June 2010 Archives

iWork

By Patricia Gael on June 4, 2010 4:35 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
A few articles about using iWork:


The news that really made me start in the Pages review is that there is no option to create footnotes. (!) This is a deal-breaker for my own research, and could be for some student projects, too. I'm also disappointed that there is no word count feature, so instructors of iPad classes can't use that metric for evaluating students' papers. And--possibly the worst news for the iPad in the writing class--there's no way to track changes. This is disappointing to my vision of students using the iPad for peer reviews. Does anyone know if you can insert comments? 

I also thought this article was interesting.  The author nicely articulates some thoughts I've had about digital publishing, and what is and is not appropriate for different types of texts.  I think the points made here could be extended to interesting projects for a technical writing class--for example, formatting the same resume for both hard-copy and digital distribution.

Multiple Versions of Documents

By ERIN CRAMER LONG on June 3, 2010 3:28 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
I borrowed an iPad last week while I was traveling so that I could start to get a feel for what it was like--typing, posting, etc. Once I got used to not setting my fingers down on the tablet the typing issue seemed to fix itself. I did, however, start to realize that it was going to be odd for students to have to work with multiple versions of the same document if they choose to write partly on their computer at home and then move it to the iPad. Also, even if they create solely on the iPad, they would have the same issue when trying to share their document for things like peer review unless they handed over their entire iPad.

Some potential thoughts... very rough thoughts:

1) The first thought I had was that all this versioning stuff would be fixed if we gave everyone a MobileMe account. With MobileMe you can access your documents from anywhere. The drawback? It would be about a $100 investment for each student. Perhaps though, since this is a pilot, we might be able to talk with the campus Apple representative and get these accounts donated to the cause.

2) When discussing my initial thought with my colleague, Jason, he suggest an app that I did not know about called GoDocs. While I have not yet tried it, it claims to be fully compatible with Google Apps, which essentially brings Google Docs to the iPad. And all of this for a whopping $3.99.

So now what? I know MobileMe would be great if we could get it donated, but even looking ahead and watching this move from pilot to full reality my guess is that we could not continue providing this service. That said, I'll be testing out GoDocs as soon as I get my iPad and will write more about my experiences.

Has anyone else had any experiences with other applications?

Initial Thoughts

By Patricia Gael on June 2, 2010 1:00 PM | 1 Comment | 0 TrackBacks
I've been trying to wrap my mind around the idea of a whole class of students reading and writing on an iPad.  For a lot of reasons, I'm excited about the possibilities of iPad use in a university setting (the iPad's portable size and long battery life could allow students to incorporate it into their lives in ways simply not possible with a laptop), but as with any new technology I think there will be a significant adjustment period. The following are a few of the challenges to iPad use in the writing classroom that initially spring to mind (to be read with the understanding that I have not as of yet personally experimented with an iPad, and thus might be completely wrong):

    • Printing. Students will not be able to print directly from their iPads. If, then, we ask students to use their iPads exclusively for all of their course work, all editing will have to be done digitally and all assignments will have to be be handed in online.
    • Limited compatibility with existing infrastructure, like course management systems.
    • Home Use. Students who do not have wifi at home will either not be able to use all of the functionality of the iPad or will have to complete their assignments away from home.
    • Document formatting. Apple's Pages app is probably currently one of the best options, although as I understand it the program is much pared down from the full laptop/desktop version.  I am concerned that students will have limited ability to determine the format of their documents--a task essential to effective technical writing--and that the methods used to format documents on an iPad might be different enough from the processes used on a laptop or desktop to make the skills difficult to transfer.
    • Document Sharing. One of the simplest ways for students to share documents with their peers or their instructor will be to email them. This would, however, result in multiple versions of the document, which would likely lead to chaos. Students might turn in old drafts by mistake, or might wish to incorporate pieces of multiple drafts into a final version, which would be challenging due to the difficulty of . . . 
    • Multi-tasking. The iPad only allows users to view one document at a time. But students working on projects might need to reference, for example, PDF journal articles, websites, drafts with peer review comments, and the assignment description all at once. Flipping back and forth between apps might become cumbersome.

Of course the limitations are to a large extent based on the applications available, which means that things could change very quickly.  We might have an entirely different set of challenges and possibilities by next semester, which is one of the things that makes this project exciting.

One larger challenge will be how to avoid making the iPad itself the focus of the course. Obviously in the first few weeks a portion of class time will have to be devoted to leading students through iPad use and classroom iPad procedures, but ideally after that all in-class time would be devoted to course concepts. With such a new technology, though, I could see the possibility of a large amount of lecture time devoted to iPad discussion (the struggles individuals are having adapting, the benefits of one app over another, etc.). And while I think most students will not find the iPad prohibitively difficult to use, some might, which could slow their progress and distract them from more important goals. 

The course, after all, is not supposed to be about the iPad. The iPad is only the most recent tool. And I think that's ultimately the point; the benefit of taking a course that utilizes a new technology is that one is forced to be creative and flexible. The ways in which we work and communicate are constantly changing, and we all need to learn to adjust to evolving demands.
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