Apple’s iPad is finally here.

Amid the hype and speculation of its features and design are also the musings of educators seeking to enhance student learning experiences in their classrooms.

Educational soundboards everywhere are asking readers for ideas on how to utilize the new iPad in their classrooms.

More than finding ways to integrate technology into the classroom with the iPad, I’m interested to see how this will affect application development through the App Store, and, most importantly – whether it will drive change in textbook publishing.

Online textbooks are more readily available, and what better way to interact with your studies than to curl up with an iPad?  You can use your fingers to zoom, scroll and flip pages, and there are no library fines for dog-eared pages.

What we need, though, is the ability to annotate your textbook and make choices about learning.

Is reading text enough for you?  Or, do you need to doodle in the margins, underline and highlight words, or even jot thoughts down on a sticky note.  Maybe you need to hear the text, or see a video, image, or animation?  Perhaps you would learn best by interacting with an applet on your eReader and stacking up bricks to make a physics theorem really ‘happen’?

Going further, perhaps you think of a question while reading and want to leave it on the blog of an expert.  Or, you have finished reading your assignment and want to take the end of chapter quiz to check your comprehension – with immediate feedback, of course.   Maybe something you read catches your attention, so you record a sound file with your thoughts and tag it to a certain phrase from the text for pondering later.   There are also links to further reading, videos, websites, blogs and assignments, all provided by your teacher.  These textbook interactions are where education is headed.

In a study released last week by The Kaiser Family Foundation, groups of students were observed and surveyed in 1999, 2004 and 2009 about their media use.  Theses students, ages 8-18, are spending 8-10 hours of their day interacting with media devices like phones, computers, mp3 players, and TVs.  The study also reported that students with the highest number of hours media use reported the lowest grades, most discipline problems, and most feelings of boredom, sadness or fatigue.

I hear many educators discuss how technology integration – especially with devices like the iPad – will be the savior that our institutions need.  Collaboration and access to resources will increase, as well as enthusiasm and participation.  But if students are already spending all of their waking hours outside of school engrossed in some sort of media device, won’t teachers still be struggling to find new ways to captivate their audience, even if they do have a shiny new Apple?

              

I have been a long time Mac and Blackberry user, and have wanted an iPhone since it first entered the market.   Because the network ATT uses in our area is an affiliate and not ATT, I cannot sign up for a plan.  There are always ways around these issues of course, but  as a technology professional, I need reliable access to email and messaging.

Until recently a Blackberry Curve has been my handheld of choice.  My most recent Curve, and its predecessors, have supported my needs with few complaints.

When the Droid debuted in November, I saw an opportunity to have an iPhone-like experience on a much larger network.  I purchased my Droid three weeks ago.  I didn’t port my number immediately, as I had read a few negative reviews and wasn’t quite ready to leave the Blackberry at home.  I’m happy to say that I ported my phone this morning and am now a satisfied Verizon Wireless and Moto Droid user.

I have a couple observations that I’ll share.

I am not an Exchange user.  I use an IMAP email server.  The IMAP client that is provided with the Android OS is buggy.  I had many issues with it crashing and needing to be restarted.  A quick search of the forums showed that I am not alone.  I found an app by the name of K-9 Mail.  I am extremely impressed with this app.  It is robust enough to serve the purpose of a smartphone.  It supports IMAP IDLE, which maintains a connection to the IMAP server in order to be instantly notified of new email.  This is an obvious advantage to waiting for the client to check in every 5 minutes or so.  When I held my Blackberry and Droid side-by-side, I would often receive the same emails fifteen minutes later on the Blackberry.

I’ve also been using an open source app called Expense Manager.  The app offers organization in my expense reporting process.  It allows you to take a picture of your receipt and associate it with a particular expense.  It also supports the export of expenses into CSV format via email.  I haven’t looked at similar apps, but this one is definitely convenient.

Finally, I’ve been using an app by the name of doubleTwist to sync my iTunes library to the Droid.  For the most part, the app works pretty well.  It also allows you to purchase MP3s via the Amazon MP3 store and your 1-click account.  The app has the obvious limitation of not being able to sync any DRM protected music.

As a new user, I’m interested in seeing what apps others are using, so suggestions are definitely welcome.