Blogging on the iPad

This should be a no brainer but I guess I am going to have to wait a bit. I use Blogspot, and nothing much has worked on the iPad up to now. Safari cannot run some of the script required for the normal browser interface, and still can't even after the upgrade to the browser interface that just arrived. Two different apps that claim to be able to do it don't, or at least not well.

Now Google has released their own Blogger app. Unfortunately it is designed for the iPhone, with no formatting options. It is fine for blogging on the run, will include photos, but that is about it. At least it can navigate you set of blog titles and show you your post.

How would all this work for students? Blogs are not naturally a student's area of play, and I always hope to encourage students as much as possible when they hit new areas by having interfaces or programs that work well and are full featured. So far if I wanted to introduce blogging to students I would not do it on the iPad!

I must point out however that I am only reflecting on what works (or does not work) for the Google blog site (http://www.blogger.com/). Word Press does seem to have better support on the iPad. What would I expect in the future? An app that....

• allows you to move between your different blogs
• displays the blog itself fully formatted (though you can use Safari for this)
• allows reasonable HTML style formatting
• allows picture insertion with basic formatting
• supports link creation
• gives access to the HTML code but also shows a WYSIWYG editor
• spell checking

I don't really expect to get access to the quite complex CSS and template editing available on the Blogger site, but hey, Google, surprise me!

Andrew Lack

Now with added iPhone

There are at least two reasons to be thinking about iPhones when you investigate iPads. One is Keynote and the other is Scrabble.

Keynote is the Apple version of PowerPoint. It is certainly worth having on a personal iPad (for teachers at least) or will be when iOS 5 arrives in a short time. You may not have known there is a low cost "Keynote controller" app for the iPhone. Once installed, it will look for iPads (or Macs) on the same wireless network running Keynote, and provide an option to link to and control these. Linking is done via a four digit pin so that feels like adequate but not great security.

The iPhone can then show either current slide plus notes, or current and next slide side by side. Walk around, do your presentation, swipe on your iPad to progress slides. A colleague found it highly effective for a recent presentation.

Scrabble (the official version) has an even more appealing app. Scrabble on the iPad is quite nice, but when you do a multiplayer game, any player with an iPhone can download a free Scrabble Tile Rack app. This is just splendid, as it interacts with the game board on the iPad, and the tiles that are generated for your hand appear on your own iPhone, and then can be "flicked" onto the iPad game board!

What awaits to be developed by someone realising that a set of iPads could be used for things like...

• simultaneous collaborative work
• students rehearsing parts or revision with each other
• interactive games based on multiple iPads.

Andrew Lack

Meta iPad thinking

Whether you actually have a set of iPads in students hands or not, most are well aware of what an iPad is. It is an interesting exercise to ask students to think about apps they would like to see created. Of course odds are a percentage of them will become competent programmers and actually consider making apps in the future.

What is the buzz about apps? We don't seem to talk about new programs on the PC very much. Here are some clues...

• low cost or free
• safely sourced (ignoring jail breaking)
• designed for a machine with a vast array of sensors built in
• designed for a machine with a totally new interface (touch screen)

I think the third point about the sensors is quite critical... Apple have put at least the following in the iPad to my knowledge.

• touch screen
• GPS
• compass
• accelerometer (reads impact on the unit)
• accelerometer (reads angle and orientation of the unit)
• light sensor (though this may be rather limited)
• camera (actually 2)
• microphone

There is no end to the novel apps that are being created because of the access programmers have to this sensor rich device. You can download a seismograph (iSeismometer) that uses the accelerometer, or the beautifully realised Star Chart (GPS, compass PLUS angle and orientation all used to good effect).

It is also fun to suggest facile or nonsensical apps to provoke student thinking. My current favourite is to say at meal times "hey, I wish there was a plate app... maybe after the meal a button would start a wash cyle, and if you forgot to do that then after a day or so maggots and blowflies would start appearing".

Hmm, maybe I should contact Apple with that idea...

Andrew Lack

Well, I knew THAT would happen...

We turned on some of the cameras for a senior class to experiment with video work, and then forgot to turn them off. Within a few days they photo folders were full of happy snaps and several wallpapers had been modfied to show student faces.

Fortunately none of this was nasty, but it does put us on notice. Schools who want to keep control in this area will need to...

• turn cameras off (possible under General...Restricitons)
• Check the photo folder regularly (or re-image to a known empty result).
• Alert staff to the general issue

I don't believe it is possible at the moment to lock away access to "Screen Cap" (hold home button, click power button) or the option to "create wallpaper". This problem bedevilled us for ages on PCs, though most modern systems restrict access to that area as well.

There is much more to discuss when it comes to ways students could leave unpleasant material for other students to find. In general of course ill intentioned students can do this with pen and paper (or texta and desk tops) so it is not a uniquely iPad question... but it is a matter to be diligent about.

Andrew Lack

Google Docs on the iPad

Following the last post, I thought I had better have a look at Google Docs on the iPad. Curious. You have two choices, use the "mobile" view or use the "desktop" view. Google Docs I think will automatically detect that you are browsing from an iPad and put you in the mobile view.

The editor in mobile view is very simple... so what I said about Google Docs having more features than gmail or hotmail is not true. It works fine but there is essentially no formatting.

When you try to go to the Desktop view, it semi loads and then comes up with an error message. I could not succeed in bringing it up, so clearly there are calls to funtions not supported in Safari.

I actually got into the Google Docs site by using the Google App. This app is both cool and also less than it seems. It is a nice minimalistic interface allowing you to search... essentially giving you another browser. However, there is a little button at the bottom that says "apps" and this simply gives you access to the plethora of Google on-line areas such as blogging, Picassa (photos) and Documents. The apps are not apps in the iPhone sense, just ways to click to websites.

Still, an interesting alternative approach to the world of "apps" and iPad.

Andrew Lack

And the solution is...

I thought of the solution to students taking notes the second I posted the last post. Both are dependent on being on-line.

Option 1: a student opens their own Hotmail/Gmail in Safari and types directly into the email... they then can press send.

Option 2: students with gmail (and I reccomend they all get a gmail account) can open a Google Doc document, and work directly into that. This actually gives better formatting options for note taking.

There are other on-line documents available... might be interesting to dig around and find out what is being made available.

Still, a fairly straight foward solution!

Andrew Lack

I'll just save that to the c: drive and mail it to myself... oh... wait...

Some Year Twelve students borrowed an iPad each to take notes. They were warned that this would not really be possible (taking notes is easy, getting them off the machine not so possible). They insisted they knew what to do.

I went to visit them in their seminar room and checked how they were going. They really had not thought it through. As the iPad is designed as a personal device, it assumes you will set up your own email in the mail app. Documents stored as part of a particular app (such as Evernote) can be synced off the ipad... but that won't work in the school context.

One student just shrugged and gave up... another very creative young lady got out her iPhone and literally took a photo of the screen!

I pointed out they could do a screen cap (hold down the home button, click the power button) then connect to a computer with the standard cable. The iPad will open as a USB device and give you access to the photo folder. You can copy off the screen cap.

Still, this is very klunky. Any other thoughts out there? Remember even though you can run Hotmail and gmail in the browser, you cannot attach a file that you cannot browse to... and you can't browse to files on the iPad. The in-app buttons that allow you to "send by email" all assume your personal email is set up in the built in email app.

I didn't buy the iPads for school thinking this would work...but now they are here I'm being asked to make it work anyway.

Andrew Lack