This post is part of the #JuneEdTechChallenge series.
Shiny gadgets I like…
It’s the iPad!
There are similarities in this day to Day 4: My favourite piece of kit for that day I said it was my iMac.
I use to post regularly every year a top ten of the technologies that helped me to do my job. The last one I did was for 2016, and my top technology was my iPhone, the iPad was in eighth place back then.
However we are talking shiny here and the iPad I think is one of those shiny gadgets that had a real impact on society, detect and education.
The tablet as a form factor isn’t that new, the Dynabook back in 1973 (complete with ebooks) was a concept which didn’t really connect.
In 2004 I had an HP Tablet (which were popular in hospitals) that used the Microsoft Tablet PC version of Windows. I did like the form factor, the pen input, just that the battery life was poor (a few hours) and the OS wasn’t really designed well for the way I wanted to use the tablet. This was the kind of device I wanted to use on the go, all day at a conference and on the train. However with a battery life of a few hours it wouldn’t even last the trip to London on the train; back then the trains I travelled on didn’t have power sockets!
When I first heard about Apple releasing the iPad my initial thoughts was that this was very much a consumer device. So much so I ordered one for me and didn’t get one through work. My iPad arrived on the day of release and I really liked it. A few weeks late I won an iPad in a prize draw. I did think about selling it, but in the end decided to use it as a work iPad, I didn’t think it would be that useful. Well I was wrong on that count, it was an incredible productivity device and changed very much my working patterns and the way I communicated and collaborated. I found it really useful for events and conferences.
I still use the iPad very much in the same way now as I did back then.
It is my favourite shiny gadget.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).