iPad: A Music Professor's View

I promised Elliott a post at the end of the day on my experiences with the iPad and particularly on how I see it in an academic context. As a musician, I immediately gravitated to apps like "Pianist Pro," which has a much more comfortable keyboard than the iPhone app and a decent array of sounds and possibilities. I also downloaded an app called "Sheets," which has a sizable library of notated music.

I see devices like the iPad as potentially changing the nature of textbooks. Almost all of us have had to pay exhorbitant fees for textbooks, either for our selves or for our children. As a professor, I'm deeply aware of this cost when I teach. The iPad and the Kindle could potentially revolutionize the publishing industry. We could cut the cost of textbooks exponentially and reduce the logjam at college bookstores. My publisher and my bookstore might not like that idea, but I do.

Of these two devices, the iPad clearly has the edge. My Kindle has the advantage of being light and having a battery that seemingly lasts forever (as long as you turn off the wireless); but it cannot compete with the screen clarity of the iPad. Moreover, the iPad has brilliant colors and can play videos in breathtaking clarity.

I'm going to let my students at Skidmore College play with this too to get their reactions, so I'll have more to add as the week goes along.

Gordon Thompson - Skidmore College - Author, "Please, Please Me"