"To thine own self, be true"

Or "be true to yourself" is a sentence quoted by many these days which has no biblical support. In fact it has detrimental effects on society especially young people who try to live by these words.

Nietzsche was one of the infiltrators of such a philosophy since he did not adhere to the God of the Bible and sought to find his own way in society.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/nietzsche.html

A foreigner in two countries.

What's it like to leave your country of birth and spend the rest of your life away from it? Then come and visit often? It's actually quite sad a times. Firstly you don't belong to either land. You grow up in a different culture but your accent and skin colour doesn't actually fit. Then you go back to your birth place and need to try and fit in because everything has changed, even my mother tongue.

Why no Flash??

Do we care? Is it a godsend for Network Managers? Are we two faced and say - "It's not good, it doesn't have Flash", then we turn around and say "Flash is just a drainer on our pipeline".

Let me give you some insight. I'm an ICT Coordinator and I work alongside (sometimes) IT Technicians and Managers. The biggest drain on our broadband pipeline...yes...you guessed, FLASH apps. What do kids do/did? They actually went onto websites that have flash games. Now, they are all blocked. Why? Well, I went to the managers to find out why. I mean, the kids had a reward for doing their work and I let them play flash games for at least 5 minutes. So the explanation I received is that the games sucked up a lot of bandwidth, especially if a whole class of 28 kids accessed them.

Fair enough I said, and stopped the time out. So, as I pondered over the weekend and looked over some articles on why Apple decided to drop Flash from their iOS, and thinking that for education one of the complaints is that the iPad does not have the capacity to play flash video, games, etc. I thought, well if we have 28 or heaven forbid 56 iPads in a classroom, what will that do to our network and broadband usage? Yes, take up the whole lot in one go. So, do we actually want kids accessing lots of flash sites on their iPads? No! For our network Manager's sakes, the thought of having no flash would be tremendous, I would think. So, what is the Network Manager's nightmare? I'll have to dig around a little to find that answer. As far as I am aware, the fear of not being able to control accessibility is their worst nightmare.

The good?

1. No Flash

2. Only one or two app at a time use, if the teacher is attentive.

The bad?

1. Can't control internet usage?

2. Diminish network resources/traffic?

3. No Flash? Yay!

Why the iPad is a useless piece of technology.

To most Apple fans this may sound like a fiery heading. To some people it may sound pretty right. Let me explain.

I grew up working with tools, fixing cars, pulling engines apart, tightening bolts and undoing them. Sometimes I didn't have the right spanner to undo a bolt so I had to improvise; I used an adjustable wrench. It did the job. The idea was to undo the bolt no matter what tool I used. Most people who find the iPad a useless piece of technology are probably looking into the wrong paradigm, that is, they have no use for a wrench when you're trying to sow or tie your shoelaces. Now, if you get that wrench or spanner to do ANY job, even sow, you will have found a use for it, even hammering a nail down onto a piece of wood; opening a beer can or bottle? Of course you can! Nothing is impossible, you just need to find a use for that useless tool!

I think when you give people a blank slate, they will write something on it. In the same way, the iPad is allowing itself be used in ways that not even Steve Jobs ever thought of. He just created the tool with a bunch of guys and said to everyone, - "here use this in any way you wish."

From what I have seen coming in from my "iPads in Education" google alert, people all over the place are finding uses for that useless piece of technology. It is a tool, and for those who say that it is useless or a hyped up gadget, you probably have no use for it because you are not looking for something to do with it. Let me give you some examples.

Interbots, maker of Popchilla, teamed up with the Autism Center of Pittsburgh to help provide therapy for kids with autism. [1]

These people are using the iPad to do this.

iPads are being used in restaurants or coffee shops. iPads are also finding application in Universities or in automotive showrooms. iPads are also being used as a means of in-flight entertainment. We have heard of all this. But iPads being doled out to patients admitted in hospitals to held them cope with their treatments? Well, that’s exactly what the doctors at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital have resorted to do to help the children feel a little more at home during their stay in the hospital. And its only when they are less anxious and calm that they tend to respond better to treatment. [2]

They are being used for this purpose? Strange use of a useless tool?!

First year Med students at Stanford have been given a free iPad to write notes using an app called iAnnotate PDF.

First year medicine students will now be issued with the iAnnotate PDF app which lets you annotate PDFs - improving live note-taking and automatic distribution of lecture materials. [3]

Now, why don't you open up your mind and say something intelligent like the chinese proverb says

愚者不問，問者不愚。

The fool does not ask, he who asks is no fool

Or to quote Michael Crichton in the Lost World:

"The absence of proof is not the proof of absence."

References:

1. iPad Controlled Robots Help Kids With Autism | PadGadget

2. iPad now part of healing process | Good E-Reader Blog - Electronic Reader and Tablet PC News

3. Med Students get compulsory iPad app: iAnnotate PDF : Shiny Shiny

Other links.

Delimiter – Want an iPad? Borrow one from MicroStrategy

iPads used to increase knowledge at St Finbar's Primary School, Glenbrook - Education - News - Penrith Press

iOS 4 (iPhone) vs Android Smartphones

This is not a technical review, it's more of an observation as I visited the Vodafone website and saw a bunch of Android smartphones advertised. I had a deja vu. It's another Windows versus Mac war. There is only one iPhone and there are a myriad of Androids. Google have opened their software to any company who would like to build a phone around it but again, Apple has kept it to themselves! Is this the achilles heel of Apple, more like Steve Job's heel? Somehow Apple need to learn from the past and not fall into the same hole that they fell into last time with the Macintosh.

The other point of view is that Apple are so far ahead of everyone else that there is no come back from the other developers. I'm not sure that will be the case in the long run...unless....Apple does it again. Who knows?

Boys and Technology National Conference - Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st of August 2010

Boys and Technology National Conference - Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st of August 2010

Our first day began at 6:30 am from Pakenham McDonalds. Two key students were wide awake and waiting to take the long drive towards St. Kilda Novoltel Hotel. To my surprise, expecting the Monash car park to delay us, we arrived half an hour before the scheduled registration time of 8:00 AM. The coffee machines were hard at work already, especially as I became enthralled at the technology of little flying-saucer-kind-of-sachets that you insert into an orifice and then after the press of a button your coffee is ready. We moved into our first Keynote assembly of round tables and glasses of water and containers with minties. We sat down and wondered if any more students would turn up. Eventually we saw a few which made up a list of about 20.

After some housekeeping Andrew Douch was introduced and he set up his MacBook to display a very interesting and enthralling “keynote” slide show. His enthusiasm was captivating and down to earth attitude was accepting. I was concerned that he gave too many examples about his own merits but there was an aim behind all this; what kids want from education.

Demand for Connectedness
Andrew had his first encounter with the internet in 1990, when everything was just text on a html page. Having no prior knowledge and having taught for a number of years he began experimenting with podcasts in order to connect with his Biology class. He posted his class up on iTunes so that his students could access it easily. He could not believe what would happen later. It was downloaded 22,000 times in the first few days and became the top hit in iTunes Podcast. He now has the best Biology podcasts available in iTunes.
He shows off some of the slides that his students made for him as he left his class.

Demotion of left Brain Skills
He then displays a picture of a brain with right side and left side and what basically each side is dedicated to. He feels that most of the left side has been overtaken with automation and industrial machines, leaving no room for further expansion. He calls the right side - the New Differentiation of Success.
We are still thinking in industrial revolutionary termsOur schools run the same way.The right brain activities cannot be reproduced by machines. (Art, Design, Dance, Nursing, Counselling).

Democratisation of Information
Years ago a Librarian could outwit a 14 year old at finding information. Nowadays that role is reversed. Andrew gives the example of Radiohead giving away one of their songs for a minimal amount of money, bypassing the EMI label. They turned over much more than if they had gone with the EMI label. The point is that blocking content will not stop kids getting through. It is necessary to teach the kids morals and values. “Education is like a river” in order to cross it, teachers should be guiding students where to go and where not to go. - Educate - not block. Blocking content is not working.

Despecifation of hours
Henry Ford determined 40 hour shift for his workers. He sacked “smiley” because he enjoyed a laugh. Work is not to be enjoyed. Andrew explained that his son learns more at home than at school. He does amazing things on his Mac that he doesn’t do at school. Sounds familiar?

iPads in Education

No place for iPad in education revolution | The Australian

Pros and Cons of the iPad in Education

Measuring the iPad's Potential for Education -- THE Journal

Gadgets, apps can help your children do their best in school | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Personal Technology | Dallas Business News

Med Students get compulsory iPad app: iAnnotate PDF : Shiny Shiny

iPad on Academic Probation

Can college students learn as well on iPads, e-books? - USATODAY.comHigher Education's Tech Dilemmas - Science and Tech - The Atlantic

Digital textbooks finally a viable, cheap textbook solution

The challenge for working in the electronic age is that we have so much access to information but we still have the same brain we always had," said Richard Mayer, psychology professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. "The problem is not access to information. It is integrating that information and making sense out of it."

Despite Some Reservations the Apple iPad is Still Expected to Succeed in College

In fact, the Brandon Hall planning team foresees paperless classrooms. In the near future, students will use their iPads for learning inside the classroom with both supplied apps and Internet-based activities as well as for reading, research, writing and even communicating with their teachers outside the classroom.

The Dunwoody Crier - News

As a teacher, I see it every day in the classroom. Introduce students to the basics of their graphics calculator and before long they are teaching me new tricks. Expecting my students to research by sifting their way through a pile of journals would provoke no less a quizzical expression than I would expect from a Mallee farmer after telling him to hitch a horse to his plough.

IPad And Ebooks Haven't Killed Off Print

iPad Controlled Robots Help Kids With Autism | PadGadget

iPad now part of healing process | Good E-Reader Blog - Electronic Reader and Tablet PC News

Education: A new dawn (of the iPad) - Australian Macworld

Apple's iPad: The Future of Mobile Computing in Education? -- Campus Technology

Avery Middle School Brings iPad’s into the Classroom | Business Wire

AppleInsider | USA Today plans 'radical' overhaul to focus on devices like iPad

USA today newspaper sales have plummeted so the management are considering using the iPad and other devices to push advertising and readership.

The iPad Is Apple’s Fourth Wave In Education