Appophobia:
A lingering fear and distrust of apps
Always do what you are afraid to do.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
We have evolved into what we are because we have somehow learned to balance mistrust and wariness of danger with a counterbalancing willingness to explore and exploit the rewards of equally dangerous undertakings and adventures. The stories of our histories would be tepid and soon forgotten if not faced with struggle and perseverance that somehow revealed a greater truth and wisdom and courage to live in a higher state of existence. If we do not accept and embrace this, then we may as well just relegate ourselves to a more diminished and ignorant self. Mighty high sounding talk, I know, to lead into a discussion of apps on an iPad.
But, it is what it is…
Every folder on my iPad is essentially a toolbox where I keep useful tools. I never let any one toolbox contain more tools that can fit on the cover screen of any folder—usually something like 12 apps, most of which I seldom use, but some that are essential to my daily workflow. It is no different than the toolboxes I used when teaching shop or managing the various projects I undertake at home.
I have a toolbox for plumbing supplies and tools. I have a toolbox for painting supplies. I have a toolbox for woodcarving. I have a toolbox for working on my car and bus and boat. All of these are kept in my workshop and in my shed along with benches, shelves, vices and hooks and hangers.
No one has ever said to me: “Fitz, you have too many tools in too many boxes in too many places.” I simply have what I need and what has evolved to serve the purposes and tasks of my everyday life. And still I sometimes have to go to Tom Cummings shop or a friend’s garage or another friend’s shed to “borrow” what I need, but don’t have.
So why the incessant hubbub I hear about too many apps on a student’s iPad? If they are useful to him or her—or me as their teacher—it is a useful app, regardless of how often a specific app is used. My shop students routinely come to a shop filled with all manner of tools—most of which those same students have little idea how to use properly.
And the funny thing is that it never seems to bother them or their parents or the school because everyone intuitively trusts that what is there is a useful and, ultimately, a necessary part of a dynamic and well-equipped shop.
And many of those tools in the shop are extremely dangerous tools! Way more dangerous than GarageBand, Book Creator, iTunes U and iMovie. This “appophobia” is as senseless as it is crippling, and the clarion call to forbid these apps is being led by people who have no clue themselves how to use and exploit these tools for academic benefit.
The usual fallback for declaring an app to be useless is to lament that learning new apps is confusing and distracting and the sign of an out-of-touch teacher. With that logic we should throw out quadratic equations, the krebb’s cycle, the causes of The Civil War, and the proper use of conjunctive adverbs. We should ban backpacks with more than three textbooks, any loose sheaves of paper and calculators with any kind of trigonometry functions. We shouldn’t give a lecture that is more than five minutes long or occasionally ask kids to just remember the assignment—as in just remember the conversation we had at the end of class.
Imagine the horror of so many when the first pencils with built in erasers tumbled off the assembly line. Mistakes could now be hidden with a simple flick of the wrist. How could teachers even begin to know what students did and did not know? Imagine a school allowing students to use textbooks to supplant the power of a teacher’s oration on any given subject matter?
Education is like a shark: if it does not continue to move forward, it dies. If education does not move in the direction of its prey, it, too, ultimately weakens and dies. If we put myopic restraints on a teacher thing to put new and dynamic power into the hands of his or her students and forge a new and better way of learning, then education dies. No fish can ever be caught without stirring the waters, so we should embrace the messiness of learning as the tailings of a miner’s labor.
Which brings me back to this iPad of mine tapping away in the stillness of a late September night. It is my poet’s hoe, my pick-axe, chisel and plane. It is doing what I need it to do at this or any other given point in time. In a few minutes (I hope) it will be the final chapter in a good book. Tomorrow it may record my songs, film my video, craft my essay, fill my journal, create my quiz, model my discussion, post my assignment, paint my canvas, grade my homework—and when I don’t want it or need it, or feel if is useful, it simply disappears.
Back into my shed, my toolbox, or some dusty shelf…
The iPad is not a tool or a device or a thing. It is an enabler of possibility. Apps are not a panoply of evil undertakings; they are merely shovels and spades that let us dig deeper and faster and cut our corners as clean and square as Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.
And I do not have a problem with that.
That’s something I have to deal with 🙂
This is one of the weirdest “Phobia’s” I have ever heard of 😂😂 XD XD 🙂 🙂
I know many people who think the iPad is out for them Abi being one of them. Me on the other hand I don’t think I have a problem with this kind of stuff
I agree, you can never have to many apps
I think if they are organized in the right way, they can be manageable.
I have never had a problem with having too many apps on my iPad.
I possibly may have “Appophobia.” On my phone, I constantly find myself removing apps then weeks later finding I need them again.
As long as your screen isn’t cluttered enough apps can never be enough
Making the English folder in class helped me a lot with understanding how to use each app.
I like making folders because it helps me organize how I use my iPad. Also, I haven’t removed a non game app off of this iPad because I know that even if I have only used the app once, it is still important to my workflow.
I like making english folders because I am able to organize my iPad easier. I like to keep all my apps incase I need them in the future and it is important to my workflow.
I really like organizing into folders; because, I can’t learn of do any thing with having a cluttered screen. I like having lots of apps, but I am really OCD about cleaning up my screen.
Such a simple thing can effecta your learning. I had my apps all random with few folders but now they are almst all one one page, and I can find stuff so much easier.
I am going to devote my life to add this word to the dictionary
I like the beginning of your second to last paragraph, “The ipad is not a tool, or a device, or a thing. It is an enabler of possibility.” It really sums up your entry and is a really cool sentence.
Overall a well crafted, creative, and thought provoking essay. I hadn’t really thought before about how papas are essentially tools, and it is the handler who is responsible for proper use.
Sometimes technology confuses me, so I do feel as if this effects me at times when it comes to organization and multi step problem solving. Great piece Fitz!
You brought up something that I have never thought of before, I also thought that your concluding paragraph made a great point.
As you probaly already know I am not very favourable of the ipads, but I agree with you that having apps can help make an iPad useful.
I have heard of many different types of fears, but never have I heard about this one. I found this post amusing.
This really applies to the previous generation, because they were not born into this wide berth of access to information. I guess you do need both a screw driver and a power drill in your toolbox!
I don’t have a problem with having too many apps on my iPad because I am OCD and will clean up screen, like you, into many folders. This way, I can have as many apps as I wish, and yet, know where all these apps are located.
I have a severe case of apophobia! I need to work on keeping everything organized.
A very unusual, but relatable phobia, I am trying to keep appophobia to a minimum as much as I can this year.
This was a surprisingly captivating article. I love how you related education to shark and if it were to stop moving, it would die!
Cool metaphor about how the iPad is all of your tools in one. I also only use a fraction of my apps, and I wonder why we had to download some of them.