Is the iPad Driving eLearning Towards HTML5?
The battle between web technologies (read 'Apple and Adobe') started a couple of years back when Apple decided to not support Flash on its newly launched iPad terming it buggy. Apple backed HTML5 to be the next big thing and single handedly forced the developer community to take sides. The eLearning industry was not too happy about the iPad not featuring Flash as it meant reinventing the wheel for animation and interactivity in eLearning. Also HTML5 was not ready for eLearning development then. The fact is the iPad has taken a significant lead in the tablets market. I'd say purely because of the brilliant 'form factor' and the fact that it’s backed by the most popular app store.
With its immense popularity the iPad has found its way into both education and corporate sectors alike. Our discussions with clients over past few months indicate schools believe it's great to deliver 'personalized & interactive lessons' while corporate entities believe it is an important device in the future of workplace learning. The iPad is beginning to be included amongst the delivery options available so the discussions invariably turn to the question – should we consider developing this in HTML5 to make us future proof? This question has started featuring in many discussions, indicating Apple is starting to win the war against Adobe. Adobe too seems to have realized this and is preparing to launch Captivate with capability to output HTML5 for iPad. It's probably safe to say HTML5 will become a widely adopted technology for elearning development and I do think it Apple's iPad that's really driving it at the moment.
