Who hasn’t heard the buzz around the iPad and for those of you lucky enough to have snagged one you know it’s not just hype.
Over the last several weeks, there has been a flurry of discussions on this topic in forums such as the Educause CIO listserv. Many of my colleagues have also responded with posts on their blogs. Based on these conversations, there appear to be two very different approaches to supporting the iPad on campus: those rushing to adopt the device on a massive scale and those who want nothing to do with it.
The first camp, the early adopters, is rushing to adopt the device on a massive scale. Many are considering whether to provide an iPad to every student and faculty member. At least two institutions, Seton Hill University (not to be confused with Seton Hall) and George Fox University, plan to provide an iPad to every student later this year.
The second camp, the skeptics, wants nothing to do with the device. Some institutions, including Princeton University and George Washington University, are banning or limiting the use of the device on their campus networks until Apple provides fixes to possible connectivity and security bugs.
The two camps could not be more diametrically opposed. One camp sees institution-wide adoption of the iPad as a precursor for innovation; the other views the device as an unwelcome disruption introducing new security and operational risks. Which camp is taking the right approach? If increasing the effectiveness of teaching, learning, and scholarship is the goal, perhaps both approaches leave something to be desired.
For early adopters, rapid and mass adoption of the iPad tends to be driven primarily by the need to gain competitive marketing advantages. That is not to say that these institutions are not engaging in some truly innovative work around the application of technology to learning; they are. However, the trigger for the mass adoption of the iPad comes from the need to distinguish the institution competitively. The mantra of the early adopter institution is: “Adopt aggressively: Innovation and increased effectiveness will surely come.”
On the other hand, refusing to provide basic connectivity and support for the iPad does not make much sense either. University technologists have well known aversions to proprietary consumer technologies. In the case of the iPad, proprietary tweaks to the wireless connection protocols (required to maximize battery life) are deterring many of the skeptics. Although these technological distinctions are important to IT administrators, our faculty and students find them irrelevant. Refusing to provide iPad users with the same basic services provided by the local Starbucks or Barnes & Noble makes us appear outdated and unreliable. It reduces the credibility of the IT organization, which many times is the cause of unnecessarily duplicative or rogue technology services. It also unnecessarily increases the gap between those who build and support technology and those who use technology. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that faculty and students will do whatever is necessary to adopt compelling consumer technologies–with or without our blessing.
Timothy M. Chester, CIO and vice provost for academic administration at Pepperdine University, suggests a third possible approach, one that may benefit to students without cutting into limited resources. (http://campustechnology.com/
“What is a CIO to do in this predicament? Charting a middle ground between the early adopters and the skeptics is the most prudent approach. At my university, we’re taking these steps.”
- Adjusting the campus network to support the device. We are working with our wireless security vendor to ensure that the iPad will work seamlessly on the University network. When necessary, we are manually registering iPads so that faculty, students, and staff can use the device on the network.
- Each department within IT is testing the iPad on their technology services. Through these efforts, we are quickly determining whether our portal, Web sites, library resources, and other technology services will function on the device as designed. Almost all Web services are functioning nominally.
- We are actively supporting our faculty as they experiment with the device. Several faculty teaching multiple sections of an identical course plan to provide the iPad to students in one section and compare their mastery of course objectives to students in the other section. By tying the use of the device to mastery of course objectives, we hope to develop some direct evidence to answer the question of whether the iPad increases the effectiveness of teaching and learning.”
Within higher education, there are a variety of aspirations, expectations, skills, and abilities. The iPad will be helpful to some, and to others it won’t make the slightest difference. By focusing on what we do with technology, instead of the technology itself, we put our institutions in the best possible position to increase the value of what we provide to our students.
To get more about the best value in eLearning software today, visit http://interactyx.com/request-a-demo
Jodi Harrison
Vice President, Business Development and Affiliate Partners
Interactyx Limited