I received my iPad a couple of days ago and I keep trying to find reasons to use it. It is wonderful as a toy but I am yet to really make it work for its money. I have an idea that it will work wonderfully and make the technologically enhanced (and maybe dependant) parts of my day even more enjoyable. However, it took me an hour (and a conversation with a very helpful lady at apple care support) this morning to get it to talk to iTunes this morning and on Tuesday it took me an hour or so to get the micro SIM I needed to make it work. I have shown as many people as I can make look how wonderful it is but I have yet to make an initial decision. Don't get me wrong...I love it...but what does it do? Over the last week or so, with the mad rush to get exams and assignments marked and cross-marked before the deadline on Monday I have had other technological hurdles to overcome that have slowed my progress and frustrated me.

Perhaps it is the efficiency of technology that when it goes wrong it is unexpected and therefore it is frustrating. Perhaps the fact that booting up a computer doesn't take the same amount of time as making an espresso (but rather it takes less time than it takes to drink one) that exacerbates our annoyance with any hiccups we encounter. Perhaps we are so caught up in technology that we want it to better than 'old fashioned' approaches that we make it do things that it is not yet capable of undertaking.

In physical education we are beginning to explore technology and my involvement as a blogger and a tweeter encourage me to get the iPad to see how far I could take it all. But when I mentioned flipcams to an experienced member of a local school he wondered what their use was outside of performance analysis. I said that we were using them for Vidpods and in game-making but that got me thinking. Where do we take them? A colleague described the use of camera's in Australia a decade and more ago to film a sport 'walk through.' The concept is that the camera goes through a game with students and they use them to voice the decisions that they are making in the game at the time they are making them. Almost like 'thinking out loud.'

It made me wonder where the other opportunities were for technology. How do we apply the science in teaching?

What can I do with the iPad in my work as a lecturer and teacher educator that I couldn't do with anything else? Imagine the resource I have in my hand in a practical where I show the students a exemplar and then send it to their mobile devices to use in their work. By syncing our technology we create and use opportunities that never existed before...now that is the appliance of science.

Comments From The Previous Blog...

On 10 June 2010 10:55 Dylan said...
Great blog-would love to have ipads/iphones in lessons-you never know?! Got me thinking of possible uses so logged my thoughts http://thepeteacher.wordpress.com/