Apple’s education ‘revolution’, and why it will work (at least in Australia)

There was a lot of hubbub on Twitter and various tech-related websites when Apple’s new iBooks 2 came out. The majority of comments and tweets suggested Apple priced itself out of the market and at 2-3GB, the books were too large to fit enough on one iPad. Others commented on the lack of universality – people with cheaper/different equipment can’t use it, so it will fail. Minor comments involved durability – kids break things – and shareability – you can’t lend an e-book to a friend.  

Now, being a qualified secondary school teacher, as well as a journalist, I have some experience in these matters, so I will answer these criticisms and suggest why I think Apple has got this right (at least for the secondary market).

The first criticism is pricing. Even at US$15 or so per book, people say the cost of an iPad will prevent schools from rolling them out to students. Now, I am only speaking for Australia, but in Victoria, where I live, every government school is spending many thousands rolling out netbooks or cheap 15-inch Lenovo laptops to students in Year 7. The idea is these kids keep the laptops until they break or become obsolete. This is probably going to be around the standard three year mark.

So, if Victorian schools are able to roll out cheap laptops to students, why can’t they replace them with iPads? Especially, if as some commentators suggested, Apple keeps selling the iPad 2 at a lower cost (say $350-400) when the iPad 3 comes out? Given the cost of some textbooks in high school, I can safely tell you a student in a world of cheap iPads and $15 books is going to spend less money over three years than one with a laptop and physical books.

As for how many books they can fit, again, this is mostly a non-issue – for secondary students, at least: I cannot speak for primary or tertiary students. Students in Australian secondary schools study, at most, six subjects per semester. The average size of Apple’s new multitouch e-books is around 2-3GB. Times that by six and you have a full iPad (16GB model), sure, but that simply means there’s no room for other time wasting apps. That’s a GOOD thing from a teacher’s perspective. And books can be deleted each semester to load new ones on. Some subjects don’t use a textbook either, so the space issue becomes even less relevant.

In terms of universality, I can also see this being a non-issue, albeit only if all students get an iPad. But see my point above regarding wholesale rollouts for that. And given how the music industry developed, I would not discount the possibility of cheaper, rival systems. Amazon, for one, surely has a vested interest here.

Finally, durability and shareability. Kids do break things. But generally, they only break them at their weakest point(s). The only regularly-occurring damage I have seen to laptops is when hinges break, or when kids remove keys. And this happens a lot. iPads have neither of these issues. So if you provide each student with a decent case, I doubt you’ll see many more failures than you do with laptops. The only possible issue is screen breakage, which will happen, because the cost of replacing a hinge is rather less than replacing a screen.

As for shareability, I do not know many students who lend each other textbooks, even now. Certainly not in school. And let’s not forget, an iPad is a projectable device. So if students forget them, a single device can be shown to the whole class.

I don’t doubt there will be other issues that arise, and as I said, my opinion is just for the Australian (and specifically, Victorian) secondary school system. But given Apple’s history, I would be very surprised if they failed on this one.

Run Roo Run!

I hate this game. It takes up huge amounts of my life. The only reason I keep playing it because, due to its easiness, the experience I have with platformers, and the low numbers of players on Game Centre initially, I played it through a few times and ended up in the top 50. Now I'm currently in the top five. How's about that?!

Anyway, seeing as there are not real any major tips out there for it, I thought I'd write my own.

Number one: Jump. Jump like crazy. Jump like your crazy grandma is chasing you over a hurdles course. Jumping is one of the fastest methods of getting through any level. There are times when it's faster to simply move normally, but most of the time, if you figure out how to jump as many times as you can in a level, you'll gain speed.

Number two: Wait. There are plenty of times when your instinct, especially in a game like this, suggests you start the level straight away. Big mistake, particularly in the later levels. Wait a second and analyse the course. Look at the timing of the clouds, spikes or umbrellas. You can save literally half a second or more on some levels by simply getting your timing right. The other big one is waiting for all the tyre swings to come back towards you at the start of every level. You'd be amazed how the times drop if you do this.

Number three: Cheat. Now, I know this sounds bad, but it's simply gaining time by looking at where you don't have to follow the level layout. The following are levels where it's easy to do this:

Extreme 11-2: If you get your timing just right, you can avoid touching the third handle and jump straight from the tyre to the fourth. This saves more than half a second.

Level 13-10. Don't bother with the spring. Just jump straight over the first barber pole (roundabout in the game - god knows why, it's so inaccurate) and wait for the second to turn you back around. You save two seconds by doing this.

Level 19-4: Jump straight into the first hole from below. I was surprised when this first happened, as it was just blind luck: I had no idea I could even do this, and was simply jumping along, trying to save time, when I went straight up the first hole. None of this grabbing onto the first hook. It saved me around half a second or more.

Number four: Know your enemy. Certain obstacles need to be approached in a certain way. Tips are as follows:

Tyres: Depending on the level, the point at which you hit them (beginning, middle, end of the tyre) makes a profound difference to your exit speed. It varies per level, so practise is the only way.

Fans: The airstreams above fans need to be hit almost invariably at the top of your jump to save time. The angle of your jump and the timing of your exit also has a large effect on your exit speed.

Oil: Generally speaking, the more time you spend on it, the better. The only exception is level 19-15, where it is much faster to jump pretty much as soon as you hit the oil. Therefore, try and jump at the last moment in all other levels. It will gain you valuable hundredths or even tenths.

Barrels: These depend on high entry speed for fast rolling. Try and jump into them or be forced in by cannons etc. as this will speed up your rolls dramatically.

Number four: Practise. There is no substitute for it, and only by many hours of playing will you get to know where you can jump, where not to jump, and where to hit all the tyres etc.

Have fun!