Our kids are the quickest to embrace technology and more often than not know more about the latest devices than we do.
Should we accommodate their desires for faster, sleeker, slimmer, more functional and lighter devices. YES! but why?
Because we can use them too J
But we also, as reponsible parents, have to justify this "nurturing" of our offspring.
Computers are in every school now, and secondary schools (at least some of them) are permitting students to bring in their IPads for home and classwork. Looking forwards, Is this part of the potential that our technology could be leading to - virtual homebased classrooms?? Probably as likely as the redundancy of text books but I`m not staking any odds just yet.
Perhaps now is a good time to offer critique... Lets first consider the advantages of the snazzy IPad2 netbook. Light in weight and slightness of build give it high portability and mobility. It inherently offers multiple integration capability with existing devices; desktop, laptop, tv etc.
Other lovelies such as Videophone technology; using Apple`s Faceview application,means the apple to apple device calls are free. Yes FREE!
IPad`s front and rear camera are a delight and parents had better watch out for the `candid camera` scenario - no more dancing naked in the kitchenJ
Homework collaboration can be done with class mates even when at different locations and the vast knowledge base of the WWW is at their fingertips and limited only by the speed of their internet connection and remaining battery life (which is around 10hrs for the IPad2).
The technological innards of the IPad2 are equally impressive; the .5GB memory is low by todays computing standards but the IPad2 is as responsive and quick to load as most of the state-of-the-art top end computers available today. The minimum 16GB storage capacity is adequate and the availability of plugin hardware, such as USB hard drives, can facilitate extra storage if necessary.
Downsides? Not many. The battery can take around an hour to charge. It`s `breakability` is at yet untested - in our house at least, but can we doubt it is any more fragile than the equally expensive smartphones?
The IPad2 has gained reputation and massive fan base rapidly and IMHO, quite deservedly.
Did I mention the classy design or that the screen is "heat sensitive" not "touch sensitive"?
And what of the IPad3 I hear you cry - more memory, greater pixellation, G3 but it`s also wider and heavier, and of course pricier.
So should we buy our kids IPads for school? As with all purchases the best course of action is to first determine the real requirement e.g. you don`t need a Ferrari to pick up shopping from Tesco - but you`ll get a faster ride!