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Christopher Dawson
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Apple tablet in the spring, for sure? Whatever...

By | December 9, 2009, 9:56pm PST

For a little while, I was excited about the prospect of an Apple tablet. No matter how big a fan I am of Ubuntu, I can’t deny that Apple has nailed a lot of usability and interface issues. From an educational perspective, if the price was right, it’s not much of a stretch to see these as great 1:1 devices, assuming there was content to go with them.

Then time went by and the rumors would fly every month or so. In the meantime, Intel and its partners are developing all sorts of touch-enabled software on Windows and Linux for Classmates and upcoming MIDs, although educational content is still a bit scarce. Android is everywhere, e-readers are cropping up left and right, and even the JooJoo is making some waves, if not terribly good impressions.

My point? Touch is going to be evereywhere in 2010 and the latest predictions for a spring release of the fabled tablet do nothing to excite me. Not even my very geekiest core, let alone the educator in me. Even Dell has a touch screen option on their Latitude 2100 educational netbook. And a smartphone without touch just really isn’t that smart anymore, is it?

The tablet, if it ever materializes, may end up being the coolest thing since sliced bread. However, there will be plenty of cool devices already on the market or coming to market in 2010 that will serve students (if not high end consumers) as well or better. If an Apple tablet had actually been released in the fall with aggressive educational pricing (and a publisher or two already bringing content optimized for the device), then it might have been a game changer. However, Android, Chrome OS, and even Windows 7 with its full touch support make the latest Apple tablet rumors one more thing that will just put this very tired new dad to sleep.

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Topics

Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Linux, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Operating Systems, Software, Christopher Dawson

Chris Dawson is a freelance writer and consultant with years of experience in educational technology and web-based systems. In 2011, he became the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network SaaS provider.

Disclosure

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson is the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., by day and a freelance writer and educational technology consultant by night. Well, most of his colleagues at WizIQ are based in India, so really he's working with them whenever he can stay awake. He has worked for his local school district as a teacher and technology director, for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, and for Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.). He has also consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation and retains close ties with X2 Development Corporation (now owned by Follett Software, the supplier of the student information system he administered for several years). Follett is paying him a monthly honorarium to act as a presenter for their "SIS Voices for Student Achievement" community (he produces occasional blog posts and hosts a monthly webinar on the use of student information systems to inform data-driven instruction and school-wide change. He regularly purchases and/or recommends Dell hardware. This is because Dell makes good hardware and has truly committed itself to education in innovative ways, particularly with their "Connected Classroom" initiative. It isn't because he has dealings with the company through his role at WizIQ (which he does) or because they have provided him with long-term loans of a variety of equipment for in-depth testing (which they have). Intel (reference designer for the Classmate PCs he has implemented in his local schools) has provided him with long-term loans of Classmate PCs for testing, as have Dell and Lenovo with their educational offerings. He may report on any of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no direct financial compensation from these companies or any others. Intel paid all expenses for his attendance at the 2009 Intel Classmate PC Ecosystem Summit which he attended as the sole representative of the technology press. He was invited to attend in 2010 but his wife would have killed him if he spent 3 days in Vegas geeking out and left her home alone with a new baby. Acer provided him with a 50% discount on an Aspire One netbook in early 2009 after he tested it for 30 days through their educational seed program. He liked the netbook at the time but it has since broken and sits unused in his office. Canonical sent him Ubuntu lanyards, t-shirts, and mousepads for his kids. He stole one of the lanyards and proudly hangs his keys from it and occasionally features his 8-year old wearing an oversized Ubuntu t-shirt on his Facebook profile. Gunnar Optiks sent him a pair of computer glasses to evaluate for a holiday gift guide. He is wearing them now as he types this because they never asked for them back and they rock out loud. Seriously - they work brilliantly and make it much easier to spend 20 hours a day staring at an LCD. If they ever asked for them back, he would fork over the $99 and buy a pair. Microsoft gave him 2 free copies of Office 2010 professional, a desktop clock, and a useless book on Office 2010 when he attended the launch of Office/Sharepoint 2010. He occasionally uses the SharePoint lanyard they gave him instead of the Ubuntu lanyard for his keys, but feels dirty afterwards. Adobe provided him with a pre-release version of the CS5 Master Collection for evaluation and ultimately provided a full, licensed copy for ongoing testing of educational applications of this admittedly expensive software. Like the Gunnars, if the license expires or they come out with CS6, he'd actually go out and buy it himself. Which is saying something, because he's actually pretty cheap. Any other companies wishing to send him cool things to evaluate, wear, or otherwise adorn his kids are more than welcome to; he promises to disclose it here if he keeps any of the stuff. Finally, because WizIQ is a virtual classroom and learning network provider, Chris, as VP of Marketing, frequently interacts with, seeks out deals with, and directly or indirectly competes with a whole lot of LMS, SIS, and other Education 2.0 companies. In general, he'll limit his reporting about these companies to news that does not impact his relationship with them or with WizIQ. If he reports on them, it's because what they are doing is newsworthy or worth the attention of his readers and not because he's trying to broker some deal, damage competition, or otherwise advance his position in his day job. LMS and SIS companies, along with other online learning communities, are a pretty important part of Ed Tech. If he stops reporting on them completely, there won't be a whole lot left. He'll be sure to call out any overt conflicts of interest if they are unavoidable. Finally, Follett Software Company pays him a little tiny honorarium every month to present on their SIS Voices webinars and to write the occasional blog or discussion thread for them. Since Follett recently bought X2 (maker of an awesome web-based SIS that Chris just happened to have used, served in advisory groups for, and frequently reported on), this is probably also worth disclosing.

Biography

Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling. This focus led him to several positions at Johns Hopkins, a couple-year stint in private industry, teaching high school math and technology, and 2 years as the technology director for his local school district. Most recently, he started his own consulting business and is now the Vice President of Marketing for WizIQ, Inc., a virtual classroom and learning network provider. He lives with his wife, five kids (yes, 5), 2 dogs, and a hateful cat in a small town in north-central Massachusetts. Although he is no longer teaching, his roles with WizIQ and ZDNet allow him to continue helping students and teachers add value to education with technology rather than merely adding to the bottom line.
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I am tired of the "Google"
jorjitop 16th Dec 2009
I understand how you can be suckered in by all the free products and services offered by Google. But, you know that Google is building a database on you and all your students. And, you have no idea how that database might be used in the future.

As a teacher you have a resposibility to teach your students about the importance of privacy. Identity theft is terrible enough, but it is trivial relative to some of the things this information could be used for, one day.

Enough with Google, Google docs, Chrome, Android, and all the myriad other forms of spyware that Google is managing to foist on an, apparently, innocent public. Your job is to protect the innocent.
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0 Votes
+ -
I'm Tired of the "Tablet"
clindhartsen 9th Dec 2009
To be honest, I am sick and tired of the tech news and blog sites talking non-stop about the supposed tablet that Apple will release ... eventually.

Tablets have long existed on the Windows side, and all of a sudden everyone things Apple can make this all work? How many Apple computers do you really see used, especially when you get out of the high-flying San Fran and New York areas?

If we can hear nothing, and I mean nothing, about tablet rumors for two months, I'd be happy and wouldn't ask for anything for Christmas.

Knowing Apple, it will be three things: Miss half the features other things have, price point will be out of reach of a typical person, and the tech media will flaunt over the creation like it's the second coming of the messiah
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RE:I'm Tired of the "Tablet"
timiteh 10th Dec 2009
Amen to this !
0 Votes
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Knowing Apple
DeusExMachina 12th Dec 2009
"Knowing Apple, it will be three things: Miss half the features other
things have, price point will be out of reach of a typical person, and
the tech media will flaunt over the creation like it's the second coming
of the messiah"

Yeah, everyone keeps saying this, as if they are providing some
insightful, original perspective to the discussion instead of rehashing
the same tired argument everyone has been making about Apple for
decades.

And yet Apple continues to prove you wrong. It would be bad enough
if this perspective were valid, in which case your repetition of it as
some groundbreaking news flash would simply be annoying. As it is,
it is just foolhardy.
Missing half the features? Really? Please delineate those features
missing from the original iPod compared to it's competition at the
time, such as the various incarnations of the Creative MP3 players. Try
comparing feature for feature the Touch.

As for price point being out of reach of the typical person, considering
the market dominance of the iPod, I wonder exactly whom you mean
by the "typical person."
The same can be said, to a lesser extent, re: the iPhone.

And as for the tech media "flaunting" over it, first, you might want to
look up the word flaunt, as it appears you don't know what the word
means, and second, maybe you might want to consider that they know
more that you.
0 Votes
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RE: Apple tablet in the spring, for sure? Whatever...
timiteh Updated - 10th Dec 2009
Well, if you are looking for a tablet for education you should consider devices such as the EeePC T91 (http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/07/swiveling-asus-eee-pc-t91-does-multitouch-in-windows-7/ , http://www.engadget.com/tag/T91) loaded upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium.
Even if you include the cost of the upgrade, you will still have a Tablet PC which could also be used as fully functionnal ultraportable , all this for a lower price and more potential than the rumored Apple Tablet.
0 Votes
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All fine and dandy...
Sean1964 10th Dec 2009
Then why the article?

Don't try to fool yourself. You know damn well you are very much
interested in Apple's Tablet. If all the available tablets out there are so
great, why so few articles and so little buzz on them? Because everyone
knows Apple's offering will rewrite the books on how it's done...... That's
why.

Anyone not interested in Apple's tablet is choosing to ignore the
evolution of computing. And that makes one ignorant.
0 Votes
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THANK YOU
DeusExMachina 12th Dec 2009
Finally a word of truth!

(and for the record, I am not particularly interested in buying a tablet,
but the shrill, B.S. sour grapes on the anti-Apple side, is getting
ludicrous.)
0 Votes
+ -
I am tired of the "Google"
jorjitop 16th Dec 2009
I understand how you can be suckered in by all the free products and services offered by Google. But, you know that Google is building a database on you and all your students. And, you have no idea how that database might be used in the future.

As a teacher you have a resposibility to teach your students about the importance of privacy. Identity theft is terrible enough, but it is trivial relative to some of the things this information could be used for, one day.

Enough with Google, Google docs, Chrome, Android, and all the myriad other forms of spyware that Google is managing to foist on an, apparently, innocent public. Your job is to protect the innocent.

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