The iClassroom

I'm rather a big fan of technology. I live in a teeny little apartment, and in that 500 square feet, between me and my girlfriend we have two iPhones, two Macbooks, an AppleTV, and two iPads. This is both awesome and disgusting.

Several years ago I got my first iPad and read my first eBook. Now when I read regular books I feel inclined to tap on words, hoping for the definition to pop up. I believe I have switched to the digital world. The major drawback to this is in order to read an eBook, you have to buy it. When you read a hardcopy book you can either shelf it or pass it on. An eBook is yours forever.

I guess the point is that you'd better be darn sure you like that book, because it is now a part of you, a part of your cloud, and a part of your purchase history. I still can't decide if I like that part, but there's really no way around it. Music has finally removed the DRM, so you can play it on more than one device, but for some reason books are still on digital lock down.

In terms of reading, my 9th grade students have SSR every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As an attempt to get the less-inclined-to-read, I created the above Google chart in an attempt to create some competition to get the page count up. I have five football players in class, so they definitely got it. I'd like to expand on the idea, but I'm still unclear where I want to go with it.

When iPads were first introduced someone asked me what the significance was, and whether it would have any significant long term impact. It's been about five years, and already education has been revolutionized. As soon as textbook creators adapt to the form, I think the age of 30 pound books will be a thing of the past. Digital textbooks are awesome: they can be interactive, above all else. Videos, links and sidebars will have much more of an impact, and take the book well beyond the first reading in the class and into the world of Internet knowledge.