News Corp. to challenge Apple's iPad in education with Amplify Tablet - Page 2

 

Fine.

 

All news outlets are blatantly politically aligned. Pointing one out is folly.

 

How's that? Is it a "stronger" response? I fail to see what he could logically be implying, given the data we have. 

 

I agree... Anyone can make a "Demo Video".  But, as you say, they seem to be focused on a worthwhile effort.  They've set a bar -- it will be interesting to see if they, or anyone else, can measure up!

 

I noticed that same date and came to the same conclusion. 2014 is a hundred years away in technology. 

 

One other thing I'd worry about as a school buyer and that is on-time delivery. FOX & Co. has no track record in delivering hardware. A lot of schools will take a wait and see approach on this factor alone. 

 

I can go back even before LANs were set up to teach students on PCs. Back when hand-held calculators were first introduced to the classrooms. A lot of promises and a lot of crap shoveled out instead - both hardware and study materials.

 

I read the NYTimes story on this tablet and nowhere did FOX & Co. talk about stimulating the student's DESIRE to learn. They just don't "get it" and are stuck in the 1800s English school room mentality.

 

Children are BORN with curiosity and a desire to know more and anything that stimulates that desire will lead the student to knowledge. FOX sees this as a command and control problem.

Actually, no. You really do not need to be a rabid liberal, an average sane liberal (left of center), nor even lean towards the centre from either direction, to think that Fox News is the very very bottom of the barrel. It so transparently plays to the lowest common denominator that to have the company behind Fox News enter into the field of eduction is indeed worrying. Its like letting McDonalds provide school dinners.

Which would make you a rabid liberal, non?

What tripe! You better get back to oiling your guns.

From other sources I've read on this subject the ONLY technical thing this FOX tablet does is watch the student's eye movements and throw up a "happy face" when they are reading, and a "sad face" when they are looking around or thinking instead of reading.

 

Of course this can be done with iOS and as far as I know hasn't been done for this kind of close monitoring. From the content side of things, ALL of the informational content on iOS tablets are third party, meaning an unlimited range of materials. 

 

I hope that answers your question.

 

Ha!  One of the most innovative things I saw was in 1978...  A teacher removed the back of the case on her handheld calculator -- so you could see through the transparent LCD Display...  Then she would demonstrate math functions by placing this on an Overhead Projector.

 

Your last 2 paragraphs say everything...  in filmmaking this is called a "lean forward" moment -- when you capture the viewer's interest.

 

New technology, when presented to students, usually results in a  "lean forward" moment.   I can remember the kids in the computer lab sitting on the edge of their seats, laughing, with rapt attention.

 

The secret is how to maintain that interest...  The content damn well better be as interesting as Angry Birds!

 

BTW, MineCraft is a fantastic CAD training experience!

I agree.

This also means that educators will be cautious which suggests that developers will be cautious.

By the time this has any traction they will be shipping 2013 hardware in the year of 2016 or later. I can't imagine this attracts enough attention to continue development beyond the initial release as a result.

What most of these company fail to understand is how many electronic devices do people want to carry around with them each day, so these guys and I do not care who they are believe they their education table will make people replace or carry yet another piece of electronics around with them. Another example of why companies fail, they get involved in things they have no clue about. A publishing company is now in the electronic business.

 

I have a theory on this all, we probably got some people who want to work at apple making products like a Table and apple out right reject them so these people say they will teach Apple a lesson and went off and found a gullible company to buy into their stupid idea and pay them to make something we all know will fail.

Edited by Maestro64 - 3/7/13 at 3:09pm

Meanwhile, year after year the surveys show the same result:

 

http://www.mediaite.com/online/yet-another-survey-fox-news-viewers-worst-informed-npr-listeners-best-informed/

Come on, a dog can make a better rebuttal than that, but my expectations were admittedly low to begin with.

 

And just for the record, I don't own any guns.

 

I totally agree. This dog won't hunt. By the time this late comer comes to market Apple will have evolved several generations.

The cluelessness of FOX on this is amazing to me.

1. They show up late to the game.

2. Spew a lot about hardware specs.

3. They see learning as a management problem.

4. Want to sell a subscription service for content.

5. Will barely get to market until 2014

6. See the rest of the market standing still while they skate to where the puck was...

 

I re-watched the video.  This is a concept video!  There is no demonstration of apps -- only some illustrations of a tablet display mockup with some animation simulating finger touch interaction -- which brings up another display mockup.

 

This is called storyboarding or prototyping.  It is commonly used when designing an App or a web site so that you can demonstrate how the app might work prior to writing the code to implement the app.  It is part of the design phase of development.  

 

Likely, the actual apps are not, yet, written -- or they would have demonstrated some of them.

 

The video shows how things should work -- in an ideal system.  There is no discussion of what happens when things go wrong?  For example @3:10 the video discusses how the District can push out updated content to the Student's tablet...  What if it can't connect?  What if it connects and the update fails? What If the Student's homework, test, essay, etc. is destroyed in the process.

 

So, yes it is a good concept... but the proof is in the implementation. 

 

BTW, XCode which is used to Write OS X and iOS apps has a built-in storyboard feature that can be used to create this kind of display mockups...  It is a simple matter to run this storyboard, display a screen mockup, simulate a touch, display the next mockup... All on the Simulator without ever writing a line of code.  The simulator action can be captured with an OS X app, voice-over added and voila, we have a concept video!

Edited by Dick Applebaum - 3/6/13 at 3:09pm

Useless, unscientific, biased, flawed survey in which the results were really not much different between the groups involved.

 

http://megangeyer.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/fox-news-viewers-least-informed-why-you-should-be-skeptical/

FOX is not all bad. Just this morning I was reading an article on their site reporting the recent discovery of ancient mummified remains in the arctic that still had some DNA proving that modern camels evolved from this extinct creature that lived millions of years ago, in what is now the arctic.

 

Fox sports also has excellent content with no political bias.

 

And it is not really FOX anyway, it is News Corp. I know you are thinking this educational material will be authored by Bill O'reily and Sean Hanity but most likely it will be inline with current school curriculum otherwise it will be rejected by public education systems which would reduce their market to church schools which already censor their content.

This is exactly the kind of drivel that's typical for 'Conservatives'.

There is a mountain of scientific evidence on the thinking processes of conservatives and liberals. The data is quite consistent - conservatives react from their guts with little willingness to consider facts while liberals are far more likely to evaluate the facts before deciding. That's why you have something like 50% of Republicans still believing that the earth is less than 10,000 years old and denying evolution.

I would suggest reading "The Republican Brain" or "The Republican War on Science", both by Chris Mooney. Or his web site and TV show "Point of Inquiry". And not that he's not simply stating opinions, he's citing psychological research from all the experts in the field.

But, then, I know you won't. The typical conservative response to facts that disagree with their persona opinions is to double down - to become even more entrenched in their opinions and ignore the facts. That's why we had a Presidential candidate whose solution to drought conditions was to pray for rain and who was trying to get evolution removed from the schools.

I see. So your response is "sure, we don't know anything and all of the things we think are true happen to be false, but that doesn't mean we're uninformed."

Figures.

BTW, if you don't like that particular poll, read the books I gave you which have links to hundreds of independent studies which all reach the same conclusion - including double blind, fully random studies.

Good find on the random blogger with a bachelors degree up against the Fairleigh Dickinson University, but note that their findings are consistent with multiple polls from the Pew Research Center, University of Maryland, and many others, spanning from the Iraq war forward.

 

I know, I know:  it's all a grand conspiracy....

Teach the made up controversy.

 

Im actually glad they are doing it. So long as they don't mess with deals with places like the iTunes Store to favor themselves. Because then the iPad has competition in said market. Makes it harder for folks to scream that the iPad is only 'winning' because there are no other players.

Nope, what the survey tells is that the average person is pretty dumb, regardless if they watch Fox News or the Daily Show or listen to NPR. Getting 1 question correct out of nine or 1.5 questions correct out of nine is a pretty terrible result. Also, the questions can be biased and tilted towards one direction, since they were chosen by the people making the survey.

 

I'm not here to defend Republicans or everybody on the right. I disagree with certain views, and I have my own viewpoints. There are plenty of douches on the right and I also see plenty of douches on the left. I'm just pointing out that if Fox is fair game here, then so are many things on the left, and I have noted that for next time, should the subject come up.

 

Both of my sisters are in schools that moved to iPads and no issues. Perhaps because they blocked facebook etc at the routers. And the teachers walked around and paid attention to what the kids were doing, same as when they watched for passing notes, reading comics etc

I see that some of my replies are mysteriously vanishing, like something straight out of an Orwell novel, so I'm obviously not going to waste my time in replying to this thread anymore.

Most college professors are liberal because they are well educated and well informed, and have made a career choice that indicates that money is not their primary motivating factor.

I believe you meant a turd sandwich on one side, and a giant douche on the other.  :)

 

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s08e08-douche-and-turd

It's the same for journalists actually.

The more educated and more informed you are, the more liberal you are likely to become, unless your goal is personal wealth.

"Ding dong..." goes the song. ;)

 

Love that response:  when other people's posts get deleted it's simply forum moderation, but when his get delete its a conspiracy.

 

AI has built for itself the healthiest community on the Interwebs. /s

'Fox News' and 'Education' used in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

DOH! Broke my own rule ....

Only one I know of went to court to fight for their 'right' to lie on the news.

With budget cuts, the biggest thing I noticed was the price. $300 for a tablet that's specifically geared towards school vs. an iPad that costs $500. As soon as one school sees success with this tablet, then it could spread to other schools.

Considering it's a 2 year subscription that bumps the tablet up to $499+ Tax I don't see that threatening Apple's iPad or iPad mini. Then there are the technical specs.

 

These folks are releasing an Nvidia ARM product that will not compete with the soon-to-be flooding market iPad and iPad mini, both Retina+ displays. Then there is the AppleCare+ 2 year bumper to bumper.

 

I'm sorry, but the massive ecosystem [Amplify is making money on Education Services, not the Tablet] of the AppStore and iBookStore to iTunes University and more means this and more are already DOA.

 

They all lie. I don't understand what the issue is. All news stations have a political bent; and as they're all legally allowed to lie (in my opinion, to the point of slander), listening to both sides is the only way you can ever discover the truth.

 

I think Obama is THE best president since JFK.

 

My opinion vs. yours whatever...

Nope. It's only garbage if you have no sense of humor.

And how many advertisements will there be? and how much will they track students and sell their info?

Not to mention do you want Fox News being the sole news provider for schools? GAWD.

Considering one of Murdock's "Newspapers" was shut down in the UK for a lack of journalistic integrity that went all the way to the top a few years ago, and Fox News' willingness to tell only what supports their cause, I would have a problem with my child being taught via a curriculum designed they this company.  HarperCollins was acquired by them in 1990.  I never realized it before but this was the beginning of a campaign to shape the views of America other western countries. I ten year span he bought out many major publishers and newspapers, and in 1996 started FoxNews with the CEO being a former Republican Strategist. Imagine that.  If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, It's a duck!

I disagree with you here. I can watch CNN, CSPAN and several other without hearing bald face lies.  I have actually watched the President make a speech and then see Fox News completely lie about what he said and edit the speech to try and support it.  It's one thing when a guest is biased but the hosts don't even try to hide it anymore.  I find it distasteful.  Of course everyone has an opinion, but a real journalist puts that aside and provides both sides equally to allow the viewer to make an informed decision.  MSNBC I have not caught in lies but I can't stand to listen to them because they are biased the other way.  I think one way to look at it is, whose agenda is safer.  One that is perpetuated and funded by greed and hunger for power or one that aims to minimize the damage from the other. 

If you were ever critical of teachers unions, this time you'll be glad they're around. No way in hell they're going to let Fox News into the classroom.

Agreed!