iPad?

[Anonymous]

I’m looking into getting an iPad for school. I feel like it might help me be better organized without having to take my laptop everywhere, and I’ll have more tools to help me with.

So my question is, does anyone have an iPad and use it and find it helps them, and do you know of any useful apps for it?

I might be able to get the iPad funded to me by the government, so I would like to try. They ask that I get a doctor’s note describing why I need it, so if anyone has any suggestions that I can tell my doctor to put down if she thinks its a good idea, that would be great!

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[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have been using the IPad for the past couple of years and I have to admit that I’d rather put it into the category “useful toys”.

Even though I do use it for off-hour emailing and organizing (I’m an IT person), I spend more time playing with friends or doing stupid stuff. As you will use it for school, there might be some benefits- apps like numbers, pages, keynote, etc come to mind. My husband teaches college and uses it for almost everything that relates to school and teaching.

Personally, I would not want to miss my IPod touch, though- that’s where I got all my health monitoring apps, dropbox, readers, etc. Calendar function has been a life saver. More portable and more convenient. If I had to give up one of them, I’d say goodbye to the IPad without hesitation.

Hope that helps…

Rebecca

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[kc5jck]

Danica – I relayed your question to my daughter. I wouldn’t call her a computer geek, but she has built herself two computers and it somewhat up to date on this stuff. She said that for school, she would go with a laptop. She didn’t elaborate why, but she is currently, among other things, working on her masters in history, the point being that she has plenty of academic experience and brains so she must have her reasons. (She is not ADHD.)

She has an Asus Transformer running the Android operating system. This device has or has available for it a word processor and spreadsheet, something I don’t think the iPad has. I use a laptop for my business because I need the ability to store files, run various applications, and print. I don’t need the ability to run on battery although it is convenient. Also, I don’t think the iPad has a DVD reader or speakers, good for viewing videos.

I see an iPad as a laptop with most of the good features removed in a slightly smaller package for about the same price.

If you have any other questions for my daughter, I can pass them on.

Good to hear from you, let us know how it’s going with you.

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[Scattybird]

Hi Danica – you are very wise to ask advice. Have you also thought about looking at any reviews on google?

I have resisted getting one so far because I was always under the impression that they are a bit of a toy. Great for watching films etc but for real work? But.. I am speaking from ignorance. I would rather buy a Mac – the thin Air ones.

I was recently at a conference and one of my colleagues had an iPad. She used it for making notes during the sessions and said she likes it because it’s less obvious and bulky than a laptop. She seemed to think it is excellent and it certainly had plenty of word and PDF files on it so she obviously used it a lot. However, I couldn’t help think that for the cost I would rather have a decent laptop.

It depends what you want it for. I bought myself a Livescribe pen a while ago. Not sure why, but I waste money on ‘gismos’ (which is why it interests me that I haven’t bought an iPad). Anyway, the Livescribe pen allows you to record stuff. It has a notebook with it (special dotted paper) and if for example you wanted to record a lesson then you can write down key points rather than full notes – in addition to the recording. When you play back the recording, rather than having to listen to it all, you tap on a section of your written notes and the recording jumps to that part of the session. There is also software that you can download onto your computer and that transcribes the recording into a full text transcript. It is expensive to buy the pen and you are tied in to having to purchase the special paper (although you can print your own with a particular kind of printer?). But it is cheaper than an iPad.

I wish I had had one of them when I was a student. A bit of a gimmic for someone not in education or the kind of job that requires careful notetaking but… It is expensive compared to other recorders.

So I was just thinking it depends what you want your iPad for – you might want to think about getting your government to pay for a Livescribe pen? It would be easy to justify in terms of getting the information down and transcribing into text. If you are easily distracted then it does mean you wouldn’t miss anything.

Another colleague has recently bought an iPad so I will ask him how he’s getting on with it. But kc’s daughter is probably the most relevant source of info. if she’s studying.

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[Anonymous]

Hello,

thought I’d just pop back in with some additional thoughts…

One of my coworkers does use his IPad with a neat little foldable external keyboard (bluetooth) that turns the machine into some kind of a laptop. This solution is actually pretty neat for people who hate the original keyboard dock.

As for the software- “Pages” is a great app for Word processing, “Numbers” is comparable to Excel and “Keynote” is great for Powerpoints. All cost about 10$ each. Excellent value for your money.

My husband does alot of “Blackboard” work on his IPad and the storage options with ICloud and Dropbox are kind of cool.

IBooks works fine as a PDF reader and organizer. I tend to watch quite a few “educational” things on TED and have downloaded several language courses (not exactly the Rosetta Stone, but very efficient because of the audio-visual experience) and IT certification prep engines.

The more I think about it, you’ll probably get alot of mileage out of the IPad…

Let me know if you need any more info

Have a great day,

Rebecca

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[Anonymous]

I have both an iPad and an iPhone, and use both regularly to help me organize my life. The beautiful thing is the iCloud – anything you enter on one device automatically gets included on the other! I think the iPod Touch would also work like the iPhone (except without the phone part

I use the Calendar and Reminder apps quite a bit for organization. It’s nice to enter it once and forget about it until the little reminder “alarm” beeps. It helps to keep all those loose bits of info from swimming around in my brain! With the new iPad and the iPhone 4S, you can set the Reminders to repeat – once a day, once a month, etc.

There are also a countless number of apps you can get for school organization.

As for the iPad specifically – I would definitely get an external keyboard to use with it if you use it as your primary computer for school. The on-screen keyboard is good in a pinch, but writing a 10 page research paper on it would drive me nuts!!!!

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[Patte Rosebank]

The other issue with an iPad is that it’s a touch-screen device, so it lacks the tactile nature of a real keyboard. You need to be able to physically feel each key on the keyboard, if you’re doing any real typing or data entry. Try typing a large block of text (like a business letter) into your computer, without looking at the keyboard. Then, go to a computer store and try the same thing on an iPad or other tablet. You can’t do it.

That puts touch-screen devices firmly into the realm of “very clever entertainment devices”, rather than “practical work tools”. There are many computer experts who very strongly agree with this.

For organizing my life, I have an Android smartphone—with minimal extra apps on it, and only practical ones that I really need. I use the Calendar and Alarm features, and I also back up all entries by writing them into a Daytimer, and noting critical times (say, my call time at work that day) on the side of my hand, between my thumb and wrist. I may forget to look at my smartphone or Daytimer, but I can’t help but notice the times scribbled on my hand!

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[Amy]

I use my ipod touch religiously to keep my life organized (Notes, Week Cal, Remember the Milk (with subscription), Weather, Evernote, ShopShop, Grocery Pal, and Nag to name some of the more useful apps to me). I am not a student though, so I can’t say whether you’d be better off with an ipad verus a laptop. For school, I’d personally prefer a laptop and maybe something like the Livescribe pen that’s mentioned above if money is not an issue. I suppose it matters whether you can type fast enough on an ipad without the keyboard. I have a kindle fire though, but I wouldn’t use it for note taking.

Amy

http://acatwithadhd.com

BTW, I hope y’all don’t mind my putting the URL of my website as a signature for each of my posts. If it bothers a lot of you, I can remove it!

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice!

I am actually also applying for a Smart Pen, and I do already have a laptop, I just thought that the iPad would be nice just for taking to class. I think I’ll put a little more thought into and see what happens

Thanks guys!

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[Anonymous]

Danica,

I bought a IPAD not for my ADD but to get out of hauling my laptop all over the job sites. I found with a word processing program and several other APPS it helped me with organization and I could download everthing to my PC. I added a voice recording program which would convert recordings to Word Docs. I just added a livescribe pen to the mix to further improve things. Any any device or system that works for you is a good system as nothing works for everyone. Tech does not work for everyone and sometimes old school can be the best.

Neal

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[Robbo]

I’m glad this thread popped up. I’m thinking about getting a used ipad, mainly for writing, reading, entertainment, and maybe a couple classes if my reading/writing skills keep improving, and of course I would get one of those keyboards to go with it, one try at typing on a ipad made me quickly see I’d go berzerk. Thanks

<<“Amy

http://acatwithadhd.com

BTW, I hope y’all don’t mind my putting the URL of my website as a signature for each of my posts. If it bothers a lot of you, I can remove it!>>”

I think it’s totally okay Amy, So one vote “for” posting it. I just have one small request, let us know when you update it along with posting the address? I look foreword to new stuff. I betchya I’m speaking for a bunch of folks. We’ll be happy to find out when you officially “go pro” too. Your comics are better than a lot of the stuff they put in newspapers, (not that I actually read newspapers much at all, when I do I usually go to the funnies real quick) Your funnies have that authentic professional look.

Peace

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