The Water Cooler

In a previous post titled “Computing Among the Clouds”  I painted a picture of how personal computing might look like in the future.  I have also alluded to the tremendous opportunities that Apple was wasting by not delivering a tablet computer in another previous post. Well, so begins the days of the iPad. These devices are pretty close to what I was envisioning as a “window” to the cloud, with a few exceptions.

I’ve been test driving an iPad for teaching and educational uses and I must say that it is marvelously well designed device. It’s more mobile than any tablet computer I’ve seen thus far and as an iPhone owner, I found it incredibly easy to get going.  It works well as a reader and is a great device for consuming media. As applications are launched and the price of the iPad drops and competitors enter the market, a new revolution of computing will begin. But, this does not mark the end of the laptop computer.

The iPad is great, but I think it could be so much better. I have a Macbook, HP Tablet PC, a desktop PC and iPhone. The iPad wouldn’t really replace any of those devices. Yes, I have really enjoyed my iPad user experience and because of this I considered replacing my old Macbook with one, until I begin trying to generate content. The lack of web cam is certainly noticeable. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use Skype with an iPad or create a small home movie and instantly share it with friends and family? Also, the form factor is just a little too big for typing one handed and I can’t rest my hands on the virtual keyboard to touch type. While you can buy a keyboard for one, it constricts you to portrait mode. Even if you used a wireless keyboard, the iPad is still chained to iTunes and the computing experience is very closed down compared to my trusty Macbook or convertible Tablet.  This is quite frustrating and goes against the democratic openness ideology that the Internet and Web 2.0 has engendered. Web browsing is limited without flash and the applications I can install are dictated by Apple.  I like Apple and all the innovations and amazing user experiences it creates, but this has come with the cost of ownership control.  There is a reason why freeing an iPhone or iPad from these restrictions is known as “jailbreaking.”  One can only hope that a legitimate competitor will help push for a change in these policies.

The buzz around the HP slate and the possibilities of a Google tablet is proof that this form factor could become mainstream. However, for slate tablets to really reach its potential, I think they need to replace one or more of the devices we use every day.  How great would it be if I could just dock my iPad like device and have it replicate a laptop experience with all the freedom to use and install the applications I need to be productive, be entertained, and create content. All of this could be done on a minimized machine with the data in the cloud. This would help prevent data loss should the machine get stepped on. This is the vision I had in “Computing Among the Clouds” I think the iPad is one step closer as it is the best device I’ve seen yet for consuming content. Hopefully healthy market competition will help drive innovation closer to this realization.

The learning management system (LMS), also known as a Course Management System (CMS) has been used for several years by instructors to augment face to face teaching with online content and to teach completely online courses. These systems, such as Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, and Sakai have all been designed to offer instructors a feature rich closed-in virtual environment for teaching and learning. However, since the boom of web 2.0 applications, these features have lost some of their luster. To many tech savvy instructors, the LMS is boxy, and sometimes inflexible. Development of cool new LMS teaching tools is slow compared to Web 2.0 applications. These issues have caused many instructional technologists and savvy instructors to believe that the LMS is going out of style, and will be replaced by feature rich web 2.0 applications used from a central class portal page.

Cool web 2.0 applications that could be used for teaching and learning include using Voice Thread for digital storytelling, dropping content in drop.io to be podcasted or embedded elsewhere, Meebo for virtual office hours, RSS aggregation for organizing and bringing in timely news articles and of course YouTube videos. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and it seems as though new web 2.0 applications seem to pop up every day.  These exciting tools are not usually found integrated with the LMS.

Some believe that an LMS will be replaced by a combined communication tool such as Google Wave. Google wave is supposed to combine synchronized chat and IM with asynchronous discussions and email conversations all in one easy to visualize communication tool. Customized social networks and web portals such as NING also can fill the role of the LMS. Both of these tools would have lots of potential for facilitating online classes and providing a rich virtual learning environment, but could it really take the place of the LMS?

Web 2.0 has the advantage over the standard LMS because it has a nearly endless toolbox for educators to find the right tool for the lesson or activity. Also, these tools are not constrained to educational uses. They can be used after graduation and possibly in whatever career path the student chooses. Unless the student is interested in a career in education, they are not as likely to encounter an LMS again. Using web 2.0 tools such as blogs and social networks, one could bring in guests to the classroom to get ideas and opinions from people in the field. Behind the firewall of an LMS, it is more difficult to do this.

But let’s not judge the LMS too unfairly; it does have some redeeming qualities. First and foremost, many LMSes are designed specifically for a course. They are modeled around a typical classroom and have the tools already in the box for someone to get started. The LMS is contained and FERPA compliant. It is a secure system that is behind a secure login and it is possibly hosted onsite. Activities inside the LMS are constrained to the class roster, keeping content that could possibly offend or infringe on others and their works behind a closed door.

Perhaps we are not yet ready to give up the confines of the LMS. The security and the scaffolding afforded by it allow instructors to create assignments and provide timely feedback for students in a closed system. However, the system isn’t and shouldn’t be completely closed. Many of the Web 2.0 tools listed above can be used in conjunction with the LMS and are often best when done so. The LMS can serve as a portal to any other learning tools that bring a pedagogical benefit with them. These tools are of course going to vary by discipline. The best of both worlds allows for the rigidness of the LMS with the flexibility of Web 2.0. Projects like the Google – Moodle integration are a great example of how combining tools may afford teaching and learning gains in the future.

Thus far all the rumors have been false that Mac was developing a tablet. Apple may be developing one this very minute, and if they aren’t they should be and here’s 5 reasons why a Mac Tablet would be a good idea from someone who supports both Macs and a Tablet PCs and uses both.

1. Tablets are taking away Apple’s Lead in the education realm because of their versatility in the classroom.

Many of the educators I work with are Mac users. They love their Mac and I don’t blame them. When we started introducing tablets, some of these folks were excited about using a tablet because it offered new possibilities for teaching and learning. Instructors could write on the screen during class, with DyKnow software these notes could be “beamed” to the students screens where they could take notes. All of the digital ink can be saved and no paper is used. A few people have tried to do this using a wacom tablet as one blogger professes as being a better option. Those who chose this path in order to keep using their Mac in the classroom usually end up frustrated due to the fact that they can’t see what they are writing on the plane they are writing it on. Therefore, my Mac user friends must use a second machine, a Tablet PC, for classroom use. If this is occurring at every other university or school experimenting with tablets, then this is a huge one up for Microsoft and a market loss for Apple for not accommodating their beloved Mac users with a tablet.

2. Many Graphic Artists area already using a Wacom tablet to try to do their work

I alluded to this above, I’ve used a Wacom for graphic design before and found it better than a mouse for lassoing and drawing, it is still inconvenient to not see what you are drawing on the plane in which you are drawing it. A tablet can fold over to allow the user to write directly on the screen. While you hand does hide some of the screen as you write, it usually doesn’t cause an issue as you can set the menus to come up on the side your hand is not on. When you write on a piece of paper, are you concerned about the part of the page you can’t see? When it comes to digital ink, a Tablet PC is definitely better than a wacom tablet, though I believe a Mac Tablet would be even better still if it were ever to come to fruition.

3. Tablets need a “rock solid” operating system that just works

Many of the quirks in Windows frustrate me on a daily basis. When at home using my Mac, I feel a sense of relief that my computer just works. No annoying unexpected pop ups, forced updates and restarts when I’m working on a big project.  My mac allows for an easy way to organize all my tasks in spaces. Unfortunately the time I get to use the Mac is limited as my wife who was reluctant to switch to a Mac in the first place, has hereby claimed it for her teaching!

Mac OS X for the most part is rock solid because it is designed for the components that make up Apple’s computers. Windows computers cannot ever achieve this performance level because of the fact that there are thousands of different components windows has to work with. Furthermore, Tablet PCs add on a lot of new components that all must be supported in addition to the normal fray. If these were included in the Apple’s line up, Apple could support the tablet components such as the screen digitizer and pen options better than Windows because they are only dealing with one type of digitizer and a handful of hardware configurations. This solidarity of the tablet operating system will draw those Mac and Tablet PC users away from the PC very quickly and could pull a few more new Mac users with them.

4. The existence of the mod-book indicates a market exists

An innocent victim if Apple were to come out with a tablet would be Axiotron who makes the Modbook (a Macbook modified into a tablet). The fact that the Modbook exists at all is a sign that a market exists for a Mac tablet. If the modbook was officially made by apple, it would be much more feature rich and useful than just a modified aftermarket Machine.

5. Many of the handwriting components for Mac already exist

While the number of applications that exist for a Mac tablet are currently few, Apple does have some handwriting recognition capabilities already. Also, if a few applications were to be created such as Microsoft OneNote (part of the Microsoft Office line for PC) and PDF Annotator then users would be able to do some real work with their Mac tablet right away without having to wait for expensive software to be developed. Perhaps this is the biggest hold up for Apple’s tablet, maybe they believe that without the applications, a Mac tablet isn’t very useful.

No I don’t mean booting your laptop when you’re en route to JFK or O’hare, I mean computing using web 2.0+ programs that have become more prevalent in our daily lives.  Combine this with the recent popular movement to compact portable underpowered devices used specifically for accessing the web.  Specifically, iPhones, Blackberry’s netbooks, compact tablets ect.   There is a real push to put data back onto the sever.  In a cloud computing world, very little content will be ran on the client pc.  Let’s face it, data on the client is dangerous.  Hard drives fail, computers get a virus or can be lost or stolen and files are often only accessible from that machine.  Also, files on client machines are hard to share with a team of authors.  These are all problems that cloud computing solves.  Files that are on the web can be shared with others and are backed up regularly.  They are not specific to one client machine and therefore the file is much safer from being lost by a client computer problem.  Google docs, Zoho, and others are already offering successful cloud computing productivity solutions that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more that all are saved on the web and sharable for collaborative authoring.  The quality of these solutions is now beginning to rival professional client side options such as Microsoft Office or Open Office.  The drive toward cloud computing has caught Microsoft’s attention as they are now looking into integrating a cloud computing solution into future Microsoft Office projects.   

Also, with mobile computing options ever growing, people can use a device to access the cloud on the go instead of at their desktop.  With the cloud, one could take their office with them anywhere they want to.  The blackberry addiction that occurred recently before the iPhone took off, is an indicator of how people can become chained to the work even when away from their desks.  Now we can be productive while waiting in line to buy tickets to a movie, while we wait to get a table at our favorite restaurant, or even while we wait for our car’s oil to be changed.   Now, applications that connect to the cloud can allow us to do things with these mobile devices that even a desktop can’t do.  Examples include GPS specific searches, finding the artist and name of the song playing on the radio, and many more that are being developed all the time.

The risks:

Like every solution, new problems can often arise in place of those that were solved.  In a cloud computing world, data must be safeguarded.  The main way this is managed currently is through passwords and security questions.  Like most of you, I have nearly a dozen passwords that I often forget, and I feel uncomfortable choosing a canned security question that anyone who stalks me could figure out.  Therefore, for cloud computing to be the norm, we must find a better way.  We’ve all heard the risks of moving toward biometrics, but this could be part of the solution.  Perhaps if we had one central authentication system that was secure and could plug into different web applications, we could pull off a complete cloud computing system.  However, such a system will always be a security risk. 

Finally, with data in the cloud, can we ever be complete sure it is ours?  If it is on a server somewhere, can someone else access it and take our ideas?  These sorts of conspiracy theories definitely have some merit.  Do you feel comfortable having your personal diary in a place where everyone can see it?  Some might, but a good handful of people would prefer to keep it on their client computer even if it was password protected somewhere in the clouds.

The movement toward cloud computing has already begun.  This is why Microsoft is bleeding programmers and Google is growing.  However, until we mitigate the risks, cloud computing will remain, well where it currently is, out there in there in the clouds.