I’ve run across a couple blog written by students who purport to conduct an experiment…to see if they can live off using an iPad for school (using it as the sole computer for an undergraduate…). In both cases, I have seen these blogs languish and slowly die. I suppose we could infer that the iPad, however much a great tool it can be, might not be a complete solution for those who live in the world of creating content.
From the plethora of posts I’ve seen which propound ‘lists’ of the best apps for students I can see that imply that having an iPad is a cool toy to have…along with your laptop. I do believe that it is possible to deal with college classes using only this tool, but it would take some serious discipline, but since there are so many walk up computers at almost any college campus, the purity of conducting this as an experiment may be moot.
From a practical perspective, I’ve found that using an iPad in conjunction with any reasonable NetBook can give you a lot of value for the money. The iPad is a better content consumption device that a laptop and the NetBook can deal with the vast majority of content creation (i.e. writing long papers) about on a par with any laptop (if you don’t mind the small keyboard…).
Maybe the best way to look at this situation would be to look at the costs involved… A MacBook (you know the cool aluminum 13 inch model), starts several hundred dollars more than a basic iPad and almost any decent NetBook. And if you don’t have much use for CD’s and DVD’s you could be home free!
I have been looking over handwriting apps and styli for the iPad over the last several weeks, and can see that this might be a possible way to integrate using an iPad in a classroom situation (in a traditional college classroom, where lectures and note-taking are all that is on the menu). With the upcoming iPad 2 along with any number of Android based tablets coming out over the next quarter, we may be seeing another paradigm shift for students…and another incurred cost.
8 Must Have iPad Apps for College Students
http://www.papermasters.com/blog/5-ipad-aps-college-students
The Best iPad Apps for College Students
http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2010/08/the-best-ipad-apps-for-college-students
ICollege: Extremely useful iPad apps for college students.
http://www.examiner.com/tech-gear-in-honolulu/icollege-ipad-apps-for-college
Seven Essential iPad Apps for Next Semester
http://www.ipadnewsdaily.com/time-to-study-seven-essential-ipad-apps-for-college-students-0803
