Ed Tech Review » iPhone

Apples iPad-Where does it fit?

MrYardley — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:54:04 +0000

With the announcement of Apples new iPad devise there is a lot of skepticism among the tech analysts on whether or not this devise really has a market. I personally am glad to see Apple’s judgment get questioned by the fan-boy media, however in this case I thing Apple has the potential to hit a home run. For me personally it answers a big need. I currently have an iPod Touch with a fair amount of money and time invested in apps for it. I am also in the market for a phone. So I should just get an iPhone and transfer all of that over, right? Wrong, AT&T has no coverage for my area. Besides that I no longer believe that the iPhone is the toughest kid on the block in the cell phone arena. Android based systems will quickly overtake the iPhones momentum, because they are open for developers, and open to all carriers. The iPad is the perfect answer for my problem, because the apps I use the most will still be available and even more useful on the iPad, and can easily switch to an android based mobile phone without giving up my Apps, or having to carry two pocket sized devises.
The implications on schools could be tremendous, if Apple can refocus it’s efforts on in the education market, and get a little more competitive pricing. This is a perfect student device because students can type, communicate, and have textbooks all in one relatively affordable device. There would be a need to disable some options such as itunes store, appstore, and there would need to be an easy method to image devices for a whole classroom. Whether Apple will work with these things and make it possible remains a question. If Apple doesn’t there will likely be a similar device that will soon. Either way Apple has created a class of devise that will eventually revolutionize our classrooms. The days of each student having a computer devise are not too far away.

Bento 2 upgrade policy

MrYardley — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:33:58 +0000

I have been using Filemaker’s Bento for a few months now and it has worked well for me. I purchased it for $49 and although I don’t think it is worth more I was happy with the purchase. It is basically a dumbed down easy to use Database application that tightly integrates with Mac OSX applications. Because it does not have Professional Database capabilities it does not have a Professional Database price. 48 Days after my purchase they released Version 2. Unlike almost all other applications, Filemaker did not offer any discounted upgrade price. Bento 2 has a few upgrades and a lot of bug fixes, but it is not worth an additional $49. This upgrade came less than a year since the release of the software. There are a few that are saying it’s only $50 bucks what’s the big deal. The big deal is that this is consumer level software which averages $20 – $30. This certainly does not compare with it’s big brother Filemaker which has a professional level price. It is not a professional app, and $100 in 10 months is certainly far too high of a price for what you get. I will be using the original application for a few existing databases that I need until next summer, but new data will find a home in a different app

(Update FileMaker Response)

You can be assured that all of us at FileMaker are aware that some existing Bento users are disappointed about the fact that we have not provided an upgrade pricing path for Bento 2. We regret that you, along with these users, are disappointed. We firmly believe that Bento is very fairly priced at just $49 and is a great value for the price. Our decision to forego an upgrade pricing program is modeled after Apple’s iWork/iLife program, which, as you may know, does not offer an upgrade pricing program.

Kevin Mallon
Sr. Public Relations Manager
FileMaker, Inc.

I do take issue with the ilife comparison because iLife because it comes free on every Mac so it’s only pricing is upgrade pricing. I would be happy to pay for the upgrade if the first version came free. As for iWork they are correct, Apple also has a poor pricing policy. But they also have educational discounts, perhaps filemaker could follow Apples lead and offer educational discounts for Bento.

Here are a few recommended alternatives for Bento 2:

Yojimbo from barebones software. Barebones has provided great products, at reasonable prices for many years. The retail price is $39 and they have an eductional discount for $29

http://www.barebones.com/products/Yojimbo/

Circus Ponies NoteBook 3.0

It’s not exactly the same but gets many of the Jobs that Bento is used for done. It also has some other cool features. They do offer upgrade pricing, and if your purchases in 2008 the upgrade is free. see there are a few companies that care about their customers. Retail $49 Academic $29

http://www.circusponies.com/store/

Process 3.0.5

Jumsoft Business Trio

This trio of applications can do anything you would want’s to do in Bento and much much more. It is a little more $59 but you get a lot more. They also have educational discounts, but you must contact them directly,because they do not publish the educational price.

http://www.jumsoft.com/businesstrio/

Kexi

If you need a powerful yet easy to use alternative to Filemaker or for Windows users you can’t beat Kexi. Kexi is open source and free to use. It has about the same learning curve as Filemaker, and just as much power. It is great.

http://www.kexi-project.org/about.html

Panorama from Provue

If you need a Professional alternative to Filemaker that has the professional support you need Panorama from Provue is your answer. It is easy to learn and very powerful. and with a generous 45 day trial you have plenty of time to figure it out.

http://www.provue.com/index.html

It is clear that there are a lot of alternatives when it comes to organizing your data. There is no need to support poor companies like Filemaker and there pathetic policies regarding upgrades. Join me in moving to better companies, and put our money in the hands good companies that value their customers. Filemaker will not receive another penny from me until they change their upgrade policies.

iPod Now Ready for the Education Market

MrYardley — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:07:11 +0000

It did not take long, but the iPod Touch now has sufficient apps too make it a valuable tool for education. When the iPod first came out there were very limited apps in the area of education but that is rapidly changing. Although apple is critisized for being a clozed development format, the explosion of apps makes it clear that it is open enough to make it easy for just about any developer to get there app distibuted on the iPod and iPhone platform.

There are now many applications in the Education field, from apps that teach times tables, to colors. I use “Preschool Adventure” with my 3 year old son and he loves it. For teaching my daughter Multiplication I use miTables. There are now many more apps for that are equally helpfull. As of this writing there is a noticable gap in Grading software, as well as student managment, but we are only a few months into the development of apps. I suspect that it won’t be long before the gaps are filled.

It is obvious that even with the recient price drop it is impractical to order a class set, but in my case I have three computers and groups of four students for centers. I now use my iPod Touch as an additional computer and the students switch which computer activity they use. I also use the calculator on my document projector because it is easier to see than the student calculators. My uses are quickly expanding, and I will likely purchase a seperate one with teacher funds to get even more use out of it.

Iphone For Education, well not yet.

MrYardley — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:50:45 +0000

I was reading a glowing review of the many new apps (15) for education from e-school news. As much as I wanted the see great education apps on the phone, unfourtunately they are not there, with the exception of a few very specialized apps. With the 2.0 upgrade to iphone, and the ipod touch there were some significant improvements that made it a much better platform for teachers and students. In the future I’m sure we will see some great apps like a grade book, student managment, and curriculum based activities. As for now there are a few flash card programs, but certainly not enough to make it a compelling tool for the education market. With the current set of applications it is nothing more than a toy rather than a tool.

The ipod touch with the 2.0 software does have great potential. Judging by the other applications availible the capabilities are amazing for a handheld device. With time I think the development community will fill in the broad education software gap with apps that are actually valuable tools, and with the right collection of apps, and a little better pricing on the ipod touch, it could actually put a powerfull computer in the hands of every child. We will keep a watchfull eye on the app store to see if somthing usefull becomes availible.

iPod Touch In the Classroom

MrYardley — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:41:22 +0000

The iPod has already had an impact on the education community, but the advent of the iPod Touch shows particular promise as a tool that could significantly improve the classroom. iPods are a great way to deliver media contents to students to give extra review and practice to the students that need it. The iPod touch takes it beyond the basic viewing and listening of media to add applications. From using Internet resources, to communication applications it puts a vast amount of resources in the hands of teachers and students.
In June Apple will release another update for the iPod Touch that will allow you to add a wide variety of applications to your ipod touch. Although I can only speculate I would expect to see grade management, student management, and educational programs very soon after that. This new expansion makes the iPod Touch a viable and valuable classroom tool.

Touch screen Ipod on the way in 07

MrYardley — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:59:00 +0000

The Apple iPod has now overtaken our society in a way that no one could have imagined. With the introduction of the iPhone It will likely continue to grow well into the future. Sources from inside say that Apple is about to introduce a full screen iPod, that uses a touch screen similar to the functionality of the the newly introduces iPhone. It could be announced as early as late February. As we look at the advancing technology we need to consider the implications it will have on our classrooms, and determine what place if any they have in education.

With previous versions of iPod there has been limited value because a portable tape or cd player could preform the same functions for a fraction of the cost. With the advent of the iPod Video the possibilities of a useful classroom tool significantly increased. Teachers can now target individual students with videos that will remediate, review, or reward. As a special education teacher I use the iPod Video to teach math concepts that need review. I can put a video on for a student to target a specific need and work with other students at the same time. If a student were absent it would be very easy to give him an iPod to view the video he missed the day before without interupting the rest of the class.

The challenge at this point is that there is a very limited amount of content available. This problem can be addressed in a few ways. With knowledge and the right hardware it is possible to encode your existing videos the problem with this is the consumer level hardware delivers poor results. The next option is to use a service that does the conversion. Expedition Productions is one company that provides a service that will convert video from VHS and DVD to various computer formats including iPod. These services deliver great results for a reasonable cost.

I have a source that has let me know that there will be a new educational video company that will release all of it’s videos with the DVD, and a computer based disk with the video formated for the computer screen, iPod, PSP, and other devises. When they launch I will provide details about this amazing new company.