iPads in Higher Education

iPads inHigher EducationPhil BeardsJune 2012

The tablet is not necessarily for the people in this room,Its for the normal people in the world, - Steve Wozniak.

iPads in Higher EducationPost DigitalThe last 30 years have seen huge changes through the implementation of digital technology.It has made permanent changes to the way we work, communicate and manage our livesEvery aspect of our lives is now controlled in some way by digital technologyWe are no longer establishing new digital systems, they are now long established and embedded in our daily livesThe term 'post digital' expresses both new ways of working and our approach to using the technology. " It points to an attitude that is more concerned with being human, than with being digital"Post DigitalThings to note:Technology doesnt replace good teachers. Human interaction is irreplaceable.Digital technology enables a democratisation of learning21st Century Skills To be productive contributors to society in our 21st century, you need to be able to quickly learn the core content of a field of knowledge while also mastering a broad portfolio of essentials in learning, innovation, technology, and careers skills needed for work and life (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). Teachers need to prepare students for the jobs that have not yet been created, for the new products that have not yet been invented, and for the new skills to build towards creativity and innovation."

Digital Literacy SkillsTeachers need to also, incorporate technology into the classroom. Technology is used to supplement traditional resources in the classroom and engages the students. By including technology into the daily classroom activities it not only motivates learning, it builds self-esteem, can provide immediate feedback and address various learning styles as well as help build learner strategies (Mansoor, 1999).Today's students expect...Learning that provides the equivalent functionality as their social environmentLearning that accommodates a mobile lifestyleLearning that adapts to individual learning styles.Learning that encourages collaboration and teamwork

"Students now enter art school with eight evolving tools including: Cable, satellite and web accessible televisions Laptop computers Cell phones and particularly smart phones DVD's and game players, portable and stationery MP3 devices and iPods Credit cards and ATM cards Digital cameras, integrated and standalones Scanners "All generate instant information, communication, and currency to goods, and several include image capture. A pivotal historical perceptual change is taking place amongst us, making the abyss between past and present modes of perception greater than ever before in terms of attention, translation, forms, aesthetics, and production. The future of art education will be based on the notion of universal immediate access.From Art School Propositions for the 21st Century edited by Steven Henry Madoff MIT Press 2011

Why the iPadThe iPad commands the leading market share of tablet devices with 80% of new purchasers planning to buy an iPad.More than 1 Billion iOS Apps downloaded each month15 Billiion Android Apps downloaded to date

Adoption of Devicesit took 25 years for colour TV to reach 10 million sales. it took ten years for VCR annual sales to reach 10 millionit took Apple under 1 year to sell 10 million iPhonesthe iPad sold 3million in 80 daysApple will sell 60 Million iPads this year, with a total 100million sold.To date 200 million iOS devices soldVCR Development, Diffusion and impact - Browne/Johnson 2000

Access to ios82% of students own an iPod and so have an iTunes account17% of students own an iPhoneiTunes has a 95% market share for downloading There are 76Million mobile phones in UK, 123% of populationConsequently over 90% of students will already have an iTunes account and be familiar with downloading, Apps and social networking.

A Blended ApproachThe Digital Media Production course team have always attempted to maintain currency of the course by reflecting new changes in the industry through the curriculum but also by managing change in the delivery and support of student learning.The course team were early adopters of Blackboard and then moved to the use of blogs to enable a blended approach to learningThe use of iPads by the student group is the next stage of that journey

ImplementationAll first year students were given an iPad - the basic 16GB wifi model that sells for 399Students keep the iPad for the duration of their studiesThis gives them access to thousands of Apps and downloads including training materials, pod casts, music soundtracks, videos, iBooks, iTunes U and moreStudents are more connected with the course and each other and are able to access published course material as well as publishing their own work.ImplementationEach student was gifted the following Apps: Garage Band, Pages, Keynote and iMovie.A Mac Mini was purchased to administer the iPads and to allow installation of content managed and published by the course team but this proved unnecessary.The student work can be backed up with iCloud which gives every student 5GB of free storage space for files and apps and will give access to many cloud apps.

iPads as an Educational Tool iPad is not a flat laptop more like a larger smartphone Personalisation gives a completely different experience and leads to better outcomes. Owning the device means greater integration and use. Frees the user of restrictions.Book MobilePersonalRandom accessGranular contentStructuredMeta tagged dataCollaborativeiPadConnectedAmorphousAdaptiveCommunicativeLocation awareTouch sensitive4th OctoberFirst Day of the TrialStudents were required to sign up to the University College equipment booking system SISO. This enabled the assets numbers to be recorded and iPads allocated to each student. This took 2 or 3 hour to give out 40 iPads and get them set up and registered to the students iTunes accounts. It was decided to allow the students to register the iPads to their own account so they could buy and download their own apps. This also made it possible to gift any essential Apps at a later date.Problems?There were only two slight problems with the initial implementation.One EU Student started the course but did not have a debit or credit card to set up an iTunes account, it took a few days for his parents to arrange this. Every other student already had an iTunes account.With the whole group all registering at the same time (38 iPads) this crashed the local wireless network. This has never happened since though.Ease of AdoptionStudents were all familiar users because of their previous knowledge of the iOS platform, use of iPods and iPhones.None of the students experienced any issues with setting up or using the iPad. The beauty of the iPad is the ease of use of the interface. Multitouch, pinch and zoom is a completely intuitive way of navigating and apps created for the iPad are easily learnt.Gifted AppsThese were invoiced separately from the iPad order and required every student to provide their log in e-mail so they could receive an automatic download of the software. Pages - word processing app, Keynote - presentation app, iMovie - video editing app Garage Band - music production appThis process took a few weeks to happen but eventually students received their apps as automatic downloads.Changes to Working PracticeThe course team have noticed many significant changes in the way that students work and the adoption of the iPad into their daily work schedules. Students are now more organised and connected by keeping up to date with e-mails and social network sites throughout the day. In lessons students take notes to augment the lecture experience by looking up links and gathering additional information. Many use Evernote which allows multiple note books to be created. This means student can have a separate note book for each purpose, project or lesson. Todays students are multi-taskers and have no problem working on more than one task at a time. Students often use their iPads in lessons to look up a term or process or visit a web site mentioned in a lecture. This is an augmentation of the learning experience and where myself, or others from my generation might find this as a distraction, students see this as part and parcel of their working practice, there is an expectation that this is the way they should and need to work.New Tools UsedStudents use a range of other apps to augment their learning experience, they will use the camera to take a quick photo of a screen, a document, an image as a form of visual note taking. This is then used as a prompt for further exploration or investigation later. Students working in groups will communicate via Skype to video conference and discuss project work.Students working on video projects use google maps and street level to recce a location for a shoot, send maps to other team members and publish maps and images in their blogs as part of pre-production paperwork. Google maps has links to businesses and services and this can be an invaluable way of finding appropriate resources for a location shoot.

Students also use the iPad for drawing and the whole group have downloaded the excellent Autodesk app Sketchbook, many have also bought drawing styli so they can make full use of the drawing tools this app provides. Stop Motion animation is another approach that students have experimented with, something that would require specialist set ups and software but that can be easily accomplished with the iPad camera and the app iMotion HD.

The Effect on Teaching & LearningThis group take notes frequently and in general write more about their experiences on the course than any previous group. Their course blogs are much more developed and being able to blog direct from the iPad and use the camera and other tools has had a big impact on critical reflection and research.

By far the most significant effect though is on the group dynamics. The group have bonded extremely well and perform better in group projects and seminars but also socially. By being more connected through the iPads and having a common way of working they share their experiences and support each other.In terms of teaching the iPad has been a significant tool in presenting and delivering content to the group.Course content has been produced and published to students, in turn they have published their own content to the iPad.

PublishingContent can be published to the iPad and other tablet devices through In Design and the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, iBooks Author or through Hype which publishes in html 5.0This allowed the course team to publish unit handbooks, course materials, tutorials and other documents to the iPadStudents will also learn how to programme in X-Code for developing AppsBy registering as developers they can earn money by selling their Apps on App store. Apple has so far has paid out 2Billion dollars to App developers

Digital Publishing

"The free iTunes U app gives students access to learning materials from Universities around the world. Universities that sign up for iTunesU can upload course content and other materials. Students can see a list of all the assignments for the course, view and check them off as theyre completed.From within the app, they can play video or audio lectures. read books and view presentations on their iOS devices. When the user sends a message or creates a new assignment, students receive a push notification with the new information."

QuotesWe had a project recently where we had to plan and shoot a short film only using the iPad. At first I was apprehensive about this project as I wasnt sure Id be able to do it with the limitation of the iPad but I found that it was very useful. The shooting itself was surprisingly successful, the camera on the iPad was very good.

Being a mature student I find learning new software quite a daunting task. Being able to view tutorials from companies like Team Treehouse, Lynda.com and Video CoPilot on my iPad has given me the freedom to learn in my own time. It also means that I dont have to just do it while Im sitting in front of a computer. The truth is even though I want the core of my work to be produced on the computer I dont want to spend every minute of every day staring at it. Being able to take my son to the park and read the new HTML5 ebook that Ive downloaded or sitting on the bus home from uni watching videos on Adobe After Effects has made learning less of a chore and more of a natural process in my day to day life.The fact that I can take notes has been a big bonus. I suffer from dyslexia I find it really hard to write down notes on a piece of paper because of my really bad hand writing and spelling. The iPad has allowed me to takes notes in class digitally so I can remember the lesson in the future.What I like about using the ipad is that I can create and edit on the go. Many times I have sat outside somewhere creating and experimenting with different apps to acquire new skills. I have found I was a lot more engaged and produced work I was proud of.I have often found that inspiration strikes and the most unpredictable of times. Previously I thought that it may be a good idea to carry a notebook with me to jot down good ideas or important facts that I may come across day to day..... However, the prospect of a notepad seems almost laughable when compared with the iPad 2.... Not only can I note down whatever thought strikes me at the time, I can take a photo, edit the photo, and upload to my blog. I could put the idea into practice and then even edit it all on the one portable device. I can even sketch storyboards and edit sound; thanks to the app store almost anything you can do on a desktop computer is possible on the iPad.Out of the blue I was presented with a proposal to do a short film and I didnt had anything on me except for the iPad. What shouldve been a can we discuss it over an email, turned out to be a long talk and planning, with the iPad we just sat down exchanged contact detail, jotted down ideas, drew sketches of what she wanted, researched work to give me a general idea of the look she wanted, searched for locations and emailed some people. The iPad is just one of those tools that if you have access to you can make anything happen.

Photoshop Touch

Photoshop TouchApp DesignProm Skills 12, Fifa 12 related student designed App. This student invested 1,000 on AUCB App design course, Apple developer licence and a few books. He is well on the way to regaining his investment. So far his App has sold in 60 countries.

ConclusionStudents are much more engaged in the courseThe level of written work and overall standard is much higher.Students are more organised and critically reflectiveThere has been less pressure on other resources as the iPad can perform many of the day to day tasks like web browsing, word publishing and basic camera work.Overall standard of work is much higher and the groups understanding of digital media and technology is much higher.