Technology At City University of Seattle

One of the big changes we are exploring here is the ability for students to have all the content for their classes on one simple slate style computing system. The Crunchpad or the mythical Apple Tablet would work well in either case based on what we know, which isn’t all that much. But based on what we have been reading the two systems might look similar but fundamentally are going to work very differently. This means that as a school we will have to have the back end support systems either way we go. The problem is that without knowing more, building out the support systems are going to have to wait.

Based on what we know about the crunchpad it is an internet based system, in that everything you do needs to come off the computing cloud. This means that to support the system we will need to have a back end infrastructure that requires access to those systems in the cloud. There is going to have to be a way to login, annotate, and take notes, watch video. Fortunately as part of this back end infrastructure they will need to be able to type something into the system, URL’s, login credentials, and other information as needed or wanted by the students. Touch screen systems are cool, but in the longer run, we still need to type in information, much like the notes we can take on an Amazon kindle, this is going to be the essential way of doing business in an educational setting. This is what is going to make this interesting from an educational viewpoint, can the entire course work and process be put on a system that has no inherent way to store data on the device. This might be too large a jump for students, or require too much back end infrastructure to build out. That is what makes the Crunchpad in an educational setting difficult but doable. With the use of cloud computing, Google or Zoho documents, most everything else is done in an online setting via Blackboard, and other LMS systems like Moodle. The problem is going to be data input and ensuring that students are using the system for what it was designed for. Most of the readings and other information are already online, the only real issue is that we won’t be able to preload the entire computer with everything the student needs. We will rather be loading everything the student needs on to the computer, but we can load everything the student needs in the cloud, we just have to make sure the permissions are right.

The Apple tablet, which is the subject of much hype and much conjecture, would in the longer run (if it is a true slate tablet) probably be the more optimal technological solution. While from what we have been reading it should come with its own hard drive, this would make integrating into ITunes U (one of the things we want to do next, 2010 kind of next) easier as we could load ITunes and use that as the primary interface to all the video and audio that we are producing for the classes. This would also give us a way to check and see if folks were using the system, and set up a process for having the student maintain the system. We would also be able to load all the ebooks and course resources as well as it would at least have a way to store data. It would have to be a robust storage for off line processing of data. Yet with all things Apple, it is sometimes hard to nail them down to a specific place and time. No one knows for sure if it will be released, but it does solve some technical issues by leveraging the inherent abilities of ITunes U to process and store information. With an inbuilt hard drive we do not have to worry about the back end infrastructure as much as we can leverage Apple’s cloud rather than building out our own like we would with the Crunchpad.

In the longer run, we will most likely end up purchasing 10 of each device, and then passing them out, 3 to management, 1 to a Graduate Assistant, 2 to IT, and 4 to students to test drive and get their feedback on what they think of the whole thing. Since it looks like they will come to market about the same time (if rumors hold true), and the price is around 400 for the Crunchpad and around 800 for the Apple tablet, this is going to be a very interesting Fall quarter to test gear out with.

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