010, Steve Jobs revealed there are still no plans for Flash support to be included in the Summer 2010 upgrade to iPhones and the fall 2010 upgrade to iPads. http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/
Fortunately, multi-tasking is in the plans, but Flash is not.
This is extremely disappointing.
Something has to change here. Apple cannot expect the entire world to rewrite their offerings or websites simply because Apple chooses not to deploy Flash on this device.
Having users not be able to view a very significant portion of the web, which is using Flash is also not serving Apple’s extremely loyal customer base very well.
For years, Apple has painted itself as the good guy, and Microsoft as the evil empire. In this case, I fear that it’s Steve Jobs I’m hearing breathing deeply under the Darth Vader mask.
The market will speak. Options will be presented. In fact they already are. HP has announced the following device, which will be released later this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-RZAwQq0E&feature=player_embedded#
So, options are starting to present themselves. Will the HP device be perfect, certainly not, but at least it will be able to play ALL content and ALL website, Flash or no Flash
However, in all honesty, I do want to use the iPad, and I recognize the elegance of most Apple products. I like the form factor, the integration and the quality. I don’t mind paying a premium for it. However, I have to be able to use it. Come on Apple, it’s time to respect your customers. Serve their interests, not just your own!
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