April 2010 Archives

I have been looking for a way to close the circle of my digital academic research. The idea is to do rigorous philosophical research without paper, taking full advantage of cloud computing, the syncing of notes, articles, bibliographic information, and the ultimate production of academic work in a completely digital environment. 

I have been living with the iPad for only a few days, but I am beginning to feel the power and limitations of the device. My comments here are impressionistic and rooted in my own peculiar use case as an Associate Dean and a faculty member who teaches philosophy with technology at Penn State.

It is already clear to me that the iPad does not replicate the experience of the iPhone even though many of the apps serve the same functionality.

The iPad is much less intrusive in collaborative contexts than either a laptop, which tends to come between members of the group, or an iPhone, which isolates individuals, severing each from the dynamics of the whole.

Because the iPad is more like a notepad, it feels more natural and legitimate to use it in the context of a meeting or as a device on which to take notes during a lecture.

Impact on Pedagogy
These factors suggest already how the iPad should find a comfortable home in the classroom.

The number one reason my students tell me they don't bring a laptop to class, despite my encouraging them to do so, is that it is too heavy and they don't want to carry it around with them throughout the day. 

It will be easier for students to carry an iPad in their bag all day.  Further, because it does not intrude on face to face conversation, it will allow us to blur the boundary between the online and in-class dimensions of a course, opening a more porous and dynamic relationship between digital and embodied communication in the classroom learning community.  Information from the internet will be more easily integrated into the in-class discussion without disrupting the dynamics of the discussion itself. That discussion too will find its way into the various modes of digital expression online. 

I can imagine students easily referring to online information, participating in the back channel discussion via twitter, posting comments on a blog even as they remain engaged in and indeed add to the classroom discussion itself. The fact that the iPad can only do one thing at a time might actually be a benefit in a classroom context with regard to keeping students focused on the material at hand.

Increasing Productivity Across Platforms
In my educational role as an administrator, there are a number of very positive advantages of the iPad.  I use Evernote to keep all my notes in sync across various platforms - a PC, an iMac, a MacBook Pro, an iPhone and now an iPad. This gives me easy access to all sorts of information that is easily searched on the fly. 

Further, having all my email accessible on the device is excellent. I use Penn State's IMAP email service, so all my mail remains on the server no matter which device I use to access it. I am very much looking forward to the evolution of Dropbox so that I might be able to use it to sync files on which I work in Pages for the iPad.  (See the short conversation about this Cole Camplese and I had on his blog.) 

You will also see a copy of Things on my screen capture.  I am a big fan of this program as it allows me to keep track of multiple aspects of a wide diversity of projects.  I am decidedly not a fan of paying $20 for the iPad version after paying $49 for the desktop version and $4.99 for the iPhone version.  Added to this is the fact that they are still working on implementing cloud sync and I would have given up on Things if it did not allow me to implement my email strategy which involves keeping my inbox clear by doing triage on incoming email by either responding, deleting, filing or adding it to a project or new To Do in Things.

For those at Penn State with an iPhone or iPod touch, integrating the iPad into the WiFi network is fairly straightforward, although I am always surprised to see how many people just turn off the WiFi service on campus with the iPhone because they don't follow these instructions: http://kb.its.psu.edu/article/1310 that describe how to install the wireless 2.0 certificate on their iPhone.  The iPad is easy to set up for the Cisco VPN on the pennstate wireless network too: just follow these instructions for the iPhone on the iPad.

In the end, I am happy with the iPad despite some limitations that always come with the early adoption of a new device.  I think the iPad will open up a compelling set of new possibilities for educating with technology in the months and years to come.

ORLANDO, FL - My first visit to Disney World surprised me.

Before I had two girls, I never thought I would be interested in visiting a place that stood, in my mind, for all that was wrong with American culture: traditional gender roles, naive optimism, obsession with spectacle over substance...

And yet this, as with so much else for me, changed when DancinGirl and ArtGirl entered my life. Watching the Disney stories through their eyes brought another dimension of Disney into sharp relief: the power of imagination, the importance of narrative and the recognition that the force of the bad in world is real and needs to be combated it with intentional, decisive action.

I also began to see beneath the surface of the stereotypes some more progressive ideals. Already in Sleeping Beauty, for example, the three older female fairies turn out to be the most resourceful, brave and heroic characters in this or any other Disney story.

The tension between progressive values and destructive, regressive tendencies is endemic to the Disney experience. It was most palpable for me this past week at the Circle of Life attraction at Epcot.

The movie begins with Timon and Pumbaa damming rivers in order to build "Hakuna Matata Lakeside Village," a resort in the desert that will bring people from far and wide, making them rich in the process. The wise Simba tells them that the animals down river depend on that water for their livelihood. He then goes on to tell them a compelling tale of another species of creature who forgot the way all living beings are connected in a great circle of life: human beings.

He unravels an Aesop fable in reverse - with animals telling the story of foolish human beings who presumed all of nature was at their disposal, taking no heed of the destruction they wrought. Images of large factories, gas guzzling vehicles, oil wells aflame and the lights of Vegas abound ... and yet not one inkling of a gesture to the massive consumer enterprise that is the Disney experience, not one self-reflective image of the rivers, trees and wildlife displaced and destroyed by the creation of "the magical world of Disney."

If the message was progressive, the reality of the experience in which we were collectively participating was ironic, delusional and regressive. Upon exiting the 12 minute film, one finds oneself in the middle of one of the many cafeterias which serves countless meals a day on plastic plates, with plastic utensils and plastic bottles. 

It was a palpable reminder of the extent to which we were actively participating in the consumptive consumer culture that continues to destroy the environment. 

Whatever joy I experienced seeing my daughters bask in the magic of Disney - and there was much joy in it - was tempered by the recognition that we too were colluding in the ongoing human failure to come to terms with the lesson Simba was trying to teach.