File sharing and collaboration options on the iPad

The ubiquity of the iPad makes no doubt. Mobile devices are certainly part of our computational present and future in a big way.

Many schools are adopting the iPad as a less expensive alternative to laptops or as a compliment to them but although this may offer some great advantages for content creation or economical considerations, it does pose challenges.

As an individual, sharing files to and from an iPad is already tricky. Apple's rules for developers and the APIs available make it impossible to have system-wide modules to hook into shared servers or passing information to other apps. Each developer must add their own support for various file sharing methods like DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, WebDav or FTP Servers, Email or even Peer-Peer sharing amongst devices.

Hopefully, this will change at some point, perhaps to a model more akin the Android's and Windows Phone 7's "Intent" mechanisms, while retaining the security inherent to the device.

Why do we put up with this?
The answer is actually quite simple: simplicity. Paradox, right? The success of the iPad is not due to the fact that it does more than a computer, or that it does the same. No, it's success is due to the fact that it does less. Less, but in a more focused and efficient way. By this I mean that for the majority of users, computers are typically too complex. File systems confuse many people, installing software is also complicated, let alone finding software to install. Figuring out software, even simple apps, is still a stretch for many. We're talking the larger percentage of the population. Not the techies. And focus is about saying "no", not doing everything. So the iPad's success is absolutely and almost exclusively due to the fact that it focuses people on simple tasks they can feel empowered by. There is always a simple way out, the Home button, back to my list of apps. No other level. A few gestures, swiping, touching, perhaps pinching and double-tapping. Nothing too complex. Even the four-finger swipes are disabled by default. Like the right click on the Mac. There is a reason for this.

Geeks and technically savvy users are put off by this. They feel limited. Unless they see the need to have a simple experience for some tasks, which is sometimes the case. Some geeks will simply be tired of fiddling with details and just want stuff to work. They will enjoy the iPad, and will put up with its limitations. Others don't and prefer Android or other systems.

Great for kids and teachers
But in schools, teachers do not have the time or energy to fix problems, and support everything. It is hard enough in a homogeneous environment, so when things get too messy, they often stop exploring what technology can bring to support learning. And kids also appreciate this simplicity. They enjoy having fun doing work and not having to figure out the details all the time. Again, there is a mix of geeks there too, but not all kids are geeks. Not all kids are familiar with tech either actually. We assume they are experts at technology, but in reality, they are experts at very vertical tasks mostly. What they are is "at ease" with technology. They are not afraid to try and explore and this makes it easier for them to figure it out.

So in schools, the iPad helps by making things simpler. It helps teachers allow more projects to happen and allows kids to create more. It happens to be fairly simple to support too. No crashes, no viruses, simple tools for sharing the screen on a projector or interactive white board, etc.

File sharing and collaboration
This is not as simple. iCloud is not a collaboration tool at this point, and when you are planning a 1:1 deployment or large deployment of devices, the Cloud is not always the answer. In a distributed environment where funding and bandwidth is limited, the Cloud causes headaches. Wireless networks cause issues already, so adding a bunch of synching or uploading does not help. It might work for smaller number of devices, but not a large quantity of devices across many rural schools with limited bandwidth. This will change over time, but not yet.

Local laws and regulations, in Canada amongst others, also prevent public schools and other organizations from resorting on servers hosted outside of Canada when they might contain personal information. Because of the Patriot act, either the supplier of services must change their rules, which they will not, or parents must all accept the potential risk, which is impractical when some refuse (and they actually do sometimes). So great environments like Google Drive, SkyDrive, DropBox and Evernote are not being used as the central, official infrastructure for collaboration, with or without the iPad.

Individual users can use these, but a large public organization cannot rely on them officially.

So I've collected a series of best-practices and techniques to facilitate the sharing of documents between teachers and students, which can certainly apply to other scenarios.

I've placed this in a separate blog post which I've entitled:

10 ways to share content between iPads in the classroom