Loving the Limitations: iPads, Paper, and Creativity



Gratuitous Display of Awesome



Opening Story of the King Thamus of Egypt and his inventor and advisor Theuth.

* Boundaries often encourage curiosity, resourcefulness, and excellence. Sometimes the limitations of a medium in learning can be a chief strength.

What is soccer or football with no lines...what if a player just put on a jet pack? Notice how we allow technology in for subtle changes (shirt materials, etc.), but not for major changes (jet pack, titanium body armor, etc.). The lines and rules create severe limitations. This requires the athlete to train and focus and perform with marvelous creativity in order to achieve the desired end. These limitations staying consistent enable us to compare current triumphs with the past.

Mountain Climbing and Airplanes

Is flying over a mountain the same as hiking up it?

Football and Geometric Planes

Thinking inside the box can be quite creative.

* So, we begin with iPads: They are Amazing

* iPads are marvelous devices for finding reading material and providing a general context to a word or subject.
* They are a very convenient means for creating, storing and sharing ideas with others.
* They are cheaper and more portable than laptops.
* They are lightweight.
* iPads feature apps that can help make learning more fun (math games, etc.).
* iPads can help students with certain kinds of learning challenges (Autistic spectrum, etc.).
* They have a good battery life.
* We find more uses for them every day. You are probably reading this on an iPad =).  

But sometimes we go too far.
Robert Frost once wrote, "Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak." I think we hurt the good use of some technologies by overstating their use or benefit.


"Changed everything"? "Hands-on learning"? "Learning to a whole new level"?

It appears that educational history was a sad bywayer until the iPad arrived.
Exaggerated claims may overshadow places we may really find benefits:





* But Paper Still has a Proper Place

A Biblical Example: Deuteronomy 17:18-20
18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

The idea was to keep the king from being proud, changing the boundaries to suit his whim.

Obviously, a king could have someone copy something out for him. God made mankind and knew that the king would remember the law much better if he wrote it out himself. Writing things out is a very human thing to do.

Let's take a look at news and research available to us.



Two key articles:
1. Time: "Why Digital Literacy Will Never Replace the Traditional Kind."
2. Even some digital pioneers are skeptical about a digitally-rich learning environment:


* Misdirections

* Going paperless is green:


The focus appears to be on how "green" the iPad will help the school become.
Unfortunately, that's not true. Paper is renewable; it grows on trees. iPads don't, nor do their factory workers. Our forests are great, much greater than mid 20th century, due to wiser harvesting practices.
* Could email emoticons and backgrounds present the emotional range of paper?
No, the truth is that paper's substance encourages real emotional context: keepsakes, diplomas, covenants, deeds, letters.
* Does more technology in the hands of students open greater learning vistas?
Not according to a Duke study. Or download Winona State University's study.
* Social media is ubiquitous; it's great; you need it!
Actually, social media isn't even really social. We are lonelier than ever...this may increase heart disease.
* Will iPads make us all geniuses by 2030?

No, see "The Decade Google Made You Stupid." A Princeton study concludes that the ereader is worsening the classroom environment.
* Students generally feel that they learn more on paper. Physical experience helps you learn more.
* My visit to Apple.

* Last night's poetry reading (every reader, from Watsonville high students to the aged, read from paper.) Quentin Tarantino, "You can't write poetry on a computer."

* But don't they all have devices anyway...they'll have to learn on their own one way or another, right? It's not our fault if students can't handle it; that's the world today. No. Some parents don't buy these things for their children. Even if they did, that doesn't excuse us. If most people bought guns, and I required my students to have a gun in class to participate, actually issued each student one, then I'd have some responsibility concerning the use of said technology.

* Digital readers save space and time (instant book purchase and use) which gives us more leisure. No, we generally go for the blinking lights and buzzing sounds until we're exhausted or the battery is low. Reading a paper book is centering and can be so....relaxing. Some hotels now offer digital detox packages. Some need it more than others: Portlandia.

* Examples from my classes:
* The story of a student who requested to not use iPads in my class.
* Survey (1 in 10 were positive). Students were to put any thoughts or advice they had on iPad use in the school as a whole. Two years of collection: most students are saying that iPads are distracting them from their best. Some say iPads are helping them. They don't generally say that there should be no iPad use...just that it should be limited in scope and carefully planned.

* Conclusions and Applications

We are muscular, physical beings. We love light and life. Robert Frost: "Scatter poems on the floor;/ Turn the poet out of door" ("To the Thawing Wind").

We enjoy spectacle, especially physical spectacle (Chris Rock interview, Steve Martin); paper airplanes, flying erasers, fingernails on chalkboards. iPads also offer spectacle, but students generally get mountains of that kind on their own.

We are mysterious creatures of the soil (and the heavens) and remember by the soil. Over that hill. Behind the tall tree. We are geographical creatures. We like a strong, physical trail. Paper's phyical and geographic consistency makes for a clearer neuropathway which probably means less time needed to study to retain or recall something.

Think about the greatest teachers you've known...what made them great? Consider Jesus. He didn't even write. What technology did he utilize? A boat, I suppose. But that was nothing new. His classroom was the world, and he taught wisely. There is no greater teacher.

My story of Dr. Bobo (it was his physical demonstration that won the theological lesson).

We do enjoy and value paper (I scavenged a signed, rare copy of Gene Tunney's autobiography that a library was throwing out, signed; consider Karl Kissner in Ohio; consider my Bible page from 1611).





People do like to know and feel they are a part of something sacred, trustworthy, established, ancient, good. Christians, especially, are a people of the book. It has its inconveniences, but the glory and heritage is well worth it.

Students need real people, not their virtual ghosts, teaching. We love to have people share their lives, their stories, personally with us...community...communion.

Most of our students already have a great deal of screen time away from school.

Consider that each student is a different creature to some degree. Some students just won't do well with the available distraction on digital devices. School should be a good place to focus. Many students learn better with fewer potential rabbit trails at their fingers...especially boys and students on the margins. We should not stumble the weak...there's a verse about millstones that comes to mind.

One of the iPad's key strengths is its limitation/weaknesses. iPads have great potential...but not as our savior.
Limitations are a prerequisite for creativity.  The point of this research and thought is not to discourage a good use of the iPad but to discourage the thought that paperless is always the ideal learning environment.  Sometimes it's great; sometimes it's better to work from paper.  iPads have great uses, and so does paper.

We should not view the iPad as the wonder drug that will work wonders or the narcotic that will make us all brain-dead junkies. We should enjoy the technologies we have and not envy those we don't. We should work wisely, loving our students, guarding them well, and employing the tools we have to delight and teach them best. Christ said, "Be anxious for nothing." Aim first to love the kids. Aim next to keep the teaching from tangling. May we not be the rails the railroad rides on (Thoreau) or the wires a wireless thrives on.

Let the children rest. Let the children focus. Let the children play and pray safely. Let the children come unto you. Create beautifully within the limitations. The limitations are beautiful.

* Any questions?

* Enjoy


Music: Ray Barbee: "The Limitations are Beautiful"

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