ASCOTech Novel Approaches to Educational Technology: Lessons Learned from Steve Jobs James Kundart OD, MEd, FAAO Optometric Education welcomes Dr. Kundart as the editor of ASCOTech. He is the Chairman of the Education- al Technology Special Interest Group for the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry. He is a researcher and author and an Associate Professor at the Pacific University College of Optometry. t the American Academy cross-platform) and even DOS 6.22. more than market research. Despite of Optometry meeting last Yet I couldn’t help but notice the inno- the fact that there seemed to be no de- October in Boston, many of vative products that Apple developed, mand for it, he insisted that Apple pur- A us saw the glass walls of the particularly after Jobs’ triumphant re- sue a new, all-in-one computer, which Apple Store covered with Post-It note turn in 1997. eventually became the first Macintosh. dedications, and the sidewalk stacked As optometric educators, whether we While Xerox can be credited with in- with iPod cases and McIntosh fruit. use Macintosh, PC, or both, we can vention of the first graphical user in- Those who weren’t there perhaps saw benefit from reflecting on the following terface, it was Apple that was able to a similar outpouring of emotion on- six lessons that Jobs taught us. mass-manufacture and popularize it. social networks. Some were surprised This eventually gave us the Macintosh that these expressions of grief stretched Lesson #1: Market OS X, and led Microsoft to mimic it around the globe at the untimely loss Research Can Lead You with Windows. This benefitted us all of the co-founder and longtime CEO (except in the short term, DOS teach- of Apple, Steve Jobs. Backward, Not Forward ers like me). When his biography, Steve Jobs by Wal- Consumers, be they retail customers Another idea Jobs took from Xerox and ter Isaacson, went on sale, it outsold or optometry students, are often more made popular was the computer mouse. all other books printed in 2011, a par- comfortable with what they know than You couldn’t ask consumers what they ticularly remarkable achievement con- what they don’t. Imagination of how thought of a computer mouse back sidering it was rushed to publication things could be can fail the young and then; no one knew what they were. But in late October. Those who remember the old alike. Jobs knew this. In the ear- Jobs correctly intuited that end-users of Jobs from the Macintosh computer ly days of Apple Computer, the Apple technology wanted to use their hands may have wondered why so many felt II generated more than two-thirds of to manipulate technology, a truth that this way, particularly in a persistently the company’s profit. It’s hard to be- led Apple to the mouse as well as the Windows world. But whether one is an lieve that a circuit board and attached touch screens on iPhones and eventu- Apple or PC user, it is undeniable that keyboard was all it was. ally iPads. Jobs’ foresight and innovation changed If Jobs had surveyed his customer base The lesson that market research is over- the way we use computers, particularly back then, he would have only made rated can be applied to optometric edu- in the area of educational technology. the small stylistic changes in Apple’s cation. For example, I have noticed that Although I am recording these thoughts best-selling product, like improving the many of my students have a hard time on a Macintosh laptop, I wasn’t always keyboard and adding an internal (albeit weaning themselves off hard-copy pa- an Apple user. I was one in that fortu- floppy) disc drive. If market research per notes and exams. They aren’t asking nate first generation of students who had been important to Jobs, the sleek, for change. However, when given the came of age with the first personal stylish Apple IIc would have marked opportunity to go paperless for lectures computers in the 1980s, but I was a PC the end of a good run for the company, and exams, they discover the many user. In fact, before entering optomet- and it probably wouldn’t be with us to- benefits. For example, many can type ric education, I once taught Microsoft day. faster than they can write; many prefer applications (before they were available Fortunately, Jobs trusted his intuition the ergonomics of an upright computer You can reach Dr. Kundart at (503) 352-2759 or [email protected] Optometric Education 70 Volume 37, Number 2 / Winter-Spring 2012 display over flat hard copy; and in this this seed change allowed the company them, if it’s too complicated to use, age of disappearing print media, they to tap into the future. they will gravitate to their much less all benefit from having a light, portable, Jobs wasn’t even afraid of abandoning powerful, but familiar, camera phone. digital version of their notes to take on the keyboard. It turns out that like the While privacy issues are paramount, I their external rotations. floppy disc drive that everyone thought understand their inclination. It’s hard to believe that the younger was essential at one time, once you It reminds me of the iPod Shuffle, a de- generation would have trouble adjust- abandon hardware that has outlived its vice so small and light they have even ing to change. After all, today’s students usefulness, there’s no going back. removed the display. You can skip a have taken their Optometry Admission How does this impact optometric edu- song, but you can’t see what’s on it, or Test on a computer and will soon take cation? From continuing education lec- even what’s playing. You have to listen. parts of their national board exams that turers using their iPads to deliver con- Shuffles are inexpensive, and the bat- way. However, we are creatures of habit, tent, to interns in our clinics inputting tery lasts a long time. You can choose and the more demands that are put on data into the electronic health record the color of the case, but otherwise, you our time, the more we tend to resort to without a keyboard, these devices do have limited options. familiar old habits. The same is true of more than save you a sore back haul- We’d do well to learn from this exam- students. They will not demand change, ing a heavy laptop around. They make ple. Sometimes when I replace a piece and there are no more early adopters computing fun. Optometric educa- of diagnostic equipment, instruct a pa- of technology among them than there tors need to recognize that if we want tient on a treatment plan, or even teach are among their teachers. So, while we students to continue working on our a student how I perform my refractions, need to pay heed to course and instruc- classes at home, we need our lessons I think of the principle of the superior- tor reviews the students take the time to to be compatible with a tablet digital ity of limited options. When designing fill out, when students bemoan learn- interface, or smaller. It may not be in and delivering lectures for the infor- ing new and clearly improved ways of our nature for most of us to embrace mation era, when we are increasingly learning, we need to remember that change, but remember, it’s not where moving from the “sage on the stage” to young and old alike do not generally the puck is. It’s where it will be. “the guide on the side,” we need to con- enjoy learning new tricks. stantly be aware that less is often more. Lesson #3: Technology Lesson #2: Innovate To Is Better With Limited Lesson #4: Print Media Where Things Are Going, Options Have Been Traded For Not Where They Are Now Desktop Publishing One of the few compromises Jobs made The greatest ice hockey player of all in the original Apple II was allowing Early Macintosh computers democra- time, Wayne Gretzky, is credited with those eight expansion slots that were tized desktop publishing and graphic saying “Skate to where the puck will be, so popular in the 1980s. The hollow design. While Windows computers not where it is.” Jobs knew how to ap- space that eventually led many of us to have largely caught up, Apple’s con- ply this principle to technological inno- have large computer towers on (or un- tributions under Jobs’ leadership can- vation. While at Apple and his startup der) our desks was a security blanket for not be overstated. Graphic design goes NeXT, he was famous for making tech- customization that many of us would beyond the eponymous profession to nological changes before it was clear never need. Jobs realized this, and he include what we optometric educators where technology was going. Eventu- vowed never to make that mistake again. create daily with our PowerPoint and ally, Apple products drove innovation – Soon, Apple products from the iMac to Keynote presentations. But has it im- they determined where the puck would the iPhone would become slimmer and pacted literacy among our students? be. You might say they became the sleeker, but did not have cases the con- puck. Examples abound. Many in education who remember sumer could open, or space inside to the world before digital connectivity It seems obvious in retrospect that monkey around. While this would pro- was ubiquitous can be quite displeased floppy discs would disappear, but when voke the ire of some consumers when when confronted with students who es- the first bond-blue iMac was released their rechargeable iPod battery needed chew traditional textbooks.