Project Description: To successfully introduce iPhones for educational purposes.
Cause of Project: To advance the school in to a "21st Century Environment"
Difficulty: Hard due to the complexity of many considerations
What I did: I was involved in a meeting today with Yoshi, a representative from Apple with accompany from his boss. Our main topic was to discuss the possibility of having iPhones used in our school. We started off by showing my blog, then moved on to discuss my current, main project. I also explained to Yoshi my role in the MS Student Tech Team, and what we have done, as well as future plans. When we started to discuss about iPhones, Yoshi said that the iPhone will bring a "21st Century Environment", which is definitely true. I then asked a series of questions to Yoshi:
Q1: Is it possible to restrict what the user can do with their iPhone? I mean, for the Mac there is Parental Controls, and Apple Remote Desktop, but what about the iPhone?
Q2: Is it possible to be able to have a constantly updating digital list of all the school's iPhones and how much they are spending, as well as how they are being spent?
A: Softbank's package is a fixed price which includes internet access, mail and phone calls.
Q3: How about phone calls to other providers, like Docomo?
A: That's not included in the package. You should talk to some one from Softbank for more details.
Q5: Is there a way to remove the 5 people limit on iTunes U, since this is for education?
A: We can not change this, since apple has already placed specific copyright laws.
Q7: So if I had 50 iPhones, I would have to buy the application 10 times to provide it to all the iPhones?
A: Yes.
Q8: The next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard is focused on reducing the size of files. Because of this, will iPhones be compatible with it?
A: There may be a newer version of the iPhone that will be compatible with it, or just an update. However, Apple is very strict on releasing information like this, so I personally do not know.
We also had Mr. Lockwood bargain with Yoshi for a Data Package at a cheaper price, instead of a package that includes phone calls. He then continued to talk about the possibility of apple creating a NetBook (but with it's own original name).
My opinion: I was not disappointed by Yoshi's answers, simply because I already knew that my requests were probably not going to be available at this point. Because of this, I disagree with having the iPhone used in the school at this point, since there is no way to restrict users or to even monitor what they are doing. And the fact that it can make phone calls, is some thing I see that isn't going end up as "educational" but more of "personal use". The only thing I think why this school should provide it, is because of it's "Cool Factor". Okay, not only that of course - it has wireless internet, a camera, downloads education podcasts, and offers applications like a Graphing Calculator (which would usually cost 10,000 yen to purchase). However, I personally do not think that students should have such flexibility with the iPhones, and I think that lending them is going to be a ticking time bomb. If you do not understand what I mean when I say a ticking time bomb, i'm talking about students watching the latest episode of Heroes, girls talking on them for hours with other service providers, or even worse, students throwing iPhones accidentally while playing iBowl. Before you know it, students grades will fall, while the bills never seem to stop going up. All is not lost for the iPhone though, since Yoshi will do some "homework" and it is only a matter of time before my requests becme true.
The Next Step: I think that we should start some heavy bargaining with Softbank for a data plan as well as other things.
Other: Questions and Answers were summarized
Posts
4 comments:
Thanks for the blog post, I wish you could have been there for the rest of the meeting. As his post says I was asking for an iPhone with a data plan only. Then we wouldn't have to worry about talking restrictions and focus on the web 2.0 learning function of the devise. Students could blog, tweet, stream video with http://www.qik.com/ or even Skype with the global learning community.
Considered just going for an ipod touch? http://www.theage.com.au/news/digital-life/mp3-players/articles/homework-is-fun-on-an-ipod-touch/2009/01/02/1230681758552.html
Great post Matthias! I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Mr. Raub from ASIJ, we met a few weeks ago.
First a comment on Andrew's comment: I have an iPod Touch and while I love it, one of the biggest drawbacks is that you can only access the internet from WiFi access points. That's fine at home or school, but once you get out into the world they are hard to find. I almost wish that I had an iPhone just so that I can access the internet from the 3G mobile phone network as well.
That's why Mr. Lockwood's idea of getting a data plan only would be a great solution. But I wonder if there are educational uses for the phone part as well. What do you think?
I agree with you that some student may abuse the iPhone, but it also presents a learning opportunity. Teachers and students can work together to learn responsible use of the iPhone. If they never have access to the iPhone, they'll never learn the responsible way to use it.
@Mr. Raub
You're pretty much spot on why the IT is more interested in the iPhone than the iPod Touch, it's because of it's ability to access to internet almost everywhere in Japan. Also, the iPhone has a camera on it so for example, students can take photos on it during Field Studies (a 5-day field trip) and be able to put those photos directly on to their blog without having it go through their computer first.
Also, the annoying thing about Field Studies is that you have to keep a Diary. And you get an hour of silence to write in it, which for me, is OK, but I rather be chatting with my friends. But with the iPhone, you can create new posts for each new day of your Field Study and be able to put it up on your own personal blog for every one to see! I think this would be a great substitute for writing on paper. The only problem I see with this, is that SoftBank has poor connection compared to Docomo, so most likely how it is going to end is having to keep a diary in the iPhone, and then later copy and paste it into the blog when you have connection.
As for educational uses, a student calling a teacher is very unlikely. However, how about running meetings through the iPhone? I don't know for sure, but I am pretty sure you can make conference calls with the iPhone and be able to send documents and images simultaneously. I don't think this should be a substitute for regular meetings, but in situations where people are spread apart and can't meet often, this can become very useful.
For example, if my group was working on an English project, and we can only have one regular meeting every Monday Lunch due to our busy schedule, we aren't going to get much accomplished. But, by using the iPhone, I can communicate with all of my group members at once and be able to set up a meeting in a matter of seconds using a conference call, even if half of them live in Tokyo!
I don't know a lot of ways to be able to communicate with more than two people at once when we all live in different places, but how do you connect to others?
Also, it's great to hear from you again!
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