According to a couple of teachers I know there are plenty of children who are touch UI experts when they start school. Many have never even seen a mouse.
Children that started using Gmail in school have continue to prefer it. Currently 61% of 18 - 29 year olds (in the US) use Gmail as do 54% of those age 30 - 44.
It will be interesting to see if those that started with a touch UI will continue to prefer it as they get older.
I have posted a comment like this elsewhere, but it seems fitting here. I have four kids who are not just “digital natives,” but touch-centric digital natives. Where my first computing experience was the command prompt of an Apple IIe, they started on iPads. The older two have had iPads for three or four years, so they are fully ensconced in iOS/iPadOs. They got laptops for Christmas a year ago. Even after coming at the laptop from an iPad (rather than the reverse like many of us), they still think the laptop is the king: more efficient, more powerful, etc. They seemed to automatically gravitate toward the mouse. In a way, that saddened me. I had hoped that my friction points resulted from being too set in old habits, but even people who don’t have those habits run into the same trouble spots. I offer this as an interesting observation, not a scientific conclusion.
One note, though. I neglect to mention this part, which really is important. While the kids can use their laptops and enjoy using them, they are totally mystified by what is going on with the operating system. (They have–as was their choice–Windows PCs, not Macs. I tried to reason with them, but…) Downloading and installing apps, managing the system, figuring out where to find things that are not saved on the desktop or on the task bar, is a complete mystery to them. We are going to have training camp in my house soon, but they never had to have anything like that with their iPads. They have an intuitive feel for the iPad and how it should be used that they don’t have with the laptop. Yes, I had to teach them things on their iPads. But it was more like helping them discover a feature or way of doing something as opposed to having to train them on what a C drive is and why it matters.
Very nicely written Denny.
Depending on their ages, I’d give them a task within certain parameters and go from there. The mouse is a lil hard to get use to especially if you are used to just using your fingers.
There are an awful lot of college students using Macs and PC’s. Then they need to have had learned at least one platform for work. And once I learned a Mac, a PC was a cinch although frustrating.
I cannot see the computer being obsolete for quite some time but you never know what is going to be developed!
This is really interesting. There does seem to be pointing to the idea that each paradigm has it strengths. It will be interesting to see if we can see a clear pattern of things that those who attach themselves largely to one camp or another (as opposed to using both with some degree of fluidity) tend to avoid. Do those avoidances structure/guide how one things about solving problems? I guess its would be the the standard problem of building solutions within the limitations of ones tools. Do ways of thinking go extinct because the tools no longer facilitate them?
Interesting, LOL!! Wow. I learned on a Mac. But I certainly can use an iPad with a great amount of fluidity. That is what I have done for the last ten years. And I love them. But getting back on a Mac, well I am doing quite well as much of it is coming back, rather rapidly. (I’m a wannabe geek, I suppose).
Did my thinking processes change when my Mac died and I moved to an iPad? Wow. I bet they did. Thinking on a computer is far more complicated, deeper, far more involved and even evolved.
iPads are far simpler. Witness how readily the little kids take to them.
However, I had a few Macs in the back of my third grade classroom that I had snuck out as it was headed for demolition one and two were donated by a friend. I’d show a few kids the games or storybook writing apps and set it up so they were teaching each other. Before I knew it I had a class full of Mac enthusiasts which I inculcated while I got stuck using the PC the District bought us. “Gee, thanks!”
I was helping a friend… “What’s that lil button with the flag on it?” I pressed it and found out I had bypassed the network. The kids and I got to prance with the dancing hamsters almost daily! Sorry, I digress. (I use to get paid to do that.) At any rate, the District network never knew what I was doing on my machine. LOL!!
Ergo, I can’t imagine ever giving up my Mac. But I’d be hard pressed to give up that Apple Pencil which means I keep my Ipad Air. And I need a phone. (Please no Android! Yup, done that too- not by choice).
Most apps are not exactly doing that well with handwriting recognition. My handwriting is nice; very standard. My printing is near perfect. Some are doing fairly well like Day One, I discovered yesterday.
I just discovered something. Take the app Pages, on an Ipad if I use Spanish using the globe key, still every word is underlined in red. Not exactly conducive to writing.
I was just writing in Pages on the Mac first. I tried lapsing into Spanish (as I have no idea how to turn on the Spanish for myself (as I did on the iPad.)
NO underlining in red.
So I tried French. No underlining in French except when I goofed up the ç.
I tried Deutsch. Some underlining but not the words I was sure about.
I tried Italian. Molte bene!
I had to draw the line with Lithuanian as I mostly learned it by ear so my spelling was a wee bit OFF. LOL! I don’t think Pages is quite there yet bu I may be wrong.
And is there a way to get a second language selected for the Mac as you can do on the Ipad?
Semi-related article:
Not a bad article, but it’s like most of the ‘round peg in square hole’ arguments common in the iPad vs Mac. It does however, point out some of the differences and similarities of the two devices.
“The singular focus of iPadOS forced me to take one task at a time instead of hopping between email, Slack, my to-do list, and meetings.” - Scott Duncombe
That’s probably a good thing for 97.5% of computer users because . . .
"We’re really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time, says neuropsychologist Cynthia Kubu, PhD. “When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once, but instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching,” she says.
One study found that just 2.5% of people are able to multitask effectively. For the rest of us, our attempts to do multiple activities at once aren’t actually that." - Cleveland Clinic
And hanging the iPad on his monitor was another wise move. “The features that make laptops very portable, such as a screen attached to the keyboard, are the same features that make it difficult to adopt correct posture when using them” - UK National Health Service
IMO an iPad is not a direct replacement for a MacBook. And a Mac cannot match many of the features of an iPad. I would be willing to wager that most people who successfully use an iPad as their primary or only computer rarely use it with a keyboard.
As an admin I did most of my typing on devices other than my MacBook. So when I added an iPad to my toolkit very little changed. When I used it I still did most of my typing in a terminal window.
Right now my iPad is on a stand and I’m typing on a Bluetooth Magic keyboard. I haven’t done that in over a week which is one reason an iPad can be my primary computer.
Any and I mean just about any primary school teacher can multitask all day long. I know we are being told that multi-tasking barely exists but I’d take it to task.
Yes ma’am, Ms. Katie
I use to joke around with the kids to say “Yes ma’am, Ms. Burns!” I did it all the time.
Seriously primary teachers are doing six things at the same time as we “speak”! LOL!
I think that this is a good illustration of the difference between the (truly impressive) ability of some people to cope with constant interruptions/task switching, and (the very, very few) people who can actually increase their productivity by rapid task switching.
And, to bring that around to the topic at hand, the forced (or encouraged) focus of iPadOS can be of benefit when the work and work environment are such that interruptions or the need for task switching are rare, but many of us have work/workplaces that provide us with generous numbers of interruptions. For the latter types of work/workplaces, platforms that ease task switching are beneficial because they reduce the friction of a mode of working that’s externally imposed. The trap many of us fall into is letting the ease of task switching fool us into thinking that we’re adept at multitasking, rather than coping with a non-optimal environment.
It’s a bit strange but with the constant interruptions and trying to manage a myriad of tasks and Munchkins, I tended to bounce right off of those kids and got super creative. I’m rather creative anyway but that was when I was bombarded with many super ideas, many which I implemented.
I suppose working on a Mac would foster more creativity as you can do a number of things as opposed to an iPad although it does have that cool Apple Pencil.
You can use a pencil on a Mac too. Once.
ROFLMHO! You are funny! I needed a laugh and a good one at that!
Once I sat firmly in the iPad is the future camp, it just needed to add build capabilities for code… but.
That was 5-6 years ago, and now I find the iPad frustrating. When we decamped to Cyprus I sold both my 27" iMacs and bought 12.9 iPads for my partner and I and a Mac mini for when I needed to compile code. It was a complete failure.
My partner still uses her iPad but simple things like saving pictures for use in Blog posts (which I need to edit) is a nightmare. Dropbox constantly disconnects from the files app, and the whole process takes twice as long as it should not to mention the inevitable expletives involved.
I now work on a docked MacBook Pro, linked to a 32" 4K monitor, the next upgrade will be the macBook pro will go to my partner, I am planning on a Mac mini and iPad Air. My iPad will not be replaced, and will just go for the biggest iPhone screen. I just have no use for an iPad if I am honest.