iPaphos

The Almyra Hotel in Paphos.

The western shore of Cyprus.

So, what brought me to this part of the world. A year prior to the trip, my co-author/researcher received an e-mail invitation to submit a paper to the first ever international conference on iPad use in higher education. Because we were finishing a study of iPad use in higher education at the time, this submission seemed like an obvious one. We submitted the paper and it was accepted. So, here we are. 

Researchers from 14 countries were represented, mostly from the EU, the Middle East, and Australia. There was one Canadian, one South African, and the two of us from the US. Two other US teams tried, without success, to connect virtually. 

The 30-minute presentations spanned a wide range of iPad use, from in-class usage, to reading and annotation, to field work use. Location services, convenient portability, lengthy battery life, ample storage, and communication functions resonated among the studies that were reported. Strategies for small to huge deployments were described. Device management and infrastructure issues were common themes. As an ex-IT director, the role of the central IT group seemed like more of obstruction than support. 

The main conference chair was motivated to host the conference to promote iPad research. He teaches at the Cyprus University of Technology and that's why Cyprus. Perhaps the second conference will be closer to home. Our paper and presentation were well received. We had loaned our students iPads to see the ways in which they would use them. They used them in class in somewhat predictable ways - reading, research, note taking - but we also wanted to see how they'd use them outside of class. Some were very creative, others didn't find much other use for them. Lack of connectivity (we didn't give them 3G-enabled versions) and issues using the virtual keyboard were barriers.

After the first session, a very odd coincidence happened. Read on ...