Getting iPad Mini ready for T-Mobile LTE | John Painter | iPhone Life

If you're interested in using T-Mobile in your iPad or iPad Mini take a look at my iPhone Life blog;
Getting iPad Mini ready for T-Mobile LTE | John Painter | iPhone Life

Big time with the iPad Mini

After much thought I decided to donate my iPad 2 to my wife, hold my breath, and jump in the deep end with just an iPad Mini.

I am doing everything with the Mini I did with the full size iPad but with substantial weight reduction - who could imagine ever thinking the iPad is bulky?!? Well that's my experience and I am spoiled horribly now with my new expectations for weight, size, computing power and cellular data speed.  Anyone who has taken my class knows I use my iPads at home, and work, and I use them hard.

So whats the iPad Mini like in a work environment?  At first I was a bit nervous the battery wouldn't last, its so lite I just didn't think it could be used hard all day.  It does.  My next concern was the screen size for both typing and reading electronic medical records (I work in behavioral health) using a VPN connection to log into the electronic medical record at work to do my clinical notes, I was doing this with my iPad 2, but I was uncertain whether the Mini might be too small. It isn't.

So far, I have not been disappointed with the Mini, it is every bit as robust as the full size iPad.  I can't say the same for Apples so called "Smart Cover"  it's going back to the store since it is horrible, and at $40 simply is not worth it.  I'll take more time looking for a suitable cover or case.

So why did I move to the iPad Mini in the first place? I still use an iMac and Mac Mini to do all my heavy duty computing at home, and at work we already use a server based thin client network.  I really wanted to keep reducing the redundancy of things I carry and the overall cost for my mobile devices (yes that means I'm give up my iPhone 4, more on how in my next post) while not sacrificing mobile computing power.

So far my efforts are paying off, and if you plan to sign up for my next iPad class, along with covering the basics, I'll be showing you some more advanced functions which might make your life and work a bit easer.

A fitting movie for Halloween, and because it was shot using an iPhone fitting for this blog, and winner of this years Disposable Film Festival - Please enjoy Les Ongles (The Nails).

Les Ongles (The Nails) from Disposable Film Festival on Vimeo.

Thank you all for another great iPad class!  You all have the necessary core skills to go out do the things you'd like to do with your iPads, and when you get stumped have some strategies for working things out.

I did want to call further attention to the observed impact of iPads in Auburns school system, and while I think there is still more needed research on how iPads can aid in learning, the initial results of assessment are very encouraging, you can read about here.

What I think is happening at least in early education, as we explored a bit in class, is that the iPad is not as Steve Jobs suggested a "magical device".  Rather it is a tool for delivering very focused information which becomes foundational knowledge in a customizable format young learners find enjoyable and is thus positively reinforced.  This is a best case scenario for helping young learners master the basics, it's not every day children elect on their own to do the repetition necessary to commit core information to memory.  The iPad helps to make the task of learning more palitable through gamification, it does not eliminate the work a learner must do.

 Whether the use of the iPad might allow for later development of critical thinking skills is yet to be determined, and something I hope at some point, you as adult learners might offer your thoughts on.  This is an area I am very interested in, and hope over time you keep in touch.

Thank you for a great class.
John

Hopefully you're following the news, but if not there was more encouraging information coming from. auburn schools about the efficacy of iPads in education, you can read the Sun Journal article here.  I thought the article was a fitting and hopeful write up about one of the ways iPads can be used.  I hope to hear some more tonight and on going about what you're learning and doing with iPads down the road.

This is our last class tonight though by no means the end of your learning.  I hope that you have a project you'd be willing to share, if not then maybe you'll try one of Smule's free apps for the piano or, in this case rapping and maybe try your hand at making a rap song.
Click here for LAE iPad rap

See you in class.

The class continues to progress and last weeks review of more advanced settings should allow you to have more control of your iPads.

Tonight we are going to look at some of the potential social implications ethical considerations of the rapid rise of mobile technology such as iPads.  For teachers and parents in particular we will be discussing the phenomenon of "iSolation" and ways we might constructively look at it.

As for the class homework assignment, I thought you might want to see something very creative which involves modern dance developed by 2wice Arts  most of their work requires a purchase, but just Fifth Wall is just .99 and might give you some ideas.

Or you might like this video?

I think I have my blog problems worked out, so you should now be able to see the links to the presentations from the past two classes and tonights.  Class 4.  Class 5.  Class 6. 

I three good questions about iPads emailed to me from the class I wanted to respond to. 

"Can I download and save files with the iPad like I can with my windows laptop? If so, where are the files saved? Also can I search the iPad for a file?"

You can not "download" anything to iPad's, iPhone's or iPod Touches quite like you can on computers.  You can download from inside certain apps, iTunes is an obvious one that allows you to download music, video, etc.  You can also tap and hold on some things from inside Safari, such as an image from the web and save it to Photos.  In both of these cases you will be able to find what you've downloaded from within the specific app.  However another way you can find things, say a song, on your iPad is to swipe from left to right on your devices screen until you see the "search iPad" feature at the top your screen.  It will look like this.

And just in case any of you are wondering how I get these KeyNote presentations onto the blog, they are done on my iPad but I then need to convert them to a PDF file, download to my computer then upload to Google Drive, copy the link from Google Drive and paste it into Blogger.  Until very recently it was possible to do everything on the iPad - then Apple changed the ability to create links to individual files in iCloud and I moved everything to Google Drive. Then Blogger changed it's formatting, changing how I write the blogs.  Now that I think I have this all figured out, it might be interesting for you to know, in case you want to create your own blog.