To be or not to be. That is the question. For the iPad 3g that is.

Received my “magical device” this past Friday. Unboxed, loaded, and played. Here are my thoughts.

Overall, I love it. In my humble opinion, not a game changer.

Except possibly with newspapers, magazines, and books. Especially textbooks. Can you imagine school children with one iPad instead of a backpack with 60 pounds of books? With the ability to connect to the internet, define words immediately, create multi-media reports, and on, and on, and on… All untethered. All in one device.

I’m writing this post on the 3g. Not much different than sitting at my desk in front of the laptop. Except it’s on my lap and I’m enjoying a warm early spring day here in the Northeast sitting on my deck (not in direct sunlight, I might add).

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A 21st CENTURY EDUCATION CONUNDRUM

I’m passionate about moving education into the 21^st century; about adequately preparing students for the future they will encounter; about encouraging schools to adopt innovative tools that will engage students in the teaching-learning process; about re-energizing teachers by giving them the OK to break out of our Industrial Revolution mode of teaching.

I do not believe that our country or our educational systems have fully come to grips with the rapidly increasing worldwide competition, especially from China and India, that current students will face when they enter the job market.  Brad Whitehead, President of Fund for Our Economic Future, points out the “Gross mismatch: 80% of the new jobs require post secondary education but only 25% of our population has a college degree.”  How are we preparing students for the next level?  Will they be able to compete against the increasing number of students from foreign nations with college degrees?

The wildly popular YouTube video “Did You Know 3.0” is a must see.

There certainly are a plethora of educators who are moving their institutions forward.

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