Word Processing:
This is one of those things that many say they can't live without on the iPad. The more I use technology and look for ways to use it in education though, the less I feel the need for a word processor. Typing things seems so flat compared to all of the great things that can be done with this technology. I did encounter a few moments where I did actually have to type something. Google Drive and Pages were my go-to apps.
Email Account:
This seems like the simplest part of the experiment but I have to say this was more challenging for me. Right or wrong, I function out of my email account for reminders and my "To Do" list of the day. Throughout the day notifications come up reminding me of appointments and my To Do list items on my Mac. I am also on several email lists. On my Mac, I have email rules to move many of those messages out of my inbox to deal with later but sadly there is no way to filter those messages in iOS Mail. It seemed like I was deleting email all day long! I also find it easier to miss appointments and To Do items since there is no way to 'Snooze' the notifications on iOS. There may be an app for this but I'm holding out for some improvements in a future iOS Mail update!
Documents:
About a month ago, I moved all of my documents from my Mac over to an online cloud service (like Dropbox, Box, Google Drive). Any documents that I needed were accesible in an app for that service. Thankfully, more and more apps give you the ability to "Open in . . ." another app. This definitely makes it easier to work with any documents that were already uploaded.
Printing:
Maybe it was a strange week or maybe I'm really creating a paperless workspace but I did not have a need to print much this week. I had one district form to print out and submit and I used the Printer Pro app to do that. For the most part, I don't have a huge need to print much of anything let alone print from the iPad. I realize that may be different for other schools and work environments.
Flash:
One thing I did not miss this week was continually updating Flash for my browsers! With that said, Flash is another common place where people say they cannot commit to full iPad usage. I was pleasantly surprised by how many sites have modernized to not require Flash to run their site. For sites that would not run Flash, most of the time they offered an app. I can definitely get by without Flash but I know there are still a number of educational games that are still running Java and Flash without an app substitute. For the rare moments when I absotultely needed to have Flash, I used the Photon App to provide a browser running Flash.
My Keyboard Setup:
I want to share my setup with you. I do have a Logitech Ultra Thin Keyboard but for the week I used a Dell USB keyboard connected with the iPad Camera Connection Kit. I found a cheap 2 in 1 connection kit on Amazon and it works great.
Surprisingly, I'm ready to keep going the rest of the year with just my iPad. I will have my MacBook nearby and ready to filter out email and of course access those only available with Flash or Java sites! I cannot wait to see how much more I learn about using the iPad with continued serious use. Can you make it a week with only the iPad? I would especially love to hear from some classroom teachers if they think they could do it and how this could change the way you teach!
Since publishing this entry I learned that our Outlook Web Access allows for rules to be created at the server level but only when using the full web version on Internet Explorer. I had missed this previously because I only use Chrome and Safari on the Mac. I now have my lists filtered out of my inbox and my iOS Mail is much happier!