In an earlier post (The iPad in Education and the Questions – 1/10/2011) I began to look at how an iPad could be used in school in a 1:1 setting. When I wrote the post, I had a lot of question. Some have been answered; many have not. I’m beginning to understand the market for the iPad and have a few observations.
Schools and educator need to first realize one thing as I did… the iPad is a consumer product. Period. The way in which Apple is marketing the device and building out the iOS it’s clear that they have the individual consumer in mind. For instance, the lack of multiple users in iOS which is something education would benefit from. Not even the about-to-be-released iOS 5 will have support for multiple users and there seems to be no interest in making the iPad easier to use by multiple users (sell more iPads). Those looking to deploy iPads in a 1:1 setting need to keep this fact in mind when planning their deployments.
It also begs the question… “Who owns the iPad and are apps now consumable items?”
What I mean by this is depending on your model for deployment the question and idea of device ownership, the app(s) and what the end-user can do becomes important.
In any deployment model, settings can be configured to individualized the iPad to meet a user’s needs. Mail, calendaring, appearance settings and user-based applications (Evernote, GoodReader, etc) can be configured so that each person’s iPad is there own. Providing this kind of ownership and customization on a device, I believe, is crucial its successful adoption and welcomed use in any 1:1 device program.
If you are deploying a large fleet of iPads, you’ll want your constituents to take ownership of that device and the learning you hope to encourage through its use. You’ll want them to grow as independent and autonomous learners through exploration and discovery. By engendering a feeling of ownership in the iPad (or any school issued device) it affects the treatment of the device.If a user is allowed to have both their schoolwork and their pictures, music and apps on the device they are more likely to treat that device with more care than something they feel is not truly theirs to begin with.
As I see it there are three possible methods for deploying an iPad and the apps:
- Centralized Account Syncing – A traditional model
- Tandem Accounts – A blended model
- Individual Accounts – User “owned“
