Free iPads for Australian University Staff and Students

The University of Western Sydney (UWS) has announced it will provide a free Apple 16GB iPad to all new domestic undergraduate students and academic staff in 2013. This is intended to allow the students to access recorded lectures, live web streaming, library services and "apps". The university is not scrapping face to face classes, but instead implementing blended learning (a combination of online and face to face) for all degrees. There is a UWS Strategic Plan for Learning and Teaching 2012-2014 with details.

Universities need to be carefull in locking themselves and their students into a proprietary operative system and hardware platform.  Studentship’s enthusiast for "apps" will quickly disappear when they discover that they can only access their cruse materials from one brand of computer running one operating system. They will not be able to access the iPad cruse apps from a laptop computer, not even an Apple Mac. Students will get annoyed if they have to downland the gigabytes of course material each time the lecturer makes any tiny change. In my view universalities should look first at web based materials, which can be designed to look app-like, but can still be sued on desktop and laptop computers and also can be developed, modifier and delivered in small modules.

In my view an iPad is not sufficient for a university course. You would be hard pressed to conduct literature searchers and prepare large papers on it for example. The student will need an additional computer, or extra hardware to turn the iPad into a desktop computer. A sub-notebook computer, with a screen of about 12 inches is a better all-round device. These are about the size of an A4 pad of paper, but have a keyboard big enough to type comfortably on. These start at around $400.

An attractive low cost alternative to tablets and notebooks are low cost Chromebooks. These are essentially a hybrid of the tablet computer and the netbook. The device looks like a very thin notebook with a screen around 12 inches, but had a low power processor and a small amount solid state similar to a tablet computer. They cost about $250 retail. The Chromebooks run Google's version of the Linux operating system and lock the user into Google's on-line services. But a university could use similar hardware, Linux and other open source software for an open education platform.

ps: It is curious Google have not yet scrapped the not very successful Chrome operating system and instead adopted the popular Android for the notepads.

Using iPads and eBooks For Training

The Canberra Institute of Technology will host a forum on Using iPads and eBooks For Training, 4:30 pm 24 October 2012.

ACT - e-Rated Networking Forum (face-to-face) 

When: Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 4:30 – 6:30pm 

Where: Canberra Institute of Technology, Reid Campus. Further details will be emailed to registrants closer to date.

Note: Interested in using iPads and eBooks in your training delivery?\ 

Join us at this ACT's e-Rated Networking Forum to hear how Box Hill Institute is using iPads with their apprentices! 

Guest Speakers: 

• Pauline Farrell, Executive Manager - Blended E-learning Solutions, Box Hill Institute
• Steven McMahon, Teacher - Metal Fabrication Trades, Canberra Institute of Technology

You must register (sign up) to attend this FREE face-to-face event.

2011: A Tablet Computer Odyssey

According to the FOSS Patents Blog, "Samsung cites Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' movie as prior art against iPad design patent". In their motion Samsung are said to have included a still image from Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a clip taken from Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", showing two astronauts using tablet computers. It is argued this covers what is in the Patent. Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel of the same name at the same time as working on the film, and it would be interesting to see if the computers are described there, as Clarke is noted for his descriptions of technology.

Of course 2001 is not the only science fiction to feature tablet computers. In 1996 I gave a talk to the Australian Computer Society in which I suggested that by 2005, the Personal Access Display Devices (PADDs) of Star Trek Next Generation would become commonplace:

"... the dimensions of a B5 sheet of paper, by 1 cm thick). PADDs usually have a touch sensitive screen covering the whole upper surface, which is also a high resolution (2000 x 2000 pixel by 16 million colour) screen. All PADDs have video and audio built in and can operate as what a 1996 person would know as a mobile phone, radio, TV and video cam-corder. ...
Variations on pen based writing and voice input were tried for PADDs, but it was found that just a finger pressing buttons displayed on a touch sensitive screen were enough. Most people's writing wasn't good enough for pen input (and they usually just need to select from a few menu options anyway). Voice input works well, but was disruptive in a group and people were too self conscious to talk to a lump of plastic on their own. The QWERTY keyboard, in its virtual form is still in use for data entry. ..."
From: "Australia: The Networked Nation",Tom Worthington, Draft of: 4 February 1996, delivered, 7 February 1996 in the Audio/visual room of the Townsville Grammar School. Republished as the chapter "The Networked Nation", in the book "Net Traveller", 21 July 1999

Senator Helen Coonan, Australian Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, refereed to this talk in the speech "Developing a National ICT Capability" in 2007.

Interactive Whiteboard As A Large Tablet Computer

Last week I attended a workshop on using Using interactive whiteboards, iPads of University Teaching. To an IT professional, the Interactive Whiteboard and iPad need little explanation. An interactive whiteboard is a computer with a large touch screen and applications adapted for touch, rather than keyboard/mouse input. An iPad is a hand held tablet computer from Apple, with a touch screen and applications for gesture input.

The interactive whiteboard and iPad have much in common, as they both have a touch sensitive screen. The interactive whiteboard could be thought of as a very large iPad. Given that iPads are becoming familiar to the general population, which includes educators, it may be useful to explain interactive whiteboards to them in this way.

It may be feasible to go further and build an interactive whiteboard which uses the hardware and software of a tablet computer. This would allow the growing range of applications for tablet computers to be used on the interactive whiteboard. It would also allow the same educational applications to be used by students and staff individually on their tablet computer and as a group on the i-board. The same applications could use both the tablet computers and large scared board simultaneously. Using the same software for both types of units would also make maintenance of the equipment and the training of staff and students in its use easier.

It would be difficult to modify an Apple iPad to drive an i-board, as the Apple software and hardware is closely controlled by the Apple company. However, the rival Google Android operating system is more open to change and is used on a range of hardware from different manufacturers. There are small, low cost computers available running Google Android. These have the same interface ports as used to drive third party i-board hardware. An example of such a device is the $200 Agora Internet TV Portal. It should therefore be feasible to program one of these to work with existing i-board hardware and build an interactive whiteboard which is essentially an Android tablet computer with a very large screen.

The Android i-Board would have limitations, in that it could not run Microsoft Windows applications, in particular Microsoft Office, Word and PowerPoint (at least not easily, some Windows applications run in emulation under Linux). However, there are applications available which can read and write the file formats of MS-Windows which can run on Android. There are also third party Android "Apps", similar to those for the Apple iPad (but not as extensive in number).

More important than emulating Windows applications might be the ability to work with web based applications. This would allow many web based educational applications and resources to be used with the i-broad.

Using the Android hardware and software would have advantages for an i-board. These devices are expensive, large, unreliable and cumbersome to use. Interactive Whiteboards consist of a desktop personal computer running Microsoft Windows or the Apple Mac operating system, interfaced to the touch surface of the screen. To accommodate the PC requires a large device. As a large and complex operating system and application software is being used, the unit takes considerable time to boot, is at risk of viruses and needs frequent software upgrades.

A Google Android computer can be about the size of a matchbox. This need have no hard disk, relying on flash memory and a network connection. Such a unit can be booted quickly as it has a relatively small and simple suite of software. As most of the applications will be running remotely over the network, a powerful process is not needed, nor are frequent software upgrades.

It should be noted that there are other Linux based operating systems available which could be used in place of Google Android, for driving an interactive whiteboard. Android is suggested as it is the most widely known and widely deployed, with more Android devices in use than Apple iPad/iPhones.

Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching

A demonstration of "Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching" will be held at the Australian National University in Canberra, 27 May 2011.

Using interactive whiteboards, iPads and other technologies for teaching

12.30 - 1.30 pm ...

Coffee, tea and juice will be provided. Please feel free to BYO lunch.

Harnessing new (and old) communication technologies for the benefit of teaching and learning requires many of us old dogs to learn new tricks. This seminar will provide an opportunity to hear about a few of the innovative educational uses of technology happening at ANU. We will also be showcasing some new technologies being used ... and giving people some hands-on 'play' time.

» Register now

Dell Inspiron Duo Tablet Netbook

The Dell Inspiron Duo is a Netbook computer with a flip over 10 inch screen, converting it to a touch screen tablet PC. Dell are taking orders for Christmas. No test units are avialable yet, so it is not clear how well the flip screen will work.

Reviews of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t, which has a rotatable screen to turn it from a netbook to a tablet have not been favourable. While these units have the footprint of an Apple iPad, they are much thicker and heavier, due to them having a keyboard, hard disk and Atom processor (which in turn needs a bigger, heavier battery).

A better alternative for a convertible netbook/tablet might might be a unit with a thin membane (rubber) keyboard, which folds back 360 degrees, to the back the pad. The robber of the keyboard would be comfortable to hold.

Tablet Computers Prescribed for Business

Gartner Inc. forecasts 54.8 million tablet computers sold in 2011, due to the popularity of the Apple iPad. Gartner recommends least "concierge" support for executive iPad users in organisations and widespread support by mid-2011.

Helping executives with their iPads is a good idea for IT staff of organisations. Staff are going to buy iPads and use them regardless of the official procurement policy of the organisation. Junior staff can be disciplined for use of unauthorised equipment, but executives cannot, so IT support should put in place a "harm minimisation" scheme. This will reduce the risk of the iPads to the security of the organisation's IT system.

iPad support could include executive information systems, similar to those provided in the late 1990s. These provided essentially prepared slide shows on computer to senior executives. A similar service for the iPad would minimise the need for access to critical and sensitive corporate systems.

Rather than a policy of widespread iPad support, I suggest organisations should look at how mobile computing can be used. This should include smart phones, tablet computers and net books. Unless there is a compelling case, "Apps" which run on only one platform (such as the iPad) should be avoided. Instead web based software, including elements of HTML5, can be used to provide applications on a wide range of mobile platforms as well as conventional desktop web browsers.

If tight vertical integration is required, organisations should look beyond the iPad. As an example, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) is porting its "Tactical Situational Awareness Application Suite" (TactSA) to Google Android.

iPad in medical training

The EDUCAUSE Instructional Technologies Constituent Group has been discussing use of the Apple iPad in education. What struck me was the number of universities introducing the iPad for training doctors, pharmacists, dentists and nurses.

Apple on their own web site feature the iPad for Post-critical care. That is in educating the patient about what to do to recover. This is an interesting choice of application, as it avoids most of the issues to do with reliability, performance and security, which apply to medical records applications. The iPad would be used essentially as a fancy flip chart to show the patient diagrams. So it does not much matter if it breaks and it would not need to hold sensitive medical records.

If the iPad works okay in training, as I expect it will, this will create a demand for tablet computers to be used throughout medicine. There have been attempts at using tablet computers previously in hospitals, but these have tended to be large, heavy devices with cumbersome software. The iPad might be what makes e-heath popular and practical.

The ACT Health Library, provided by the Australian National University, has a list of iPhone/iPad/Mobile medical reference works available. This includes several reference works which require medical staff to register with their corporate identification to gain access. Others are apps for a moderate charge. There are also dozens of free items for medical students and patient education.

Paperback book the optimal size for tablet computer

There are numerous tablet computers now being rushed to market for Christmas, in response to the success of the Apple iPad. Mostly these devices will be running the same Google Android operating system. But they will have a wide range of screen sizes, between the 3.6 inch screen of the Apple iPod Touch (which could now be seen as the iPad mini) and the 9.7 inch screen of the iPad. The most common sizes are 7 Inch (as 7 inch screens are readily avialable) and 9 Inch (but in a wider screen format than the iPad's 4:3 screen). But the Dell Streak has a 5 inch screen.

The market will ultimately determine which size is "best", but are there any fundamentals to this, or is it a matter of consumer taste? Some years ago I started teaching web design students at the ANU how to design for a credit card sized mobile device. I argued that this was the lagest practical size for a hand held device, as it was as large as would fit in a pocket (the size of pockets being determined by the size of the average human hand). This has now happened with smart phone, such as the Apple iPhone, converging on a size about that of a credit card.

The same approach could be applied to predict the optimal size for a tablet computer: what is a reasonable size to hold in the hand and how large are typical hand held objects? Two commonly hand held objects are bricks and paper back books. Bricks are between 203 × 102 mm and 250 × 120 mm (average 227 x 111 mm) . Paperback books between 178 x 110mm and 216 x 135 mm (average 197 x 123 mm). The width of these is determined by the human hand span needed to grip the object. This suggests a device which could have a screen of 8 to 9 inches. Given this is the size of the page of a typical paperback book, it suggests this is a workable display size.

The difference between a 7, 8 or 9 inch screen may not sound much, but the screen area increases with the square of the length and so each estra inch makes for much more viewing area. Also if a virtual (or real) keyboard is to be used, then the larger the device the better.

iPads at Moodle e-Learning Event

Greetings from the wrap-up session of the MoodlePosium at Australian National University in Canberra. Of the twelve people I can see around me in the audience, six have devices in front of them. Three have iPads, one an iPhone, one laptop and I have a netbook. Looking at how these devices fit on the small flip-up desk provided in the lecture theatre, the iPads are the least conspicuous. It would be difficult for the presenter to tell if the audience was using an iPad or a paper notebook, when the iPad is flat on the desk.

However, I found using the the iPad virtual keyboard clumsy and the screen reflections from overhead lights painful. One delegate had a very elegant blue-tooth keyboard and their iPad propped up as a portrait format screen. This was very elegant but very conspicuous.

The iPhone user is hand holding the device. The laptop user has the unit covering the full surface of the small desk with the screen hanging out into space.

A 10 inch netbook seems to fit very well in this environment, not covering the whole desk. An alternative would be the Kensington KeyFolio Case for iPad, which has a built in rubber Bluetooth keyboard. This turns the iPad into a netbook format device.

Apple TV an iPad Desktop Device

The "Apple TV 2nd Generation Teardown" by iFixit, indicates that the second generation Apple TV media device has the same processor and many of the same electronic components as the Apple iPad. This provides the interesting possibility of using the device as a low cost, low power desktop computer.

There have been attempts at low cost, low power desktop computers before, but these "net-top" and thin clients have never been popular, being perceived as limited compared with "real" computers. However, someone used to a smart phone or a tablet computer (such as an iPhone or iPad) a desktop equivalent with a big screen would seem natural.

At about 6W the AppleTV consumes little power and costs about $US99. It can be plugged into a large LCD screen, keyboard and mouse and a network connection. There is an empty slot in the unit to expand the Flash memory. There is no disk drive, but this could be seen as a feature for a web appliance, using storage in "the cloud".

iPad Case with Keyboard

Accessory company PADACS are offering the PADACS Toccata Keyboard case for the Apple iPad. This is a cover for the iPad, with a built in stand to allow it to be propped up on a desk. That feature is provided with many iPad cases, but this one adds a Bluetooth keyboard, so the iPad then looks and works like a netbook. The keyboard can be charged via USB. Of course this makes me wonder why not just buy a netbook, some of which now come with multi-touch screens, for about half the price?

iPad preoccupy corporate ICT Planners

Greetings from the IQPC IT Financial management conference in Sydney. In the question times for several speakers at the conference the issue of how to deal with Apple iPads has come up. The consensus seems to be that there is no identified business use for the iPad, but it is so popular that CIOs will have to plan for its use, otherwise there will be clandestine use, resulting in unplanned expenditure and security problems. What stuck me was that the CIOs were not thinking strategically. Even if they put in place procedures for handling iPads, this strategy will be obsolete by December 2010. By then there will be a flood of Google Android tablet computers. These devices will rapidly overtake the iPad, just as Google Android phones are overtaking the Apple iPhone.

No Low Cost Indian Solar Powered iPad for Students

Vodafone launched the VF 247 solar powered mobile phone handset in India last month. In response, The Green ICT Review, claimed this was part of a trend to solar powered ICT in India. That may be overstating the case, as like anywhere,people in India will use solar power where it is cost effective and convenient to do so.

Apart from a solar panel on the back of the batter pack, the VF 247 is an ordinary 2G mobile phone. There have been after-market battery packs with solar panels built in before. They simply clip in place of the standard battery to make a solar powered phone. But these have not proved popular, as the phone must be left face down in the sun for about an hour a day to keep it charged. There would be few locations where there owner would be willing to leave their phone lying in the sun.

The Green ICT Review also reported the Indian government is pressing for mobile phone cell towers to be converted from diesel to solar power. Solar mobile cell towers make sense (Telstra has used solar cells for telecommunications in the Australian outback for decades). However, until recently this as too expensive for most applications. The cost of the cells are going down, the power needed for a cell tower is reducing and the price of diesel is increasing. But the towers will need large banks of batteries for cloudy days, which increases the capital and maintenance costs.

One application for ICT solar power not mentioned in the article is for business computer users. On a visit to India I noted large banks of lead acid batteries in the Internet cafes to provide for power outages (even a convent had battery backup). The people running these cafes are very aware of cost and technically proficient (as are the nuns). An obvious step is to use a solar panel to charge their backup batteries. As soon as it is cost effective to use solar cells, I am sure they will. However, it must be kep in mind that their are higher priorities than power for phones or computers: people would like reliable lighting for night time.

The Green ICT Review also points out that the Indian Minister for Human Resource Development, Kapil Sibal, announced plans for a Indian touchscreen tablet computer for higher education. This is described as an iPad-type device which could be solar powered. This is claimed to cost £23 when avialable in 2011. while there is discussion of co-development of the device, it is more likely that the minister has in mind to work with a company which will select an existing design from a manufacturer in China, as Kogan has done in Australia with its e-book reader.

There are numerous Linux based tablet computers now being released for around $AU200. A price of $AU40 sounds a little low, even allowing for mass production. I would expect a price of $AU100 to be more likely. As discussed in an interview ("Apple iPad to trigger tablet frenzy as Libretto, BlackPad and Android devices hit market", Byron Vale, The Sunday Mail (Qld),8 August 2010), I have doubts as to the value of a tablet device for students. A netbook with a keyboard, for the same cost, would be more useful.

India has experimented with low cost hand held tablet computers before. The Simputer PDA used open source hardware and Linux. The Mobilis, was essentially a Simputer PDA with a bigger screen and rubber keyboard. Neither was successful as a mass market product, but Encore Software Limited, who make the Mobilis offered the SATHI (Situation Awareness and Tactical Handheld Information): essentially a battlefield version of the Simputer.

Moodle for iPhone and Android

Unfortunately I missed the keynote presentation for Moodle Moot Au 2010 as I was still trying to get my slides to work. So my first session was Mobile Learning
with "Moodle Mobile" by Romain Mallard, Angela Branco Moreno and Cesar Barizon (Digital SK), followed by myself with "Using Moodle for Postgraduate Professional Education with eBooks and Smartphones" (ANU) and "Moodle4iPhone project" by Julian Ridden (Pukunui Technology). All three of us had a similar message: don't build special phone "apps" for Moodle, instead make sure the web features used are compatible with smart phones, including the Apple iPhone and Google Andriod.

Julian talked about the Moodle4iPhones project, which has expanded to now include Android phones as well as iPhones. New code is due shortly. Limiting smart phone development to iPhone and Android seems a reasonable compromise, until there is more HTML5 standard support on smart phones.

Julian pointed out that a link to the Moodle content could be placed on the Apple iPhone front page, so it looks just like an App, without needing to develop an app. One issue the
presentation raised was that it can be assumed there is "Flash" on all devices, except Apple iPhones and iPads. Given that Apple devices are so popular, there will need to be a way to support them. Moodle4iphone uses th clever workaround of replacing the flash video file extension with a mpeg4 one automatically if the user has an Apple iPad or iPhone. This
just requires the content creator to remember to provide a version of their video in both flash and Mpeg 4 formats (should be possible with configure video creation systems to do this automatically). I did wonder if a simpler solution was not to use Flash in the first place.

My takeaway message from this was not to worry about software for mobile devices, just worry about suitable course design for mobile users and assume Moodle will be able to support them. This still raises issues about how a student is likely to use a mobile device in a course compared to a desktop computer. This has implications for course design.

One issue I raised in my presentation and not addressed by the other speakers, was what to do about offline access. An app (or even a printed book) has the advanatge that once you have it you do not need Internet access. As discussed in my presentation HTML5 has an option for off-line access. It should be feasible to easily enable this for mobile and other browsers. HTML5 seems to be progressing much quicker than I was expecting, and, as an example, my conference presentation was done using HTML5, not Powerpoint.

An interesting unrelated comment was that Moodle 2 is taking up a lot of the time of Moodle developers.

Wold first Moodle Moot HTML5 Presentation

Greetings from Moodle Moot Au 2010 at the award-winning Melbourne Convention Centre. My talk on professional e-learning went okay. There were some anxious minutes when in the well equipped (and staffed) speaker's preparation room I found my Slidy based presentation was not compatible with the Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 being used. Instead of carefully crafted web slides, I got a blank blue screen. With a quick update to HTML Slidy, I got this to work. As my web page was using HTML5 (a hot topic at the conference) I am claiming this as a world first for a Moodle Moot presentation. My presentation was in the mobile Moodle session and there seemed to be broad agreement that the way to go was with HTML5 tweaked slightly for Apple iPhone/iPad and Google Android, not using "Apps". More on that in the next post.

By the way during my talk I mentioned how I saw US Marines doing "mobile computing" on a warship: they used gaffer (duct) tape to hold their laptops in place. After the talk I bought a coffee at the convention centre cafe (just to the left as you enter from the main door). As well as coffee, the shop sells items for people setting up exhibition standards., including duct tape, which I took as a good omen.

Using Moodle for Postgraduate Professional Education

The draft notes and slides for my talk "Using Moodle for Postgraduate Professional Education with eBooks and Smartphones" at Moodlemoot AU 2010, in Melbourne on 12 July 2010 are now available. I would welcome comments and corrections.

Please note that I am just an IT practitioner, who runs some courses. I will leave the educational theory to my colleague: Srinivas Chemboli, Lauren Kane and Lynette Johns-Boast, with their presentation: "Translating Learning Outcomes in Moodle".

Apple iPad Lookalike Under $600

With the success of the Apple iPad there are numerous small tablet computers becoming available. There seem to be a range for around $200 and another range around $500. The lower cost units, such as the DreamBook ePad 7/10, have smaller 7 Inch screens and less sophisticated touch sensor screens. The more expensive units, such as the DreamBook ePad A10, have 10 inch screens (like the iPad) and "multi-touch" sensors. Another pint of distinction is that the lower cost units run Windows CE or a version of Linux (usually Google Android) and the larger units are capable of running Microsoft Windows 7). It seems likely that the lower cost units will merge with the upper end of the digital picture frame products, whereas the more expensive units are essentially netbooks without keyboards. At present it is not clear what users will do with these products and so there is likely to be a great range of different devices with different features produced. One I would like to see is a unit with a screen cover which doubles as a thin membrane keyboard, turning the tablet into a netbook.

Smartq V7 Tablet Computer

According to Grant Muir, the prototype $200 7 inch screen tablet computer which was demonstrated by Australian electronics importer Kogan is actually a production model of the Smartq V7 from Smart Devices. Kogan Technologies later explained that their unit will have more advanced features, including a better touchscreen and more memory. This is consistent with Kogan's approach to their Kogan Agora Linux netbook, where they took a generic unit and added more memory and battery capacity than the base model.

iPad-like Tablet Computers for Australian Military

The Australian Department of Defence has ordered touchscreen tablet computers from Elbit Systems for use by troops. The touchscreen computer, used handheld and mounted in vehicles, has a screen about the size of an i-Pad.

... awarded a contract from the Department of Defence of the Commonwealth of Australia in the amount of approximately $298 million U.S. dollars (approximately $ 331 million Australian dollars) for the supply, integration, installation and support of a Battle Group and Below Command, Control and Communications (BGC3) system for the Australian Army’s Land 75/125 program.

The BGC3 comprises a Battle Management System (BMS) for soldiers, Vehicle Mounted Commanders and Headquarters/Command Post Staff.

This project, to be performed over the next three years, will enable the Australian Army to achieve a major portion of its defence network centric warfare milestone of a networked brigade with cutting edge technology in battle management and communications systems.

The capability will increase the commander’s battlespace awareness,
automate combat messaging and assist in the execution of operations.
Importantly, this capability will significantly reduce the risk of casualties
resulting from friendly fire. This high priority acquisition will assure
improved protection and coordination for Australian Defence Forces personnel,
allowing missions to be carried out more efficiently, safely and effectively. ...

From: "Elbit Systems Awarded $298 Million CONTRACT FOR THE SUPPLY OF command, control and communications system FOR THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCES", Elbit Systems Ltd, 15 March 2010