Occasional Thoughts on Educational Technology and Life by Judy Brophy

Friday, February 24, 2012

Things You Shouldn’t Do with an IPad


There are many things you can do with an ipad. There are also many things that you shouldn’t do with an Ipad. 

An IPad is not a full service computer. Trying to make it one will be a frustrating, labor intensive waste of time. It will probably also make it an immobile mobile device.

Here’s a few things you should not do with your IPad.
  • Don’t try to fully format a document up to and including footnotes. (Even if you have an app that will do that, getting it out of the IPad will probably destroy part of the formatting.)
  • Don’t try to do track changes in a word document. (If you need this much of the functionality of Word, use a laptop or desktop computer.)

  • Don’t lug a keyboard twice the size and weight of the Ipad unless you know you will be
    a) typing a lotb) in a space where you’ll have a table to set up on. (It’s supposed to be mobile device.)
  • Don’t expect to find one app that will handle all your writing requirements - ability to take both stylus and typing input, lots of formatting ability, multiple options for importing and exporting documents. Different apps excel at different parts of the writing process. No app does it all.

  • Don’t try to use Numbers to create Excel spreadsheets. Don’t go from one spreadsheet to another. Pick one and stay with it.
The right tool for the right job, I always say. An IPad is not a computer.

Previous rant on the same topic is here.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Motel Cabins


Abandoned Motel and CabinsWagon Wheel Lodge (3 of 4)Wagon Wheel Lodge (4 of 4)Sunset Court motel cabinsJohn's Modern Cabins Rt. 66Tip Top Motel (cabins) (2 of 2)
Row of abandoned motel cabinslittle pink cabinsDay Inns CabinsNine Mile Motel CabinsDCP_1029tiny beach cabins
Town n' Country Motel (#2 in a series)Outpost cabinsTroy's Cabin Camp aka Troy's Motor Court, New Hill, NCSeattle WA: Motor Inn cabins, Aurora Avenue, 1993Independence, CA, Mt. Williamson MotelNew Hampshire_20091126_081
Motel Cabins, a gallery on Flickr.

It was while working for the Census a number of years ago that I began to realize that many of the old motor courts and roadside cabins were in fact residences. Homes. That people actually lived in these re-purposed dwellings. 

I was trying to deliver census forms to places that might be used as living quarters, mostly to people who did not particularly want to be found. I discovered living in my midst were people in this substandard housing.

Were they glad to have this roof over their head or were they ashamed?
I feel profoundly conflicted about these places. Part of me says, “No one should have to live in these places.” But part of me knows that if I were penniless, I’d prefer to live in this kind of place than in a city tenement.

The gallery of images above was chosen from Flickr to illustrate this type of living situation, though I have no information about whether these units have been re-purposed for full time living. Thank you to all the Flickr photographers that allowed me to include their images here.