 Hello and welcome let's you've all been sitting down for too long everybody stand up right what I would like you to do is Sit down if you do not own a tablet device or a kindle or some anything with a seven inch screen So sit down if you don't Okay, sit down if you only own that they a kindle or a Sony ebook reader or some other kind of nook or some another kind of thing Sit down if you own only a Google Nexus 7 or other Android tablets to Galaxy Tab and I presume everybody else standing up has an iPad There we go. Okay Welcome to taking the tablets. This is gonna be Almost a quite a personal observation about tablets They're used to enhance and enrich teaching and learning but also where I think we may be going with them, but Just a brief introduction. I'm James clay. I work at Gloucestershire College. We're a large FV college And we have three sites forest of Dean Cheltenham and Gloucester And we're at very the early days of using tablets in many respects But let's just go back and talk about tablets and maybe let's have a little bit of history. So What year was really the tablet invented? Let's have some call outs 72 okay you win the prize. Yeah 1971 now Obviously the iPad came out in 2010 and we've seen other things, but of course if you go back to 1971 we had the diner book probably the first modern tablet if we exclude chalk and black and slates and those kind of things and That was some time ago You know 42 years ago. We were inventing tablets, but of course they did evolve they did change Basically screens got smaller We got styluses and we started using that way We are called the PDA and it if you've been to all 10 years ago and eight years ago You would have seen lots of sessions about PDA's and how they were going to Revolutionized teaching and learning and how they were going to replace Lectures how they were going to replace sessions like this then of course We had things like Newton which enabled us to write on a screen Which of course was going to replace pen and paper and even in this room full of learning Technologists, there are a few people who are still clinging to the pen and paper and then maybe we go forward a few more years The Microsoft tablet putting the desktop into a pen operating system Some of you may even had bought these some of you may still even be using them because we had iPod pads in popular culture Star Trek probably in 1987 started with the next generation They had the pad and you kind of got an idea that Steve Jobs and Johnny. I've maybe watching it, but of course It was 2010 When Steve Jobs stood in a theater like this and said and now for something different and introduce the iPad And I would go back and I remember those times and I thought to myself to be honest This is something that I'm only going to use for playing games and watching video I really couldn't see how it could be used for anything else, especially that's the way it was sold during the Apple Kino So rather than get the work to buy it. I went out and bought my own and To me that was the kind of crunch you know, I couldn't justify it for work. I couldn't justify the the experiences I have to admit I was quite lucky. I won one a month later So I had two so I kept one for home and I took one into work Configured it for the wireless configured it for email and within about two weeks I was totally changed my whole opinion of what these devices could do in the workplace But also then started to think much more about how it could be used for teaching and learning And of course in the last two years we've had kind of other changes You know we talk about other tablets to be honest Google Nexus 7 if someone said to me I want to buy a tablet. I've got less than 200 pounds This may be the device to go for then of course this week what happens? Well last week Amazon said oh Kindle fire and we're gonna make it available in the UK And of course we've got the iPad mini maybe coming up So tablets are changing the the way they're evolving, but also are they that difference from where we've been before? To me the big difference between the iPad and maybe the diner book and PDAs is that it's called mainstream What do I mean by that? It means that your brothers your sisters your parents your uncles Your aunts your grandmothers your grandparents are going out and buying iPads and using them and to me that's Basically, you know we're talking about Apple will probably announce tomorrow that they've sold a hundred million iPads That's a big data set. That's a lot of people who are using iPads So where are we as a community? Where are we as learning technologists? Well, if we look at the use of iPads across the UK and in the US as well a whole spectrum of usage We have people saying fine. I've got a small group of learners. We've got 10 iPads. It's great We've got other places schools giving an iPad to every single learner Virtually every education institution I've been to in the last 12 months has been talking about using when I say the word iPad I am talking about iPads, but we are talking about tablets as well, but have got tablet devices in Classrooms in libraries in work rooms and in the hands of learners So how are they being used in the spectrum? Well the obvious way and I think the way I saw the iPad very much was Very much as a consumption device. This is something that you can watch movies on This is something you can read books on access magazines access content And it still makes me smile when I'm in a meeting or in a situation and someone says what does this mean? What's the definition and I look it up on the iPad and I get accused of cheating and Maybe that's one things we need to start thinking about in terms of the usage of iPads as a consumption device or tablets as a consumption device What they do as with laptops to be honest is they reduce the journey time to information So some of the older people in this room will remember if you wanted to look at old newspapers 40 years ago You would go to a newspaper archive and they would only let in post graduates I wouldn't let anybody else in because these were delicate things 20 years ago if you run undergraduate you had access to microfilm And those of you remember that kind of swinging through it trying to find ten years ago We had newspapers on CD wrong and now from the comfort of my own sofa I can access hundreds of years of digitized newspapers Easily and simply that journey to information has become very short And I think sometimes we forget when we talk about learning that in the past often It was that journey to information which was the learning But now it's shrunk and it shortened and that creates new challenges for people It creates new challenges for learners because that journey is so short and so vast That they cannot actually they cannot deal with just the sheer amount of content and information Even at a conference like this. I'm here. There are people looking at Twitter people who got email They've got their Facebook. They've got other things coming in. They've got other things on their minds And then therefore is teachers and lecturers. We have a responsibility To support learners to deal with that flood of information and to be honest the tablet can be a tool to do that One of the main criticisms against the first iPad was he didn't have a camera It was impossible to do anything with it. It was horrible to type on But the reality is that has changed anyone who's been watching the Olympics will see Hundreds of people going up to people and going oh all this kind of thing holding things around Let's take your photograph with a tablet People are creating movies on there. They're creating audio They're writing They're describing and again. Yes, it's maybe not the best tool to touch type on but maybe we need to rethink The way that we deal with students creating content Does it always have to be written then of course you get a lot of criticism which is like Where do I plug my USB stick into my iPad and you get people saying you shouldn't buy an iPad because you Can't stick a USB stick into it as though the USB stick is like this this God that we need to pray to yes the USB stick It's incredible, but the reality is is that we have moved on But some of us still cling who here's gonna put your hand up if you still got a USB stick More importantly, do you keep is it just got copies of data on or has it got everything on it in terms of I work I got three libraries We collect about three or four USB sticks a day in each library as learners who've left them in and so on terrible things really But the biggest complaint about the iPad is that you can't plug a USB stick into it as though it's a problem But we need to rethink the way our work processes and our workflows and our assignment things that we do to enable People to use these devices these tablets without having to worry about legacy devices such as networks and USB sticks and Of course as I said one of the reasons about the iPad we can talk about it games and stuff is interaction The ability to add an interactivity to a session they add ability add interactivity to a fieldwork that's something you wouldn't be able to do the problem with the PDA and Only one who ever had one will realize was wasn't the fact it wasn't any good It was just you didn't have the connectivity to make the most of it Or you didn't have the battery life And then of course The thing is we're selling lots of these now We all love our iPads and we love it so much that now We're doing the research and the analysis that maybe we should have done ten years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago or even 40 years ago How many people here are doing a pilot or a project with iPads? Please put your hand up Okay, I'd just like you to just stop for a second think and ask yourself why Is it to further, you know knowledge and experience for the human race? Is it because it's something that is really important and no one else has done it before or Is it mainly because it's like ooh shiny? You know is it because you needed an iPad or you wanted an iPad or Is it because you're doing a project? Because the institution doesn't believe in the research that everybody else has done about tablets and mobile devices and Says no, you need to do a project first. You need to do a pilot first before you can do well We do what with it? You know is the end result of your pilot going to be that every learner has a tablet I Would ask why do you need to do a pilot when those pilots have already been done by loads of other institutions? Why do we not learn from the research of others? Why do we not benefit from the work done by others? Why are there are so many iPad pilots? Why yours so different have a chance to reflect on that and that really is I think one of the challenges I can talk about tablets, but actually we could talk about any learning technologies. Why is it now? that research about iPads is so high on the agenda and That's a question. We need to answer when the iPad was released I remember talking to Seb about all see 2010 saying why isn't there a single session at 2010 on iPads Part of it is due to that cycle to be honest this year. I'm running to this year I've got this one and I'm running a session tomorrow and there's been a lot of discussion on the or mailing list about iPads as well So maybe we're coming to that cycle The problem is is that that cycle of research and conversations that we've been having is very long and slow And when you consider in that same time frame 2010 or see not a single mention of iPads at all To now Apple have released three versions. They're going to release a fourth version this autumn They'll release another one next summer by the time we actually come to conclusions that the iPad May be a useful device and we've all come to that conclusion for our own independent little pilots and projects with our own little groups of students actually with Tim on us we would have then moved on and That's part of the problem the timing is wrong we shouldn't be doing the analysis now we should have been doing it some time ago and Be honest what I'd like you to do today or this week is when you go back Don't think about doing another iPad pilot think about the technologies that are gonna be around in five years or ten years time There's what you should be doing your research on that's what you should be doing your pilots on even technology That may be here in 20 years time when it goes mainstream and in terms of things like tablets the research has been done They provide value to learners who like them Full stop job done. This is the time for roll out and if your institution doesn't want to roll them out. That's their choice Another kind of bit of a rant on the kind of tablets is again I when you talk to people say to be honest look stop talking about the technology and start talking about the pedagogy Stop talking about the tech and start talking about the practice and To me that is okay But actually ignore some of the affordances that tablets provide teaching and learning What do I mean by that? Well Even on the mailing list in the last couple of weeks Well, I noticed someone said said what you need to do is look at your current practice and see where the iPad or a tablet fits Into that practice to make it better or easier the kind of enhancement model of teaching and learning And to me that's that's fine, but actually Fails to recognize some of the affordances that these sort of devices can bring to teaching and learning The first of all, I mean I had to be honest I do have my other iPad connected to the projector, but to me this starts to make learning much more mobile We already discovered this through PDAs and other mobile devices And immediately that kind of new way of learning that a new way to access learning is completely different to the current pedagogical models that we have and that's why we need to sometimes take a step back and focus on the tech Before we focus on the pedagogy to be honest, we need to do both So anybody who says don't talk about technology talk about pedagogy is missing the point Technology changes the way that we do things. It always has there are new affordances. Let me give you a simple example the book okay When Gutenberg stopped printing Bibles, he realized if he was gonna make any more money He needed to print something else and he came to the conclusion as a lot of people did at those times to start printing plays Okay. Now anyone who here has read a play? So Malcolm, is it the same experience as going to the theater? No A written play is not the same as a theater experience But books evolved books changed Printing allowed things called newspapers and magazines the kind of like evolution of fiction came about for changing from storytelling So as a result printed evolved and it's gonna be the same with tablets They're going to evolve. They're going to change at the moment. Well, maybe they have evolved already But in the past they've been trying to replicate or duplicate the reason why Microsoft tablet PC failed Was because they had a desktop on a tablet Apple realized that that didn't work And as you can see with the iPad and Android tablets, they've changed the way that people interact with them They're starting to evolve or they have evolved But I really want to kind of look at the future And one of the things That we're going to start to see is that kind of competition and changes Microsoft surface Will it be a revolutionary device that changes everything? I'll leave that one for you to decide But also the iPad mini Cheaper easier and we'll work for some learners easier to carry one of the things I love about the Nexus 7 more than anything else is that it fits in my pocket. Oh, well, maybe on a different jacket But I just want to focus on history back in 2007 Azus, I think that's how you pronounce it or asus as everybody else does released the EPC the netbook and at that time the all mainly list and the conferences were full of people saying netbooks They're gonna change the world. How many people here are using a netbook? One with a seven inch screen. Oh One in the back One person in the back people talk about how netbooks were gonna empower learners We're gonna revolutionize classroom teaching was gonna mean the death of the lecture and a whole range of other things and here we are and no one is using netbooks and I do worry sometimes whether the tablet will go the way of the netbook Same free book readers To me This not the Star Trek, but look at his desk. How many iPads does he have? If you think about a traditional learner, they have a textbook. They have assignments journals handouts loads of bits of paper a Single tablet is not enough Which is why I have two iPads and a Google Nexus 7 Keep taking the tablets Thank you very much