“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
Neil Gaiman

Monday, May 2, 2011

An Apple For The Teacher

I have been an Apple fanatic since the fall of Eve. Only unlike Eve, my temptation has moved well beyond those sweet dangly fruits hanging from trees, much as I do love a good trip to the orchard for some Stayman Winesaps, and on toward Apples of the high falutin’ techy type. I do believe my Dad still has one of the very first generation Apple computers still sitting in the old computer graveyard of his basement, an Apple IIe from the early 80’s. Ah the days of floppy disks! I’m pretty sure I still have a circa 1995 PowerMac Classic in my own computer graveyard, housed in my barn. When the iPad first came out, I saw a great picture of the Classic used as a trendy retro desk stand for the iPad – recycling at its best. http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/06/09/excellent-mac-classic-converted-to-ipad-stand/












Needless to say, when I left the corporate world in 2001 to stay home for a while, I decided to migrate away from the PC world and over to my true favorite, the world of Apple. I started with an iMac, added peripheral hardrives, bought a MacBook when I started grad school, added an AirPad, and finally when Verizon was able to provide service for iPhone bought my coveted iPhone. I am completely embarrassed by admit the number of apps I have on my iPhone…but they are well organized!


One of the things that I am going to start talking about on The Suburban Barnyard is use of technology. Some of the apps really have my wheels spinning with ideas. I REALLY want that iPad now! As far as I am concerned, forget the Kindles, Nooks, etc. and invest in an iPad. You will get so much more bang for your buck. Why buy one platform when you can buy a multiplatform library you can carry in your hand? And the iPad goes even further by serving as a travelling desktop and remote presentation tool. I could go on and on, but I’ll save that for another day. There is good reason for the love affair we all seem to have with iPads and the new surge of copycats. They are here to stay. Apps will continue to develop at an even faster rate and I am excited to see what lies ahead.

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