Student Critique of iPad in the College Classroom

Like  &  Dislikes

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Last week my colleague asked a student to critique the iPad for us.  The student was already familiar with the Kindle DX.  It was very kind of Vaughn to take the time to evaluate how this helps or hinders his work while taking a class here at Palm Beach State.  Below find a summary of his remarks.

What he likes:
Ability to integrate professor's online notes and textbook material while in the classroom

Ability to take notes and relate these to the lesson plans

Using online materials for instant references when using textbooks and listening to professor's lectures. This is a great feature for visual learners.

What he dislikes:
Using the Kindle app on iPad gives the look and feel of using a Kindle

As a business major, I'm not able to use some business apps such as spreadsheets.

Not able to load learning websites such as myspanishlab.com which is used for Spanish 1 & 2

Vaughn's Overall Comments:
I think the iPad is a great investment for the college that offers a wonderful and unique learning tool for students.  I would certainly suggest that the college get more of these units.

When Vaughn returned the iPad and Kindle DX, he also made these verbal comments. This is my summary of our conversation that day.

He said it was wonderful to be able to zip back and forth when studying from his textbook on the iPad and getting references and the ability to verify his resourses from the our library online to complement his work.  He really enjoyed using the iPad in class to use notes from the teacher's website.  Vaugh said the glare wasn't bad during the day, but was noticeable at night. 

Thank You!

 Thanks again Vaughn for sharing your review of the iPad and letting

us post your comments on our blog:]

The Amplified Edition on iPad July 20th!

Ken Follett's novel, "The Pillars of the Earth" was released yesterday on iPad as an Amplified Edition. What does this mean? Full text with a truly integrated multimedia experience!

Combines text, film clips and music
*Contextual video clips at corresponding points in the book

*Interviews with the author

*Video diary from Mr. Follett

*Audio clips

Also included:

*Sketches of the set where the miniseries was filmed

*Selections from the soundtrack

*Family tree with background of different characters

*Video clips of actors discussing their roles

This is a Penguin-Starz project with Apple, giving readers extensive excerpts from the TV production from the miniseries that begins this Friday, July 23. Readers will get a chance to see the imagery, architecture, music and clothing from this time period.

Each week of the miniseries, you can download new content to your iPad, iPhone or iPod, as the TV mini-series continues. Downloads are $12.99 from iTunes. Reese Marino from the San Jose Book Examiner says it's like an "e-book on steroids".

This 1st Amplified Edition will give us a sneak preview of what multimedia/interactive textbooks will be like for our students. This is an exciting time to be in education on both sides of the desk:]

What's next? Textbooks on steroids?