iPad Fever: Part 1 - chunky and clunky are just two of the good things about the iPad

This is a two-part post.

One that's mostly about Learning & Development (though, as usual I jump around the shop using words like education and training and whatever else I'm thinking of.)

And another about the dangers of relying on Apple for all our innovation (with a smattering of technopron linkage for geeks - don't worry, I've marked the gadget-freakery clearly and you're free to ignore it. In fact, you probably should.)

Part 1
The iPad is just a chunky big iPhone with a clunky keyboard. And that's exactly why it's going to have a massive effect on training, education and eLearning.

People are banging on about how it's just a big iPhone and how it's merely good and how Steve Jobs' presentation lacked the wow factor of previous Apple launches. And It doesn't have proper Flash support or support multi-tasking. (According to Hitler, anyway - Warning: NSFW YouTube linkbait video)

Google Wave is not as good as email at email
Remember Google Wave? Blah blah it's hard to use blah blah it's just like email blah blah. And all before anybody had actually used it. The thing about Google Wave is that it's all true, it is absolutely rubbish - if you use it as email.

But that's not what it's for. As Max Klein points out, what it's for is massive fights, mulitple conversations and not losing important documents in the clutter of your inbox:

"It was not always like this. There was a time just a few months ago when I did not have google wave. I think of that time with horror - because that epoch was marked with conflicts, total chaos, money was being lost every day, fights were happening between me and my collaborators. Google Wave came in, and within a couple of weeks, a heavenly peace had descended on my business."

I know this is a learning blog, but you will never convince me that structured massive fights aren't a positive learning environment. Especially when mixed with periods of heavenly peace.

Untethered but not life-changing?
Roughly speaking, the iPad reactions fall into two camps. There's the yay-sayers like Steve Woodruff on how the iPad marks a turning point for increasingly untethered doctors:

"First of all, the pace at which doctors are using smartphones as part of their practice (and especially iPhone/iPod Touch) is accelerating dramatically, as is uptake/usage of the applications. Younger doctors especially will not want to practice untethered medicine.

Second, we are now at a place where the convergence of form factor, power, connectivity, affordability, and functionality argue for widespread adoption. An iPhone screen is pretty small. A laptop is inconvenient. An iPad which can be used for data lookup, data entry, point-of-need multimedia education and reference, and access to electronic health records – what’s not to like?"

And there's the meh-sayers like Learning Solutions Magazine saying that it's more of the same:

"Although there were no life-changing features in the iPad . . . because of the bigger display, it is potentially a better platform for mobile learning than the iPhone or the iPod Touch, although the iPad (like the iPod and iPhone) does not support Flash.

. . . e-Learning creators can use the Developers Kit to whip up well-designed, interactive content, including educational games and simulations, that take advantage of the larger screen real estate, the multi-touch display, and the accelerometer in all models. The 3G models will also be capable of supporting location-based learning. Given a connection to the Internet via WiFi or 3G, social networking from the iPad should be a breeze. This is all good for asynchronous e-Learning.

Synchronous e-Learning on the iPad as shown today presents some problems. . ."

I don't need the second opinion
I have to say, I'm with the doctors on this one. The iPad will change things. And I think it's in Synchronous eLearning that things will change. Here's two reasons why:

1. It's not really got a proper keyboard.
This is probably a good thing. Anything that helps people break their writing habit and draw diagrams and mindmaps and back of the napkin stories in their learning and collaborating is a good thing. Relax, there is a keyboard for all you text-heads, this just balances things out a little.

2. It's just a big iPhone.
This is the killer app. You can't sit round an iPhone. The screen's too small. More importantly, you can't sit round a laptop either. There's only one mouse to fight over. It's always someone's laptop to sit round. But the iPad can sit on a table in front of people who can all lean forward and make marks on the screen. If there's anything that will cure us of Picard's Syndrome, it is this.

We understand Synchronous eLearning now to mean an instructor and learners doing their thing at the same time. It's classroom learning in a funky new classroom. But it's learners who'll be able to synchronise with an iPad.

It's natural for all the reviews and Learning Solutions magazines to focus on the technical specification. And this explains why some people felt Steve Jobs' presentation fell a little flat - no exciting new tech. But they're analysing the iPad in terms of its parts, not its components.

The most exciting new component is us.

(I think this will be huge. As I Tweeted - and was ReTweeted - yesterday:

It's cheap and it's got good text-entry UI. It's sit-roundable. That's the last barriers to Mobile Learning down. #TKO

What do you think? Have I fallen for the hype and entered Steve Jobs reality-distortion field?


Image of iPad-discussing dolls is from Kathy Sierra with the following caption:
"Ridiculous #19 -- the power of perception. Not that it will matter when the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field engulfs us all. A week from now we will ALL be asking, "Why would a feminine product want to name itself after a computer?"