An Educator’s Thoughts On The iPhone 5

I have written pretty extensive posts when the iPhone has been released in previous years. I’m not going to write as much this year simply because nothing really revolutionary happened. It’s an improved device yes, but really it is mostly refinement.

As is my want though, I tend to spend more attention on things that are not the main focus of everyone else. 🙂 Also released with the iPhone 5 was a revamping of the iPod lineup. I was somewhat impressed with the iPod Nanos. I have a 3rd generation and for the same price I paid then, this new one is lighter, and thinner, the battery lasts longer, and it has a touch screen. Apple’s new touch screen technology is pretty cool by the way. Previously they had the display screen, then another layer on top which was the touch part. This tended to dim the screen a bit. The new screen has touch built into it as one piece therefore making a sharper screen.

Another thing to note is the processor on the iPhone is now twice a powerful and yet takes less power. That’s Moore’s law in action.

Something else to note in general is the plummeting prices of the older models of pretty much everything. Imagine if you will if Ferrari came out with a new car which cost $200,000. If it followed the iPhone trend, the following year they would come out with a new model which cost the same and yet was twice as fast and yet used less gas. The previous year’s model would cost only $150,000. It’s just crazy advancement. The iPhone 4 is free with contract now. Last week Amazon.com announced their revamped lineup of tablets. These too were faster and the older ones were cheaper.

The amount of computing you can buy for a small cost is constantly increasing. Keep in mind then that in 2020 the level of computing you can buy now for $1000 will essentially be free.

From an education standpoint this simply means classrooms will be more populated with devices the students bring themselves. The other thing to keep in mind is your students will be more likely to be writing their own apps and games, especially when they have access to educational materials like video games that teach you to program. (see Why BYOD Is Inevitable)

How do you interest these students in your traditional core curriculum? How can you explain to a student that you want them to stop learning how to program in order to teach them about oceanography? (I’m not picking on oceanography, it just came to mind)

Or rather than programming maybe they will be building a supercomputer cluster at their house with mini computers and lego?

Schools have been having a relevancy crisis with their students and it’s only going to get worse.

Here’s the new Nano (H/T Cnet)

 

 

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