Notes (not in iBooks)

Within iBooks, notes are very easy (sort of like writing in the margin). I have been trying to figure out how to take notes outside of iBooks. For example, what if I just want to write some thoughts down or take notes in a meeting. I downloaded a free app called Sundry Notes. I didn't spend a lot of time playing with it, but I wrote a couple of notes including some likes and dislikes about reading on the iPad and a score sheet for a game of Hearts my family was playing on the beach:



It worked reasonably well, but it will take some getting used to. I know that David Warlick likes to take notes on his iPad with a mapping tool (comparable to Inspiration). I'm not sure I'm ready for serious note-taking yet, but it is nice to have a simple option for simple notes. Plus, I can upload the notes to my computer in PDF format.

Glare

The biggest problem with reading on the beach on the iPad is the glare. I joked before I left that I might have to charge Loyola for my umbrella rental. There is no way to read directly in the sun on the iPad; the screen is barely visible. I believe that this is one of the advantages of the other electronic book readers (Nook and Kindle). However, I did manage to read quite a bit while parked under an umbrella (my father-in-law brings his 40-year-old-umbrella with fringes so we don't need to rent one). It was not ideal, but it worked. I also read on the porch (which was covered). This worked best in the morning because the sun was more direct in the afternoon. I also read well in the condominium, which worked very well as long as the window wasn't behind me.

iBooks does have an adjustment for brightness, which is independent from the brightness adjustment for the rest of the iPad. That is, it starts out at whatever your iPad is set to, but you can then change it in iBooks temporarily without changing the overall iPad setting. As soon as the iPad turns off, it resets back to the general setting. When reading indoors, I just left it on the default setting. When reading outdoors, I kicked it up to the highest setting. I wish it could have gotten brighter.

Overall, because of this, if your primary purpose is to read outside, I wouldn't recommend the iPad. I could struggle through for the occasional outdoor read, but it wasn't nearly as comfortable as a regular book (or, from what I've heard, some of the other electronic readers).

Two Books: eBook and PDF

For my experiment, I downloaded two books: The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and A Gardener's Approach to Learning by David Warlick. The first was a regular eBook. It was available in a variety of formats, including for the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook from Barnes and Noble. I chose to download it in eBooks format for the iPad. The second was a self-published book (although David Warlick has regularly published books, he chose to self-publish this one) that was only available in PDF format from Lulu.

Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally based on my interests, The Shallows is about how technology is changing the way we think (and not for the better). Carr wrote a recent article titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid." In that article, he outlined why he thinks the Internet makes us stupid. But that article was, in itself, very shallow albeit an interesting thought piece. This book is much more substantial and backed up by a significant amount of research and discussion of brain theory. He is also careful to discuss advantages of the changes in the way we think (and the Internet in general), but overall, he is very troubled by the way our habits of mind are changed in deep and significant ways.

I never actually got to the second book, but I skimmed through it a little to get a sense of how it feels to read a PDF book on the iPad. There are probably better apps for reading PDF documents because using iBook for a PDF document is horrible. I mean it is horrible in comparison to reading a real eBook in iBook. All the features of iBook that I like are missing when reading a PDF document (such as highlighting and note taking). For a short article, it is fine, and it might be fine for a leisurely read, but for a serious academic book, it is not very good.

More to come...

Laserfiche on the iPad

A quick aside before I get back to my posts about reading on the iPad on vacation... we just got an email about Laserfiche on the Web. Laserfiche is a system to review student records (paper documents are scanned in and admission committees can review applications whether documents were submitted electronically or on paper). I was sure that I wouldn't be able to access it on the iPad, and I was shocked when I could. It works perfectly on the iPad. The only drawback is that the buttons are all very small so you have to "pinch" the screen to expand to have any hope of hitting the right button.

No Books on Vacation - Just an iPad

I just got back from a week at the ocean. Instead of buying books to read at the beach, I bought a couple of books for my iPad. I did this for two reasons:

(1) I wanted to test out the iPad's book capability for reading and possible classroom use.
(2) It was faster and cheaper to get electronic books (I bought the books a day or two before I left without leaving my office).

Overall, I really enjoyed reading with the iPad, especially the book that is in the native eBooks format made for iBook on the iPad. The biggest problem with reading on the iPad is glare, and that is a very big problem on the beach (or anywhere outdoors). I'll follow this post with more detailed posts later.

David Marcovitz

College 2.0: Teachers Without Technology

An interesting article about the pros and cons of using technology in higher education:

http://chronicle.com/article/College-20-Teachers-Without/123891/

Wordle

One of my students really likes Wordle so I decided to make a Wordle of the blog. Of course it uses a Java Applet so it won't show up on the iPad. There are also tools within blogspot to have an ongoing version of this that will update as new posts are made.