Charles, You of course accurately pinpoint many of the limitation of the iPad as a laptop/desktop replacement for academic work. It will be interesting to see how all these things evolve in future years. (One quick suggestion: for importing files into the iPad, and maintaining file structure as you do so, you might want to try Dropbox. That doesn't say anything about what happens to the file structure after you use the files though. I suspect there are also good apps for taking notes on what one reads on an iPad, though I haven't tried them out yet. Nevertheless, the limitations you point out are spot on.) However, my comment about comparing iPads to other tablets was not in reference to what kinds of tablets may eventually appear, but what kinds are available now. I suppose there are tablets that do some of the things that you point to, but I would guess that they are also so cumbersome and difficult to use that they fail to serve their purpose. However, if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone here will let us know! Mark Mark Warschauer Professor of Education and Informatics University of California, Irvine Education 3000C Irvine, CA 92697-5500 tel: (949) 824-2526 fax: (949) 824-2965 markw@uci.edu; http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw twitter: http://twitter.com/markwarschauer On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Charles Ess <charles.ess@gmail.com> wrote:
thanks, Mark - your larger post does a nice job, I think, of characterizing the primary uses to which the device is suited / designed.
As for the question asked earlier, why an iPad as opposed to other tablets--was that serious or facetious?
I won't speak for the author of the question, but as a recent iPad owner, I think it's a serious and important question. From my perspective, the inability to multitask coupled with the absence of a working file system (unless I'm wrong - please correct if I am!) means for me that it is much better suited to the sorts of uses you initially describe - light email, web-browsing, etc. I also think it has promise as an e-Reader, which, as a traveling / gypsy scholar, is tremendously inviting: that said, my first experiences in these directions (no names, please), have been more ones of frustration with what I can't do with a text rather than of joy with having a text handily available. Of course, it's also great for simply consuming media, if that's what you want - let's not forget that someone/s are very interested in not only the quality of our experience with the interfaces and the device, but also with specific bottom lines. But if I want to do at least my kind of serious work - multiple documents open, multiple apps open, cutting-and-pasting between these when needed, etc., alongside a solid Internet connection (the wifi reception on mine is weak compared with my MacBook) - a laptop or equally capable tablet is not just preferable but simply necessary. As is often the case, then, it's not just a matter of "what you can do" (the rhetoric too often associated with too many new devices and technologies that we frankly don't yet entirely know what to do with) - what do you need / want to do? (and please read all of this in a cordial, friendly tone, one grateful for the discussion) sent from my MacBook (this time), - charles ess
Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Århus N. Denmark mail: <imvce@hum.au.dk> tel: (+45) 8942 9250
Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
On 7/21/10 1:23 AM, "Mark Warschauer" <markw@uci.edu> wrote: