Tag Archives: iPad

Ken's iPad Reflection: Programming on the iPad

I reached out for opinions from CS students on using the iPad for schoolwork. The consensus was that there wasn’t really a good way to accomplish most necessary tasks on the tablet, however there was some support for the Surface Pro, a fully functional Windows 8 tablet with a touch screen. I’m actually considering getting one instead of a new MacBook, although I’m not quite convinced about it. It seems like it might excel as a tablet but fall short as a laptop, more research is needed, especially on the keyboard.

There are many mobile and cloud based apps for writing code in different languages, but they typically lack the features and integration you’d want when creating full applications. Services that offer a cloud VM and browser-based IDE like Cloud9 and Koding are beginning to look promising, although they really need native iOS apps in my opinion to be viable on the iPad. Some apps can really be useful for learning the basics of a language, for example a new app Swifty can be used to learn the Apple language Swift on your iPad or iPhone.

In general I think if we’re pushing for iPads on campus there are 2 ways to lessen resistance against it:

  1. Frame the debate in terms of eReader vs. traditional books since it’s definitely a win for portability, cost, and flexibility.
  2. Move to a more optional BYOD model where iPads are offered as a rental, but the student can use their own device. Although I imagine the allure of standardizing on one device is that it’s easier to provide support.

Hello, My Name is Apple

A couple of weeks ago when Apple came to visit our class, I was very excited to really jump into creating content on the iPad. I was disappointed, however, when much of the class was spent on “lecturing” about identity. I was personally taken aback by this as I must have been confused about the reason of their actual visit. It was occasionally disconcerting because of the inevitable Apple advertising.

Eventually we did get into creating some content–that being said, we did not do much creating, ourselves. For me, the most beneficial part of this presentation was the discussion about Keynote. I was surprised at how “perfected” this PowerPoint app really was. I was especially impressed at its ability to create a mock app. As a hyperlink-driven application, I see Keynote acting more as an interactive presentation rather than one say, for an actual keynote or other address. Another app that I would be curious to look at more for actual presentations is Quip. The representatives from Apple did not do a full walk-through, but did mention that it was a very effective app. I hope to eventually explore this one further.

Over all, the effectiveness of Keynote harkens that the iPad be considered further in terms of using it in education. I appreciate the fact that students can create an accessible overview of a project while on the go.

Technically Yours,

R.

P.S. Why yes, yes I did use the word “harkens,” and although Google does not accept it as a modern word and insisted on underlining it with that nasty, squiggly red line, it is the perfect word as it can be read into further.

iPad reflection – Shady

This week, Apple came to visit.  They showed us some advance features of the iPad as well as a couple of productivity apps.  I was most amazed by the capabilities of GarageBand and KeyNote.  We also reviewed iMovie, which I have used in the past and love it.

GarageBand was amazing, you could produce a real music piece on an iPad, with all sorts of instruments, tempo, partitures, etc.

KeyNote is a very powerful presentation tool.  As far as features go, certainly beyond Google Presentations, and easier to use than PowerPoint.  Very impressive.

I enjoyed seeing how far they’ve come with their collaborative suite, similar to Google Docs.  Editing documents and creating drawings, with multiple people at a time, on an iPad, worked great.

A Little Birdy Told Me All About You

Over the couple years that I’ve used Twitter, I have mainly purposed it as a place that could contain quick little witty or funny messages that I would like to share with my friends. I also used it briefly (but successfully) as a marketing tool for when I worked for an online news company. I learned the power of the #hashtag; with it, I could direct my message to particular people around the world that might be searching for what I’m talking about. After leaving the news company, I continued to try to be smart about how I tagged things. Often, the humor is in the hashtag. I began to form part of my online identity toward the idea of having “followers.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I believe that it definitely has changed the way I go about my own personal marketing.

 

 

Also, after doing my first video, I wanted to try my hand at iMovie for iOS again. Here’s some footage from a recent trip to NYC to see Swiss Sound Artist Zimoun’s installations.

iPad Reflexion – Shady

Using the iPad to create a movie using the iMovie app was such a great experience.  I had used it before on a Mac, but never on an iPad.  It was easy to use, and loved the experience.

It was great having Apple in the class this week, their contribution and tips certainly made this a much easier experience.

I continue to be amazed at the possibilities of creating really good quality videos just using this device.  It does the sound, video capture, editing, and publishing.  To some extent, and when looking at these features and apps, one could argue, an iPad is really cheap for what it can offer.

Identifying Frustration

 

When I started working on this project I found that creating a movie with the mobile iMovie app was fairly simple. Of course there are things that I do not know how to do, but for the most part everything was straightforward. I have one issue however: I made my video (purposefully very simple), but each time I saved it the audio was messed up. For the first portion of my video I had two audio tracks playing at two different tempi. This only happened after saving…not before. After spending a couple hours on this, the best solution was to delete that entire portion of the video and start from scratch. Luckily, I was able to get it edited back down to the two-minute time limit with not much trouble!

Will I continue using the iMovie app for the iPad? Probably not, but as a student in the media arts, I have had the opportunity and access to learn professional grade software–at this point, I just choose to make videos that require a bit more precision than an app can give me. That being said, I found iMovie for iOS to quite fluid (as much as Apple can be with directory routing information) and think it is a great opportunity to get into video making or make quick and [attempted] easy videos like this.

Thoughts On Identity – Chris

My name is Chris and these are my thoughts.

http://youtu.be/YG57O59IwXw

I made this video using only the iPad and iMovie. It took my a little longer then I’d like to admit to figure out how to split video clips but once I figured it out it was easy. I have used iMovie on my Macbook Pro, so the software is not foreign to me but as seen above creating what I consider great content is a challenge. In hindsight I should have used the case as a stand and recorded from a desk. It was a fun experience regardless.