How would iTunes work in a university setting?

[Finnedog]

Reading some blogs about how some people see the ipad being used and got me interested.

We have xyz university that has decided that all students will be issued an iPad. Campus is completely wifi enabled.

Anatomy 204 has daily handouts, and occasionally a video and slide shows and text books.

How would the university use iTunes vs just picking things off a website?

How would students take notes?
I can see where a Microsoft OneNote like program would be great on an iPad.

Share notes?

Take Tests?

 

[gentlefury]

Reading some blogs about how some people see the ipad being used and got me interested.

We have xyz university that has decided that all students will be issued an iPad. Campus is completely wifi enabled.

Anatomy 204 has daily handouts, and occasionally a video and slide shows and text books.

How would the university use iTunes vs just picking things off a website?

How would students take notes?
I can see where a Microsoft OneNote like program would be great on an iPad.

Share notes?

Take Tests?

iWork will be available day one. This could be used for note taking and for essays, there is also notepad if you don't want to use iWork. If the teacher is really smart they would use Docs2Go and have everyone share their google docs with them so you wouldn't even have to "turn anything in" it would just be there available as a shared folder for the teacher to access and grade.

iTunes U provides universities a way of providing lectures and videos to students on iTunes, and the iBook store will have text books. Meaning all students would have to carry is their iPad and no longer need a giant backpack full of paper.

Honestly it seems like a college student with always on internet could accomplish everything they need to do on an iPad.....the university could even have interactive applications to use in class.

 

[Dorje]

Anatomy 204 has daily handouts, and occasionally a video and slide shows and text books.

As of this momment that would almost be best done through a centeral website geared for Mobile Safari and a combination of iTunesU. Not only could a website have embedded video material but also interactive demos (talk about a boon to HTML5 adoptors).

How would the university use iTunes vs just picking things off a website?

iTunes through iTunesU will likely be the distribution hub for video and audio lectures. Also depending on the Apps used some that are on the iPod/iPhone right now can download files off the web and into their memory with the right URL header. I use Aji Annotate as my PDF reader and using PDF://someurl.com/thisfile.PDF it will download and save the file. If iWorks and othe programs have such a web interface and acess to thier own file structure you could still use a mostly web interface.

How would students take notes?
I can see where a Microsoft OneNote like program would be great on an iPad.

The hand recgonition program? Well Apple does have in the MacOS but I don't think it has been added to the iPhone. However if finger drawing isn't going to work for you the try a Pogo (I think) iPod/iPad stylus. I hear they are quite good. There is the keyboard doc for faster typing, also Pages or Keynote (depending on amount of graphics) should be a fairly good note taking spaces.

Share notes?

Depends on what document sharing the iPad OS allows, and depends on the App. Some Apps can create an a temportay web server that allows acess to it's files and upload through the web. Well see how robust this gets in a few weeks.

Take Tests?

Now this is a hard one, and one i've give a great deal of thought to as a K-8 educator. The first is a Web based test that keeps a single session, if that session I lost (the testie navagates away or closes Safari) the test ends. Not the best answer. Smilar solution, different angle, create a University wide Testing App that logs a student in. This would avoid connectivity drops from send false positves that the student had exited. Again if the student leaves the App during testing the test is terminated.

Other issues include shutting down the iPod/Music App. If you have headphones you can use the clicker to restart a paused playlist. A no headphones policy should be enough but it's better to just write the app in such a way that it won't let the interal music player startup. I don't know of a university that let's students really take tests on an uncontroled computing environment. At K-8, without better parental controls on 3rd Party apps I'd have to reimage the each time and leave just the testing App.

 

[Finnedog]

OneNote

The hand recognition program?

No OneNote is a Microsoft Office program that allows you collect and organize information. One of the features is that with one click you can collect the info on a webpage and copy it to a page in your notebook. The info is copied to the notebook page with the full path of where you found it on the web or on your computer. The program is set up in notebook form.

 

[Finnedog]

Teachers used to worry just about crib sheets

Take Tests?[/quote]

Now this is a hard one, and one i've give a great deal of thought to as a K-8 educator. The first is a Web based test that keeps a single session, if that session I lost (the testie navagates away or closes Safari) the test ends. Not the best answer. Smilar solution, different angle, create a University wide Testing App that logs a student in. This would avoid connectivity drops from send false positves that the student had exited. Again if the student leaves the App during testing the test is terminated.

Other issues include shutting down the iPod/Music App. If you have headphones you can use the clicker to restart a paused playlist. A no headphones policy should be enough but it's better to just write the app in such a way that it won't let the interal music player startup. I don't know of a university that let's students really take tests on an uncontroled computing environment. At K-8, without better parental controls on 3rd Party apps I'd have to reimage the each time and leave just the testing App.[/QUOTE]


Now they have to worry about wifi instant messaging and stuff we don't even know about

 

[Dorje]

The cellphone cheating is already know and heaven help you at a modern university if they catch you texting, or even having the phone out, during a test. No that sort of stuff (answers printed on the insider of water/sport-drink bottle wrapers) is already part eco-system and known. Personally I'm all for cell/WiFi/radio jammers in classrooms.

What needs to be locked down is the iPad environment itself to prevet it from being used to cheat. Why make it easier to hide? For example we run a triannual computerized tests on the lab Macs. In the early version of the software students taking the math test could have possibly bypassed the "no calculator" restriction on the math section by pressing the quick key for Dashboard and it's small calculator. Fortunatly we locked that down by one removing the calculator from the Dashboard and second swapping the Function Keys so it wasn't a quick easy press to open. At least in the newest version it actually lockes that acess out totally.

Right now the iPad, based on my hands on use of the iPod, cannot do that level of lockdown. This makes it a BAD testing device.

*edit*
What will really suck is when we get to the point of micro or subqutaious audio/cell implants and wireless cameras in glasses.

 

[Isaac Newton]

At a minimum...as college freshmen are adding laptops to their supply list. There may be a time where the iPad will be used in lieu of text books, lab manuals, on-location assignments etc.

My daughter is a high school sophomore & I imagine iPad 3rdGen will be alive & well when she hit's the University.

Was just thinking about this today