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).

When using home Wi-Fi the iPad is ultra fast. Tried the 3g connection from AT&T. Easy sign-up and just as fast. So fast that the lack of multi-tasking is not as bad as might be expected.

Using NewsRack as the RSS feed app. This is where the iPad excels in comparison to a Smartphone. Readability. So much easier and quicker.

Using the app Pages to write this piece. Too many posts about issues with Numbers and Keynote. Mostly because of lack of reliable transfer features with Microsoft equivalents. Let’s face it. Many of us love Apple products. But we are in a PC world. Can’t we all just get along?

Twitterrific and TweetDeck already have iPad maximized apps. Still waiting on Facebook and Linkedin. iPhone apps work on the iPad but are the same size as the iPhone screen. You can increase the size but the app becomes slightly pixilated. Not unusable. But annoying.

Only a few magazines available right now. Time magazine for example. Excellent experience on the iPad. But, terribly overpriced. However, in the marketing world we live in, publishers know that early adopters will pay more. I don’t expect it will be long before prices come down and subscriptions become available. It’s all about the advertising in the mags. More subscribers mean more advertisers who have potential customers just one click away.

Rented a movie from the iTunes store. Up In the Air. (I used to travel a lot. Friends who still do informed that it’s a must see for frequent flyers.) Great resolution. No playback issues. And, for music lovers, the speakers are surprisingly good.

I believe that in the coming weeks and months iPad apps will proliferate. And, I’d bet there will be a goodly number that will be winners.

That’s about it for now. Need to play more.

Let me know your thoughts.

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.

Antonio Viva challenged his students at Worcester Academy (Worcester, MA) to “write for the world.”  He began by having them integrate writing, videos, photos, blogs, and tweets on a blog page.  It quickly gained a national and international following and is now called WAMash and includes additional members of the Worcester Academy community.  What happens to students’ writing when they know that it will be read by hundreds or even thousands from around the world?

Eric Sheninger, principal at New Milford High School in New Jersey, actively tweets about education in the 21^st century.  Check out his list of bookmarks on Delicious for New Milford (or other schools) teachers use.  Watch WCBS-TV’s story on New Milford’s students using Twitter in school.

Can you imagine a classroom full of eager students “skyping” questions to the author of a recently read book, a researcher at the state university, or their pen-pals from China?  Think about it.  To whom would you rather ask questions?  The author or your teacher?  The researcher or your teacher?  The native speaker or your teacher?  For examples, read 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom.

I invite you to share your examples of innovative educational initiatives.

And, more important:  How do we move academia forward?  What’s needed?  Who needs to get involved?

What are your thoughts?