Tag Archives: education

Will iPads replace laptops?

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Dylan and Miles dropped in at the Coffee Zone this morning. They’re high school sophomores in Savannah, Missouri. Dylan brought his new iPad which he purchased with money from his summer job (scanning medical records).

He has a desktop computer (and a Blackberry) but no laptop. I found it interesting that he would go for the iPad instead of a laptop. But not surprising. I think we’ll see this happening more and more. For all the reasons we’ve mentioned here. Price and cool factor topping the list.

Dylan says he plans to take it to class this fall. Would like to know how that works out.

Lots of colleges are exploring ways to bring the iPad into the classroom.

Minnesota school replacing text books with iPads

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The Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (Minnesota) School Board approved $265,000 to purchase 230 iPads for students, upgrade all school buildings with Wi-Fi and provide technical training for everyone starting next year.

Apple Computer is providing the school with some assistance. If this works out, the school in Winthrop could become a model for the nation. Bet this isn’t the last time we see this.

Think of the possibilities.

Tests are on PW protected website. Software could determine right/wrong answers on the T/F and multiple choice questions. Huge time saver for teachers. Parents could see student’s answers to help them.

“Information is not a scarcity”

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A few ideas from today’s post Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine blog:

“If you are selling a scarcity — an inventory — of any nonphysical goods today, stop, turn around, and start selling value — outcomes — instead. Or you’re screwed. Apply this rule to many enterprises: advertising, media, content, information, education, consultation, and to some extent, performance.”

“Relationships. That’s what the business of media must become. In our New Business Models for News, we began — just began — to project the value of the relationship a new media service can have in its community: creating events; educating; gathering and selling data; selling goods directly (as the Telegraph does, quite successfully); running networks to help others succeed; saving money by collaborating.”

“Information is not a scarcity, or at least it isn’t scarce for long. Yes, when I don’t know something, then the answer is scarce. But now it’s much easier to get that answer; Google will have it in .3 seconds and if it doesn’t and if enough of us ask it, then someone at Demand Media will write it for me and the rest of the world for $20. When news is new, its value is scarce (as Thomson Reuters Tom Glocer says, his information has its highest value in its first 3 milliseconds); but then that value deflates.”

Alrighty then.

“The Bad Managment Stimulus”

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The always brilliant Scott Adams on entrepreneurship:

“The Dilbert Principle observes that in the modern economy, the least capable people are promoted to management because companies need their smartest people to do the useful work. It’s hard to design software, but relatively easy to run staff meetings. This creates a situation where you have more geniuses reporting to morons than at any time in history. In that sort of environment you’d expect the geniuses to be looking for a way out, even if Plan B has a low chance of success.

Big companies with bad managers are the ideal breeding ground for entrepreneurs. Employees are exposed to a wide variety of business disciplines, and can avail themselves of excellent company-paid training and outside education. When you add broad skill development to the inevitability of eventually getting a moron for a boss, thanks to frequent internal reorganizations, it’s no wonder that big companies spray entrepreneurs into the environment like the fountains at Bellagio.”

Mr. Adams’ book, The Dilbert Principle is the last management book I read and gave me the courage to begin planning my escape from management.

Why there is no draft

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From a new report called Mission: Readiness, an organization of education and military leaders:

Lean, mean, fighting maching“An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report from an organization of education and military leaders calling for immediate action on the early-education front.”

“Military recruiters in Kansas City report turning away prospective recruits “in every office, every hour, every day” for reasons including girths too large and credit ratings too low.”

“Even after signing up, 7 to 15 percent of enlistees return home for not meeting all that basic training demands.”

Scariest quote is from retired Rear Adm. James Barnett:  “Our national security in the year 2030 is absolutely dependent on what’s going on in kindergarten today.”