5 Good Reasons Not to Wait for iPad 2

Sure, I was excited by the iPad launch, but I didn't run to the Apple store right away. I read up on the drawbacks and considered waiting for the second generation product - you know, the one that would appear within a year and sport all the much-vaunted "basics" everyone derided this one for not delivering.

Besides, with an iPhone, an iPod Touch, a laptop and a Blackberry, why would I want another device?

Well, I'm glad I swiped my debit card for an iPad - imperfect as it is.

We all know one of the major complaints about the iPad is that it's really a glorified iPod Touch. But that's what kicks this machine into a different product category and makes it so useful. So, hold on to your "I'm going to wait for the second version" logic for a minute and consider some reasons you might just want to spring for this very practical tablet - just the way it is.

1) Reading is an absolute joy on the iPad
Since you see more on the iPad screen you get better context to whatever you are reading. You no longer see a couple of lines or paragraphs in isolation - as you would on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Even PDFs are much more bearable and easy to read. Instead of the scrolling that normally takes place to see even a single page on a laptop or desktop screen, with the iPad you can hold an entire PDF page in your hand and see it with one glance.

Web pages look and read great because of the vertical orientation; I can't say enough about that. Even reading Maps is a pleasure. Maps takes great advantage of the iPad's increased real estate, becoming much more practical than the peering-through-a-keyhole-version you carry around with you on the iPhone.

And say what you want about iBooks, but it's just plain cool. Colour pages are colour pages. Turning the iPad sideways automatically puts you in two-page mode. The orientation lock is a welcome addition. And there's a Sepia wash you can toggle on to make the experience more like reading a book than a computer monitor.

If you're into reading wisdom literature like me, and depending on the app you get, the scriptures are gorgeous and a joy to read. Meditating on them is a soothing break from the hyper-connected world of blogs, Twitter and well, everything else.

2) App Store offerings take on new value
Old familiars have recast themselves and are benefitting from the larger screen. Dragon Dictation, for instance, becomes a big slate upon which you can experiment and compose before bringing that text into another application. The size of the slate makes it infinitely more useful than the same application on the iPhone or the iPod Touch. Dragon Dictation also becomes a wonderful journaling tool, lending a conversational tone to your notes and making the process of recording thoughts more fluid and natural.

The Google suite of apps is superb on the iPad. Take advantage of the iPad's microphone for some of your Google text and image searches. It really does feel like magic.

The mobile version of Google Docs is read only, so don't bother trying to compose a blog post on it. But I have found a great little app called Synote that will sync between your iPad and iPhone or whatever other device you happen to have. The price is nominal and it functions so well that it became my default writing tool before I bought Pages.

Evernote is a killer app on a Touch or iPhone, but wait till you see it on the iPad's larger screen. It's a dream for carrying with you to meetings and appointments for note taking. And, if you're so inclined, you can photograph with your iPhone all those business cards and scraps of paper you write your phone numbers and notes on. Your notes are available across the three platforms - web, iPad and iPhone. And with so many new integrations, Evernote is a real powerhouse. If you have a copy and haven't been doing much with it, get to know it. You'll be grateful you did.

Tweetdeck for the iPad loses some of its functionality on the iPad - you can't schedule tweets, for instance. But you can add columns to track searches like #edchat and #caned, the interface is beautiful, and there's enough there to keep you very happily tweeting. Echofon is good on the iPhone or Touch, but a clean visual knockout on the iPad. I find myself switching between Tweedeck and Echofon a lot, simply because there are features on each that I love. Twitter hasn't released a native iPad app yet, but if it's anywhere near the premium quality of the iPhone/Touch version, you're going to want it.

3) More portability than your laptop
If you think a laptop is liberating, the iPad is much more so. You won't be able to do everything you can on your laptop, and it's a little heavier than you might expect, but it feels rugged and in so many situations it sure beats a laptop.

Wouldn't you like your laptop to fire up instantly after sleeping? Well, the iPad does, and that alone is such a relief when you need to get some banking done or fire off some emails in a hurry.

Getting a good case is essential. It gives you a solid grip on the pad and the confidence to cart it around without fear of it slipping out of your hands. It will quell your paranoia about screen protection and really boost your enjoyment of the machine.

There are rich possibilities for presentations with the iPad. Whether you're speaking from a podium, pacing back and forth or walking into your audience, the iPad is the ultimate tool for prepared text. I've spoken with it from a podium and during workshop sessions and it's a dream. You can even leave it sitting on a table and pump the point size up enough in Pages to act as a handy cheat sheet.

Of course, it's perfect for walking around your classroom. And with an Apple composite A/V cable you can patch your iPad right into your LCD projector.

One-on-one presentations become much less cumbersome and more intimate using the iPad rather than a clunky laptop. Even processing email becomes a more comfortable task by just picking up the tablet and working it.

4) Better keyboarding than your phone
I've always believed a little time spent practicing text entry on any new device pays off down the road. You and the iPad's virtual keyboard will make friends fast with a bit of practice.

Writing in landscape mode can be hard at first because of the same hair-trigger sensation you get in your first few days with the iPhone or iPod Touch. But let me tell you, once you get comfortable, you'll find your speed goes up rather than down. This will definitely come as a surprise. And your finger tips will pad along the glass surface with a lot less noise than when taking notes with your laptop.

5) YouTubing with your friends and family
Many times, I've wanted to share a video or blog post on the spot with a few other friends or colleagues and I can do this for one person easily enough an iPhone/Touch. But with the iPad, I can share with three or four people at once.

This ability to share video with others is one the coolest features of the iPad. It really is something to be able to curl up with a video or TV episode by yourself or with someone else. Of course, the App store has plenty to choose from and Netflix is rumored to be available in Canada soon. So the value of what you're able to consume is likely to increase exponentially then.

You can always prop the iPad up on a table or desk (many cases allow you to do this) while you're working or eating to enjoy whatever you've downloaded or feel like streaming. Remember there are mountains of video podcasts available to you - on everything from learning Spanish to checking out the latest tech toys - through iTunes.

Ok, enough gushing. If all of the above and serious laptop-kicking battery life don't sway you, here's a sixth great reason.

6) Your kids are going to love it
Tablets make so much sense and they are so easy to use that children take to this device almost intuitively. Having a communal iPad around the house is a wonderful way for parents and kids to share video, play together and make little forays into educational applications that are really well served by this platform.

For a super list of educational iPad apps check out the Teach With Your iPad wiki.

Twitter, The 140-Character Chameleon

Creative Commons photo by 1yago.com. Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/yjv/8458150882/

If you've been told that all there is to Twitter is telling people what you had for lunch or following celebrities, you've been mislead. For teachers, Twitter is about connecting with colleagues and sharing ideas, resources and advice.

Call it a chameleon, a shape-shifter, use a pipeline analogy - anything you like - but one thing is for sure, you can't nail Twitter down. Twitter is whatever you want it to be. That's what makes it so hard to explain to people who aren't there - yet so brilliant for those who've taken the plunge.

If you're unfamiliar with Twitter and what all the fuss is about, you're not alone. Consider some of the ways this 140-character chameleon can be used.

Broadcast medium - Twitter is permission-based. Every message you send is broadcast to a group of people who deliberately choose to follow your feed. You do not collect email addresses. You never have to worry that you're sending unsolicited messages (or need to give yours). And whether you're broadcasting from an institution, your classroom, or standing in line at the grocery store, Twitter excels at letting you engage with people who want you to share your ideas, blogs, wikis, videos, and websites with them.

PLN builder - Your Personal Learning Network takes a while to build. This is the one thing you should understand - building that PLN requires real work. But once you do, it can be a great morale booster, invaluable source of advice, and cheering section. You can find thousands of advocates for PLNs, any one of whom could guide you, at a Ning run by Thomas Whitby called the Educator's PLN. Sue Waters has an excellent post on how to get started on your PLN with Twitter.

Professional Development - On Twitter, PD is entirely within your control and available literally anytime. Links to resources, lots of them, are Twitter currency. And colleagues are more than willing to share. This can be a wonderful cultural shift if you're not used to it. None of us knows everything, but all of us know something. Together we're better.

Edchat - You can chat with educators in a true global village through #edchat. It happens twice every Tuesday, but continues throughout the week. It's teachers talking to teachers. Real time PD anywhere, anytime. You won't believe the connections you'll make. Check out details from Tom Whitby and Shelly Terrell.

Virtual conference attendance - Short on PD funds? Just tap into a conference by following people who are tweeting from the event. Seriously, there will usually be someone there. Just search for the event name here, look for a hashtag, and you can monitor and participate in what's happening in that very room in real time.
Live blogging - Send a constant stream of tweets from a particular session or keynote and you'll be providing a wonderful public service to those who are following a conference or other event.

Backchannel - Following the hashtag for a particular conference session lets you communicate with other people in the same session. You can message people across the room, in another session, even those folks who are participating virtually a continent away - in real time. This sounds incredibly disruptive, but can work so well. Sometimes presenters will choose to display the backchannel tweets so they can get real time feedback on what's on the minds of the audience. Backchannels can greatly enrich your conference experience.

Complaints dept. - Get the attention of large companies and other organizations (at the least the smart ones who are listening) by mentioning your problem and including their name in a hashtag. Conscientious organizations will monitor their mentions and will often contact you to see if they can help.

Tech support - Crowd source (from your PLN) support answers to your vexing technical problems. Tell your followers what you're having difficulty with and tap into their expertise.

Subscription service - Whether it's Alfie Kohn, Sarah McLachlan, Lance Armstrong, or Michael Buble, Twitter gives you a glimpse into people's lives and the illusion (or the reality if you're lucky) of proximity to notable personalities. You can follow a author, a movement, a magazine like Fast Company or an organization like the National Education Association or the Canadian Teachers' Federation in real time.

Disaster and emergency tool - The American and Canadian Red Cross, Center for Disease Control, and police departments both stateside and in Canada are using Twitter to alert people to emergencies and send warnings and alerts.

Share your tastes and activities - Remember that tweet what you have for lunch thing? You can do that too, if you r-e-a-l-l-y want to. Some people even tweet pictures of it - ugh!

Real time search - websites are the institutional voices of organizations, tweets are authentic voices of real people. Find out what's happening on any topic under the sun by entering it at Twitter Search. Go ahead, type in anything under the scholastic sun to see what people are saying. You can use this to lurk and see the flood of real-time information on any topic before opening your official account.

News on demand - News from all the major corporate suspects are on Twitter, like the CBC, CNN, the Globe and Mail and the New York Times. But so are thousands of local news outlets - and millions of citizen journalists. If there's an accident on the highway, poor road conditions, plane crash, a dust-up at sporting event, you'll probably hear about it on Twitter before TV, radio and print get it.

Broadcast the revolution - When @cnn couldn't get reporters on the ground during election protests in Iran, citizens in the street tweeted all the drama and fed the world text and video as it happened. Glasnost and perestroika would have happened years earlier if the Polish shipyard workers had Twitter.

Journaling - Your Twitter feed is considered a microblog. But the truth is your tweets will disappear into the ether after a few months. If you want to save them longer than that, check out Twistory.com or BackupMyTweets.com. You can also send your tweets directly to your Evernote account.

Look at me, look at me! - A bit of shameless self-promotion is expected. So, go ahead and brag about what you or your kids are doing - you're allowed. Don't worry, your PLN will give you props.

Admittedly, there is overlap the categories above. But this list is nowhere near exhaustive. The point is, that Twitter can be a tremendous boon to your personal and professional life. It really is anything you want it to be. Simply put, Twitter puts you in touch with colleagues and great PD, and it makes your world larger.
Skeptical? Read How One Tweet Changed a Teacher's View of Social Media by Irene Tortolini.
If you still have questions or doubts, there are over 4,700 colleagues who can help you back at the Educator's PLN.

If you have questions, comment below and I'll help.

Mabey's Hope-Infused Reality Inspires

Stephanie Mabey's "hope-infused reality" has been making me smile for two years now. From her initial three offerings released under the name Stephanie Smith to her new acoustic preview EP, she has been the Voice most played while I kick around the house, do chores or run errands. Her videos have been a frequent destination on my YouTube wanderings.

Mabey is an LDS indie-folkie who recently married and moved to Arizona, but is actually a transplanted Utahn. She recorded her knock-out debut album Change when she was 17, stunning folks with her introspection, crisp story-telling, and honest lyrics. Tell Me and the brilliant Waves followed.

Tunes like October, Another Ticket (inspired by a job ticketing merchandise at Target) and Fragile Sometimes are at once vulnerable and lovely. You can hear all of them on the listen tab at stephaniemabey.com. There are some terrific Stephanie Smith downloads still available at ldsmusicworld.com. Check out Let Me Know and Little Bit Scared.

Naturally, all of Stephanie's Mabey's material is available on iTunes. If you're looking for her first three albums, make sure you look up the right Stephanie Smith. There is another artist with the same name.

And if you're up for something completely different, watch If I Were a Zombie, Mabey's video poke at the Twilight movie franchise, "because vampires are getting way too much love these days."

Over the past few months, Mabey has been on a campaign to raise enough funds through sales of her EP to flesh out those songs and more for a fourth album. The way she's structured her fund-raising pitch is both novel and interactive. For $50 she'll let you download her EP, send you her new album, and list you in her liner notes; $750 will get you a house concert; and $1,000 will get you your own theme song to use as a voice-mail greeting, ring-tone or "just to hum when you're feeling down."

But enough gushing already. The bottom line is Stephanie Mabey's music rewards those who can truly appreciate honest, sensitive, intelligent music.

In the spare and beautiful Another Ticket, she says, "I sing out. like I've made it." We can only hope she does.

Follow Stephanie on Twitter @stephaniemabey.

Michelle, You've Got Me Thinking

While out scouting for Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus last night, I also picked up a children's book on Michelle Obama by Deborah Hopkinson. I've always believed America's first lady is a class act and reading through the strong and simple prose I was reminded of what an intelligent and accomplished woman she is. This book will be a short but inspiring read for elementary and middle school girls and boys alike.

But it also got me thinking about how her husband is getting public education so wrong, and how a Democratic president's endorsement of charter schools, merit pay and mass teacher firings is dangerous. It not only does a disservice to America's public schools, but will soon be used as ammunition by Canadian right-wing groups, chief among them the Fraser Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

American ideas tend to drift northward pretty quickly. And Canadians don't always see the context for their genesis. So these ideas will again be concepts public schools and the people who care about them will have to fight.

What I really don't understand is how a president who is so progressive in other areas, can be so regressive when it comes to education.

How are these concepts justified pedagogically? And if it's a matter of wooing the vote of a certain right-leaning subset of the American electorate, he can rest assured they will vote for a dyed-in-the-wool Republican any day.

Many of these so-called reforms tap into a need to blame someone for the perceived failures of America's public schools. The game, of course, is to weaken public confidence in them and to further open the system to market forces. There is a pile of money to made here and Obama's posture on this front cannot be justified.

One Washington Post article nailed the recent spate of teacher blaming with a twist on James Carville's brilliant refrain by suggesting "it's not the teachers, it's the poverty."

This is one Canuck who has tremendous admiration for both Michelle and her husband. I still remember the thrill of tuning into that magic night in Grant Park with good friends. What a breath of fresh air.

But someone please tell me, how do you make sense of Obama on education?

Clay Shirky on "Big Things for Love"

Shirky explains that, in years past, we could accomplish small things for love, but big things took money. Today, online communities allow us to do "big things for love."

You can never sit at the feet of this NYU prof without learning something, and Shirky's point about love is made with his usual eloquence and passion.

Definitely 10 minutes well spent.

Kids and Music - Less Social Than We Were?

Sure they can download tunes, but do today's teens really appreciate the social aspects of listening to music?

I mean, I can remember my friends and I crowded into my bedroom listening to one album after another - Babe Ruth, T-Rex, Mott the Hoople, early Bowie - and about 400 other superb pieces of vinyl (which now reside in my basement).

It was a chance for us to talk about school and life, who made the cover of the latest Cream or Circus magazine, and album reviews we'd heard or seen. It was nothing if not intensely social.

Now, I spot kids hiding between their earbuds in just about every imaginable circumstance. One evening I pointed this out to my 18-year-old along with the observation that his generation is more solitary than social when it comes to music consumption.

"I don't know," said my big guy. "We still listen to CD's when we're all in the car together." He then pointed out that if someone is listening to something good, they'll share a pair of earbuds. "We bring our iPods, mp3 players, USB drives - even our hard drives - to our friends' houses to share music," he said. "Plus, we still go to concerts together."

So it made me think.

My generation didn't have the chance to consume our music absolutely anywhere we felt like it. But if it had, would we have been more solitary or more social about music than kids today?

5 Quick Tips for iPhone Users

Whether you bought your iPhone last week or a year ago, you know there's always something new to learn. So here goes...

1) Fly Through Calendar Months
Tired of repeatedly mashing your finger on your calendar's right and left arrow buttons to scroll through the year? Hold them down instead and watch the months fly by.

2) Compose Emails Twice as Fast
Dragon Dictation is the voice-to-text app you need. It's fast, free, and it lets you compose emails - or take notes - using only your voice. If you've never played with an app like this before, you'll be amazed at its speed and accuaracy. You can copy your text to your clipboard for insertion into other apps, or send it on its way via email. You owe it to yourself to try this freebie.

3) Track Your Blog Hits
No need to open Google Analytics on your desktop. Just grab Analytics App ($6.99) from the app store and load your username and passwords for your websites and blogs. You'll get instant access to all the numbers that make or break your day.

4) Check Out iPhone Web Apps
Looking for something different? You can spend hours browsing the app store. But did you know there are an extra 4,500 Apple web apps you can add to your iPhone or iTouch. Lots of categories. Some are unique products: Carbon Footprint Calculator, Color Mail and StreetMaven to name a few. You don't download these apps, you save them to your home page. Don't know how? Follow these instructions under "One Tap Web Apps."

5) Power Up Your PD
You can download audio and video versions of superb Classroom 2.0 Live professional development sessions recorded in Elluminate. Just open your iTunes app, hit search, punch in "Classroom 2.0 Live" and download the sessions you want.

Five Minutes with Sir Ken Robinson on Standardized Testing

Bonnie Hunt had Sir Ken Robinson on her show earlier this month to plug his book "The Element" and talk a bit about standardized testing. The segment is short - just five minutes long. Robinson is relaxed, the audience learns something, and Hunt makes it quite apparent she's grateful.

Your Life - Unplugged for a Day

Do you have enough will power for a digital media fast? For being present in the moment with the ones you love? To keep the digital distractions at bay - even if it's only until sundown today?

If you weren't aware, today is the National Day of Unplugging, an initiative of sabbathmanifesto.org, a group of Jewish artists, writers, filmmakers and social media pros who are getting high-profile press these last few days because of its pitch to live an unplugged life from sundown, Friday, March 19th to sundown, Saturday, March 20th.

Think of it as the digital equivalent of Adbusters TV Turnoff week. Only perhaps our redirected attention is making technology more of a threat to connecting with family than television is these days. No matter, the point is that here's a chance to prove we have the mettle to put family and friends first for a few hours.

You'll notice I'm writing this post on this digital day of rest, so I've broken the fast already. But, hey, I'm on my own timetable, and apart from tweeting this a couple of times, I'm planning to make it until sundown today without tickling the keyboards of my laptop or iPhone.

Couldn't hurt, right?

How about it, are you up to the challenge?

How a TV Reporter Came to Love the "Worst School" in B.C.

Tired of simplistic calls for ranking schools by publishing test scores? Fed up with think tanks tearing a strip off public education? Ever wish reporters would know exactly what you're up against every day before commenting on teachers' lives, pay or performance?

Have I got a video for you.

Three years ago, the Fraser Institute ranked elementary schools in British Columbia and decreed that Roosevelt Park Elementary School in Prince Rupert was the bottom of the barrel - the worst school in the province.

Imagine the blow that must have been to the teachers, students and community there.

Now, imagine a reporter setting out to discover the truth about Roosevelt Park, by actually teaching there for a week.

No credentials, strong desire
Set aside the fact that CBC reporter Mark Kelley had no teaching credentials. He knew he didn't have the paper nor the experience. But he had a strong desire to get to the truth about this maligned school and the many at-risk students it served. And that's exactly what he did.

Kelley travelled to Prince Rupert to do your job for a week - and learned so much in those brief five days.

Part one of the series has been lost somewhere in the CBC archives, (if you find it online please let me know). But part two has been preserved by some thoughtful soul on Google Video.

Spend the next six minutes on this one and enjoy the feeling of watching someone wake up to the fact that teaching is incredibly tough, test scores are a poor measure of the work both teachers and students do, and school rankings aren't worth the newsprint they're wrapped in.