[Air-L] Ipads and fieldwork

[Mark Warschauer]

Charles,

You of course accurately pinpoint many of the limitation of the iPad
as a laptop/desktop replacement for academic work.  It will be
interesting to see how all these  things evolve in future years.  (One
quick suggestion: for importing files into the iPad, and maintaining
file structure as you do so, you might want to try Dropbox.  That
doesn't say anything about what happens to the file structure after
you use the files though.  I suspect there are also good apps for
taking notes on what one reads on an iPad, though I haven't tried them
out yet.  Nevertheless, the limitations you point out are spot on.)

However, my comment about comparing iPads to other tablets was not in
reference to what kinds of tablets may eventually appear, but what
kinds are available now.  I suppose there are tablets that do some of
the things that you point to, but I would guess that they are also so
cumbersome and difficult to use that they fail to serve their purpose.
 However, if I'm wrong, I'm sure someone here will let us know!
Mark

Mark Warschauer
Professor of Education and Informatics
University of California, Irvine
Education 3000C
Irvine, CA 92697-5500
tel: (949) 824-2526  fax: (949) 824-2965
markw at uci.edu; http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw
twitter: http://twitter.com/markwarschauer




On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 4:43 PM, Charles Ess <charles.ess at gmail.com> wrote:
> thanks, Mark - your larger post does a nice job, I think, of characterizing
> the primary uses to which the device is suited / designed.
>>
>> As for the question asked earlier, why an iPad as opposed to other
>> tablets--was that serious or facetious?
> I won't speak for the author of the question, but as a recent iPad owner, I
> think it's a serious and important question.  From my perspective, the
> inability to multitask coupled with the absence of a working file system
> (unless I'm wrong - please correct if I am!) means for me that it is much
> better suited to the sorts of uses you initially describe - light email,
> web-browsing, etc.
> I also think it has promise as an e-Reader, which, as a traveling / gypsy
> scholar, is tremendously inviting: that said, my first experiences in these
> directions (no names, please), have been more ones of frustration with what
> I can't do with a text rather than of joy with having a text handily
> available.
> Of course, it's also great for simply consuming media, if that's what you
> want - let's not forget that someone/s are very interested in not only the
> quality of our experience with the interfaces and the device, but also with
> specific bottom lines.
> But if I want to do at least my kind of serious work - multiple documents
> open, multiple apps open, cutting-and-pasting between these when needed,
> etc., alongside a solid Internet connection (the wifi reception on mine is
> weak compared with my MacBook) - a laptop or equally capable tablet is not
> just preferable but simply necessary.
> As is often the case, then, it's not just a matter of "what you can do" (the
> rhetoric too often associated with too many new devices and technologies
> that we frankly don't yet entirely know what to do with) - what do you need
> / want to do?
> (and please read all of this in a cordial, friendly tone, one grateful for
> the discussion)
> sent from my MacBook (this time),
> - charles ess
>
> Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab
> Helsingforsgade 14
> 8200 Århus N.
> Denmark
> mail: <imvce at hum.au.dk>
> tel: (+45) 8942 9250
>
> Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
> Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA
>
> Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
>
>
>
>
> On 7/21/10 1:23 AM, "Mark Warschauer" <markw at uci.edu> wrote:
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