Apple unveiled its newest toy today: the iPad. I won’t lie. I watched the video, and I want one already. Along with the undoubted millions of others coveting the device, I have to wait until April for the 3G version to come out. Fortunately, I happen to have a birthday in that month, which might just be my excuse for buying myself one. The wi-fi version will be released in March, and it will most likely be the $499 model. Cool new features like the new kind of silicon chip, the A4, that Apple developed for the iPad aside, this device is just the kind of sci-fi gizmo that threatens to turn things upside-down. In the same way that the iPod changed the way we listen to music and the iPhone changed the way we… well, it changed the face and function of cell phones, anyway–the iPad is threatening to change the way we interact with media of all sorts, from straightforward surfing the Net to streaming videos and reading books. Anyone concerned with educational technology should be checking out this new device.

Apple’s iPad: An Education Revolution in the Works?

Already, Abilene Christian University’s newspaper, The Optimist, has a deal to publish on the iPad. Other newspapers will no doubt follow suit in short order. This new tablet could bring about the kind of print media renaissance that the industry needs. The traditional format of newspapers doesn’t work well on regular computer screens. It just doesn’t look right. Put it on a tablet, though, and suddenly you’ve got the hottest way to check out the news without getting ink on your fingers.

This, of course, makes a nice segue into books–and the iPad has got those in spades. Debuting with the device: the Apple eBook, sorry, iBook store. Like a Kindle with more functionality than you can shake an iPhone at, the iPad could be the most noteworthy new harbinger of the death of textbooks we’ve seen. Rather than shelling out hundreds of dollars for textbooks, tomorrow’s college students will be shelling out hundreds for a new iPad and probably a whole lot less for the textbook itself.

Barnes & Noble is already trying to corner the textbook market for tablets with its new Nook, but frankly, now that the iPad is here, the more simplistic ereaders are probably on their way out–I wouldn’t be surprised if netbooks also take a dive. Imagine having a full-color textbook with integrated videos in lieu of pictures. Imagine having that textbook update itself automatically when someone finds a typo–or a theory is proven wrong. The iPad is slated to change the way we interact with texts in general, putting textbook publishers in the evolve-or-die-out hot seat. Now if only it would release the scent of old books when you pick it up.

An Answer to the iPad Detractors

Already, the snide remarks (“iPad? Does it have wings?”) and criticisms of the device have started. To everyone out there taking this device as a clunkier version of the iPhone, I suggest that you take a different approach to the device. The iPad should be thought of as a computer, not just a new toy to compliment your laptop. You wouldn’t want to hold one up to your ear to make a call, but then again, you wouldn’t want to cuddle up with your iPhone to strain your eyes reading a book, watching a movie (although I know more than a few people for which this is a habit), or typing up a paper.

Personally, I’m already a big fan of pads–that’s the regular paper kind. The idea that I could, in a few short months, be carrying a pad that can check my email while running a video in a window and letting me take notes on a meeting is thrilling. I hate to think that it all comes down to size, but despite all their functionality, smart phones are just too small to facilitate multitasking and easy reading.

The iPad has the potential to replace more than just textbooks. Were an educational institution to take full advantage of the device, students wouldn’t even need to bring pencils or paper to class. Teachers could give and recieve assignments and tests electronically. Already, the functionality of the iPhone and iPod Touch is being put to work in classrooms in the form of live polls and electronic hand-raising. Imagine what the iPad could add to this.