23 thoughts on “MPU: 093 Education Workflows with Fraser Speirs”

1. George from Tulsa's July 9, 2012 at 9:51 am

   For gawd’s sake, just say no.

   My sister in her job as Assoc. Supt. for Technology of a decent sized Seattle area school district was given the full court iPad press.

   Just imagine if she’d blown the school’s tech budget on iPad 1s. You know, the ones Apple just orphaned by cutting off from iOS 6? The ones that will soon begin dying from dead batteries, and aren’t worth repairing because they don’t run iOS 6, are less secure on the internet, and can’t get new “sexy” programs.

   I paid $900.68 for my iPad 1 with 3G and 64GB on June 29, 2010. It was orphaned by Apple before it was even two years old.

   Apple reportedly sold 15 million iPad 1s. Laid end to end, that’s 2,263 linear miles of non-recyclable iPads marching to the landfill.

   http://ifixit.org/2884/apple-ditches-green-standard-cuts-off-federal-agencies-from-apple-products/

   There’s something SERIOUSLY wrong here.

   On the education front, schools and teachers are under enough budget threats as it is. The iPad is a terrible investment, because it locks owners into Apple’s expensive and proprietary universe.

   Schools! Insist your teaching materials be open HTML, HTML 5 if you go interactive.
   1. Tim Lahey July 11, 2012 at 12:38 am

      Apple does recycle iPads, iPhones, and Macs.

      http://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/

      Just because Apple is withdrawing from this standard, doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be able to be recycled. I don’t know if the retina MacBook Pro is recyclable, but I think everything else they currently sell is.
      1. Ilkka Viinikanoja July 15, 2012 at 1:34 pm

         Apple reversed the EPEAT decision: http://www.apple.com/environment/letter-to-customers/
2. Tim Lahey July 10, 2012 at 8:51 am

   I’m constantly amazed that Evernote gets so much love, but DEVONthink gets ignored. It has most of the features of Evernote (except the automatic text recognition in images) and if you get the Pro Office version, you get excellent built-in OCR and mail archiving. I find the Automator and AppleScript support excellent. Plus, it supports leaving things in files/folders (via its Index feature). DEVONthink To Go I think supports the same basic kinds of notes as Evernote, plus it now supports adding documents to OmniFocus as tasks.
   1. Mr. Manhattan July 11, 2012 at 12:05 am

      I have been wondering about DEVONthink for some time and thought perhaps it would do better for me than Evernote, which I did not have a good experience with.

      However, I can’t find any info on a cloud solution with DEVON..how does it sync with iOS?
      1. Tim Lahey July 11, 2012 at 6:34 pm

         At the moment, it’s WiFi sync. They’ve been working on more general sync between Macs (and have a beta plugin), so I’m guessing that something like Dropbox sync will come eventually. The DEVONthink To Go iOS app has made great strides over the versions. The first few versions had really buggy sync and not a lot of features. I’ve had no problems with the sync once they fixed the sync bugs. The features are steadily getting better.

         The DEVON forums are excellent and the employees are pretty responsive there (as well as others) so I’d try the demo version(s) and see if it works for you. There’s also a Take Control book on DEVONthink that’s pretty good if you decide to buy.

         If the Mac app works, then take a look at the iOS app.
   2. Jim Sewell July 26, 2012 at 9:08 pm

      Is DEVONthink cross platform? I have almost no knowledge of that product other than what I read on the site and hear on podcasts. One of the strengths of Evernote is that it has clients for Mac, Windows, Blackberry, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, etc. That and the bigger budget at their disposal and more “trunk” developers on board make it more attractive to many.

      As a pure paperless office solution it may be just as good, I simply don’t know, but for a lot of environments Evernote offers a better solution with things like notebook sharing with even non-EN users.

      I’m not saying one is better than the other, but at least for perception this is my guess. I also wonder if DEVONthink has an international presence – the biggest drive for Evernote is the Japanese user base. It all plays a part.
3. George from Tulsa July 10, 2012 at 9:46 am

   Just say no.

   My sister in her job as Associate Superintendent for Technology of a decent sized Seattle area school district was tasked with spending millions in a one time tech upgrade. Enough money on the table, she was given the full court iPad Press.

   Just imagine if she’s bought iPad 1s then on offer. You know, the ones Apple just orphaned by cutting them off from iOS 6? The ones that will soon begin dying from dead batteries and aren’t worth repairing because they don’t run iOS 6, are less secure on the internet, will find old programs stop running as they’re upgraded, and there aren’t any new ones on offer?

   I paid $900.68 for my iPad 1 3G 64 GB on June 29, 2010. It was orphaned by Apple before it was even two years old.

   According to analysts, Apple sold 15 million iPad 1s. Laid end to end that 2,263 linear miles of non-recyclable iPads marching to the landfill.

   iFixit recently ran an informative post about the effect of Apple withdrawing from the EPEAT green recycling program, including loss of sales to the Feds. Google up iFixit Apple Ditches Green Standard.

   There’s something seriously wrong here, and, yes, I visited and tried the new Retina MacBook Pro, and it is seductive. Like Dracula.

   On the education front, schools and teachers are under enough budget threats. The iPad is a terrible investment. Fragile. Non-replaceable batteries. And orphaned by its corporate parent I guess for no reason other than to push two and three year old devices into the dump. Why that guess? The less capable iPhone 3gs is getting iOS 6.

   Schools need to insist their teaching materials and gear be open. Not expensive, proprietary, and subject to a remote disconnection, as is the iPad.

   This is my second effort on this post. Guess the first got lost in the inter-tubes. G
   1. Mike Shaffer July 13, 2012 at 11:07 am

      Hey George,
      Just read your comments and I do agree with alot of your points. The orphaning of the iPad 1 is unfortunate and does sting the early adopters. The high school where my daughters attend (a small private school) have just “gone all iPad”. We fortunately purchased iPad 2′s for them, so iOS 6 is at least feasible. I still question the resources needed to make this a legitimate education tool. I also agree with your point on fragility. As much as I love all of my Apple products, I’m not certain that kids tossing around thin, glass covered iPads is the “best” way to proceed. I do take exception with the replaceable battery concern and the recycle/EPEAT issue. I have 4+ year old iPod’s and Macbooks that have no battery issues. I don’t think it can be much better than that. Recycling? Everyone needs to look a little deeper into Apple’s position on EPEAT. There are dragons in there and a number of their stated positions are clearly locked in the early 2000 era computer manufacturing. Apple has stated that they will always recycle their products, for free and that it’s EPEAT that needs to update their standards. Basically Apple wants to tighten the standard… So bottom line I firmly believe that tablet PC’s will eventually dominate the education landscape. Kindergarteners of today will probably have a radically different high school experience that we had. But between now and then there are going to be bumps and course corrections. And if it doesn’t really advance the education process in quality, I’m not for it.
4. NIkki July 10, 2012 at 7:45 pm

   Great episode, as usual! Hearing your brief delve into Aperture/Pixerlmater (sp), it made me interested in a full-on Photography, photo editing ect…discussion. I am a very amature photographer looking to learn new skills. I am a relatively new listener, so you may have already covered this topic, but I would definately be interested in that discussion. Thanks for all your work!
5. David July 10, 2012 at 8:03 pm

   I have been listening to your podcast for a few weeks and have no particular interest in education. Even so, this is hands down the most interesting episode of your podcast. Your guest had a lot to say and you let him say it uninterrupted, which I appreciated. I was especially interested in hearing about how young people react to new technology. Fascinating.
6. Mark July 11, 2012 at 10:34 am

   Enjoyed the podcast, While nothing to do with Apple Jesse Schell has some interesting thoughts on future classrooms.

   You can see his talk on youtube if you search for Jesse Schell – Learning is Beautiful
7. Crispin Morton July 11, 2012 at 1:26 pm

   What a superb episode – I don’t work in education, but I found Fraser Speirs extraordinarily inspiring. I’ve been listening to MPU since show 20, and this is one of your best ever. Delighted to hear you say you want to get h back. (Great to hear another voice from this side of the pond, too)
8. Marty July 13, 2012 at 8:09 pm

   I agree with David and Crispin about just how good this episode was. I would like an “intellect transplant” where I can get Frasier’s mind to replace mine.

   Is that possible with iOS 6?
9. Cedeno July 14, 2012 at 9:44 pm

   Wonderful show! Definitively one of the most robust and in depth ones in terms of not just specific workflows and geeky tricks, but the role of technology in education, the community and shaping the future in general. 10+.
10. Tony July 18, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    great show, really interesting guest, with great in the trenches tech info…cheers!
11. Liam July 19, 2012 at 3:34 am

    Katie, David,

    This was for me one of your more inspiring shows, listening on how the next generation will be using technology.

    in general, a show on how kids use technology, compared on how we do would be very interesting. If I see how disappointed my 1-yr old daughter is if I call home vs using facetime, it’s incredible how much more tech-savy they will be compared to us.

    Cheers and keep up the good work

    Liam
12. Gabe Anzelini July 20, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    I was inspired by this to give my home-educated 5-year-old my unused iPod touch. Thought I’d let you know she is enjoying email and sending iMessages.
13. Jim Sewell July 26, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    This is a great episode. Two questions do come to mind:

    1. How is the real speed of the students? I know it seems like they fly with the virtual keyboard but have they ever been tested? I’m reminded of the demo where 2 “kids” who were the fastest texters went up against old fashioned morse code telegraph operators and got left in the dust. They seem fast but I’d love to see a timed test against a proficient typist.

    2. It was stated that proofreading is becoming more important than getting it right the first time, if I am representing it properly, and I wonder if the kids are learning to type partial words and rely on autocomplete and spell checking then how will they develop the skills to proofread? If they can’t spell with accuracy then how will they spot misspelled words?

    Thanks to Katie and David for doing this and to Fraser Speirs for sharing with us his wonderful stories of how he is seeing technology in the education field work to the benefit of all. Bravo!

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