It's About Learning

Google is Beating Apple at its Own Game – Simpicity

Dwayne Harapnuik — December 4, 2014 — Leave a comment

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/chromebooks-leapfrog-ipads-in-us-education-market-for-first-time-heres-why/?tag=nl.e019&s_cid=e019&ttag=e019&ftag=TREd47db54

Chromebooks leapfrog iPads in US education market for first time, here’s why – TechRepublic via kwout

In the TechRepublic post Chromebooks leapfrog iPads in US education market for first time, here’s why Conner Forrest points out that Chromebooks got to 20% marketshare of the education market worldwide and nearly 50% share in the US education market.

Why is Google taking control of the market share?

Lower hardware costs – some Chromebooks come in below $200.
Lower management costs – simple management console and no imaging costs.
Students prefer Chromebooks to iPads – in grades 3-12 overwhelming preference for Chromebooks. Younger students benefit from the touch screen of the iPad.
Web-based apps – majority of major educational software is now available online.
Google Classroom – Collaborative integration of Google Docs, Drive, and Gmail. Nothing native to the iPad provides the same service.

Cost aside, Google Chromebooks provide a much simpler and easier to use ecosystem for students, teachers and administrators than the iPad.

This could be a huge blow to Apple because the education market has been one of Apple’s keys to success. With their continued inability to grow their iCloud service into anything that remotely offers the power of Google Docs/Apps for education I don’t see them regaining the Educational market share in the US and would expect to see their world wide Educational share decline as well.

I think that this is also an example of Google beating Apple at is own game – simplicity. Over the years people (myself included) have been willing to spend the premium dollar on the iPhone, iPads and other Apple products in general because they are so simple to use. The iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices work so well together that they required minimal management. Once you learn all of Apple’s idiosyncrasies you are up and running.

Google’s products have matured to the point were they are equally simple to use and with the added infrastructure of Google Classroom and Google Apps for Education Google offers a management simplicity that Apple has not been able to match.

As much as I enjoy using my MacBook Air, my iPad or my iPhone I can only tolerate iTunes and iTunesU and other Apple management tools. The wonderful option is using the best of both worlds. For the most part I use Apple hardware but for almost everything else Google is my first choice.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to develop. Are you Google or Apple purist or are you a hybrid user?

In Education, Technology & Culture Apple, Chromebooks, Google, Google classroom, iPad

The Power of Brevity

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 27, 2014 — Leave a comment

Thomas Jefferson — One Word Will Do

Source: thebigrocks.com/brevity

In his talk Assessing Digital Innovations in Education at the Apple Leadership Institute in Vancouver BC this past week, Dr. Michael Fullan challenged the room full of Teachers, Technology Directors, Principal, Superintendents, and other educational leaders to start making some significant changes to our education system because “Kids Can’t Wait.”

I have been working as a change agent in education for the past two decades so his talk was reassuring and inspiring. Reassuring in the sense that those of use who have been working toward improving education need to keep on working because we are finally starting to see some progress. Inspiring in the sense that many younger leaders are picking up the challenge and are motivated to keep on pressing toward change.

While these aspects of his talk were excellent the most impactful part of his talk was the reminder that there is a tendency toward paralysis by analysis and we (academics and educators) do a really good job of generating huge reports which become shelfware.

Fullan challenged the audience with the following statement [paraphrased]:

If you can’t say it in 3 pages you don’t know what you are talking about. If you write more than 3 pages people won’t read it anyway…

In Change, Motivation 21st century learning, Apple, Education, Innovation, reform

Tablets on Campus

Dwayne Harapnuik — February 18, 2014 — Leave a comment

Source: Accredited-Online-College.org

I generally will NOT write anything to support or explain an infographic because by their very nature they should convey all necessary information. If an infographic needs explaining then it isn’t a very good infographic. In this instance I think it is helpful to comment on the validity of the data and statistics that this infographic points to. I went to each of the sources cited in the infographic to confirm that the data was legitimate and to also to confirm that I am passing on a useful resource.

Much of the stats regarding student technology use come from the following three sources:

It must be noted that the Adobe report is not cited directly but Jimmy Daly the Online Content Manager for EdTech Focus on Higher Education cites content from this report in two of the blog posts cited in the infographic. To assure that information being presented is as accurate as possible I strive to rely primarily on original sources and look for infographics that do the same. I also compared this infographic to ECAR Student and Technology 2013 infographic summary from the 2013 ECAR Student and Technology Use Survey and confirmed that the statistics in this infographic are reasonably in line with the ECAR statistics.

It is clear from this infographic and the supporting reports the tablet has become the new tool of choice students are relying on to help them learn in the digital information age.