iPad

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Best Practices for Deploying iPads in Schools

August 29, 2012 | 9:58 AM | By

Flickr: Lexie Flickinger

By Matt Levinson

As schools get ready to deploy iPads this year, each one is scrambling to figure out how to develop an efficient and effective system that works. With no standardized system or uniform roadmap to follow, at the moment, it’s up to individual schools to reach out through their networks to find information about best practices and smooth, streamlined service.

Without professional development and a set plan in place, educators in individual classes might be stumped by how to set up iPads for different uses. But once a system is in place, educators will intuitively be able to move on with the business of guiding student learning.

To that end, here are some ideas about how to put a system in place for iPad use in classrooms:

  • Establish clearly written Frequently Asked Questions a sensible Responsible Use Policy and a white paper that explains the rationale behind the decision to move to iPads, but also be flexible and nimble with policy as iPads and the best uses for them continue to evolve.
  • Include the responsible use policy or acceptable use policy as a PDF in the iBooks app on the iPad so students and teachers can readily access.
  • Provide students with photos of proper care and post these photos around key areas of campus as reminders (with a short checklist on essential care).
  • Create short video tutorials on how to use different apps.
  • Develop a few surveys throughout the year to gather feedback to make mid-course corrections. Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech, iPad, Mobile Learning

Does Our Current Education System Support Innovation?

July 17, 2012 | 10:48 AM | By

Flickr:Flickingerbrad

By Aran Levasseur

Innovation is the currency of progress. In our world of seismic changes, innovation has become a holy grail that promises to shepherd us through these uncertain and challenging times. And there isn’t a more visible symbol of innovation than the iPad. It’s captured the hearts and minds of disparate subcultures and organizations.

In education it’s been widely hailed as a revolutionary device, promising to transform education as we know it. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as bulk purchasing iPads and deploying them into the wilds of education. Innovation can’t be installed. It has to be grown — and generally from the margins.

The profusion of digital technology at work, home and everywhere in between is evident to even the most causal observer. In this climate, it’s understandable why many schools are interested in technological integration and innovation. While it seems clear that students will increasingly be expected to be adept at using digital tools in their professional and personal lives, there isn’t great clarity on how exactly these tools should be used. Often visions and goals are nebulous — if they exist at all. We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education. Technology, by itself, isn’t curative. Human agency shapes the path.

We can’t just buy iPads (or any device), add water, and hope that strategy will usher schools to the leading edge of 21st century education.

In light of this dynamic, two critical questions need to be asked and provisionally answered when integrating technology into education. The first question, while obvious at first glance, isn’t always fully articulated: “What are the educational goals of technology integration?”

The second question is equally important and often more elusive: “Do the current systems and processes support the integrative and innovative goals?”

Adapting Teaching To Technology

The answer to the first question — about the goals of technology integration — often orbits around 21st century skills. The problem is that most of the curriculum within schools today is distinctly tied to the 20th century. The first phase of technology integration usually focuses on the transition from an analog to a digital environment, but after that happens, the use of technology raises deeper Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, 21st-century-skills, Failure, Innovation, iPad

14 Smart Tips for Using iPads in Class

July 2, 2012 | 9:50 AM | By

Flickr:Flickingerbrad

By Matt Levinson

For schools that are about to deploy the iPad as their main mobile learning device, there’s wisdom to be learned from others who’ve gone down that road. At Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera, Calif., the first year of a pilot iPad program for sixth-graders has just ended, and some clear lessons have emerged. Here are some tips to help smooth the transition.

  1. START CLASS WITH GOOD HABITS. Start out the day with a learning challenge like Google a Day to get students using and searching the iPad in a productive manner, instead of coming in to homeroom, advisory, or classroom and going into their own applications or searches.
  2. ASK KIDS FOR HELP. Don’t hesitate to lean on kids for tech support and assistance. Tapping a student to come up with a way to fix a problem with the iPad is a great way to empower students, and gives them a sense of ownership.
  3. INVEST IN A DURABLE CASE. The initial investment will lower costs down the line if devices are are broken, and will cut down insurance premiums.
  4. IDENTIFY DEVICES. Use laminated name tags and have kids personalize their cases with a key chain. You can also ask each homeroom have a different key chain for easy identification. Also ask kids to put their names on their home screens. This is an easy way to identify ownership of the iPad and allows kids the opportunity to personalize and customize their devices.
  5. PROVIDE A FEW WIRELESS KEYBOARDS. Though most kids will opt to use the iPad keyboard, the wireless keyboards will come in handy now and then. That said, kids who have mobile phones and text a lot are quick iPad typists and their fingers are smaller and more nimble than adult fingers. Watch how they explore the split keyboard feature to enable and mimic texting like typing.
  6. DECIDE iTUNES POLICY. Determine whether the school will control iTunes or whether students and families will have ownership and control to purchase apps — there are pros and cons to each.  In the first year of an iPad deployment, having the school control iTunes allows for equity and Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, iPad, Mobile Learning

For Young Readers, Print or Digital Books?

May 29, 2012 | 6:00 AM | By

Thinkstock

Print or digital? Adults grapple with which is the best way to read — not only for themselves, but especially when it comes to their kids. Whether or not parents prefer print books over interactive e-books for their kids, the question is, what’s actually better for them?

Depends on what you’re trying to achieve. According to a study of a small group of parents released today by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, kids age 3 to 6 remembered more narrative details — “What happened in the story?” — from print books than from enhanced e-books with multimedia features.

But when kids were asked one plot question for each story, (i.e., “Why did x do y?”), there was no difference between the print book readers and the enhanced e-book readers.

“I would definitely make the distinction that the platform affected recall instead of comprehension,” said Cynthia Chiong, the lead author of the survey conducted at New York Hall of Science’s Preschool Place.

The study, the first of its kind to qualify the difference between basic and enhanced e-readers versus print books, examined 32 pairs of parents and their 3–6-year-old children as they read a print book and an e-book together. Half of the pairs read a basic e-book and the other half read an enhanced e-book.

“Now it’s time to start thinking more purposefully and thoughtfully into what goes into the creation of an e-book.”

Researchers found that while the multimedia features of enhanced e-books grabbed children’s attention, those same features also distracted young readers and led more to “non-content related interactions.” Features like animation, sound effects, videos, and games made it more difficult for some parents to keep kids focused on reading and diminished kids’ recall of the text. Parents continually had to tell kids not to turn the page or not to touch the tablets, according to Chiong.

The implication? Parents and teachers should choose basic e-books like the Kindle or Nook over enhanced e-books, such as the iPad, if they want a more literacy-focused co-reading experience with children. Prompting kids with questions that relate to the text, labeling and naming objects, and encouraging kids to talk about the book’s content from their own perspective all elicit Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Research, Teaching With Tech, e-books, e-readers, iPad, Joan Ganz Cooney Center, kindle, Nook

Which Device Will Win the Tablet Battle?

May 8, 2012 | 10:49 AM | By

XO-3

By Frank Catalano

The future of tablets in our schools may not be coming from Cupertino. Or even the U.S.

Despite the craze around Apple’s iPad, it’s only been two years since the device was introduced, and that may not be enough time to separate fad from trend over the long term in education. And while the iPad’s presence – and promotion by the Apple faithful since its launch in 2010 – is hard to ignore, a winning tablet trend hasn’t been clearly established on a global basis.

It’s certainly true that tablets are on the upswing in K-12 schools and higher education. There’s no shortage of U.S. numbers to cite. Going beyond statistics of tablet penetration (in one case, most recently, 25% of college students and 17% of college seniors), it’s in the composition of purchases where the data can get interesting. For example, a Harris Interactive/Pearson Foundation survey released in March gave iPads the largest share among college students (at 63%), followed by the Kindle Fire (26%) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (15%).

As U.S. education appears to be moving toward tablets in pockets here and there, other countries’ education officials are embracing them in bulk.

Another way to read those figures: It’s roughly a 60/40 split between Apple’s iOS operating system and all flavors of Android devices (“flavors” might be the right word, as Android has named its more recent OS versions Ice Cream Sandwich and Gingerbread). These relative rankings among popular Android tablets in education mirror the broader U.S. consumer market.

But the scope of some big decisions made by international government agencies – and the price of non-U.S. devices – could upset the apple cart.

Consider India. Last fall saw the launch of the highly touted US$50 Aakash Android tablet for education (subsidized to US$35). That initiative subsequently stumbled following reports the first models built by the UK firm DataWind were sluggish and fragile. The government has since decided to press ahead with a new version with improved specifications.

Yet the overwhelming interest in what was supposed to be a first run of 100,000 tablets has spurred the growth of a handful of new education-focused competitors. They’ve developed tablets that are more expensive, but apparently more capable: the US$100 ATab, US$150 HCL MeTab, Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, Apple, digital textbooks, e-readers, iPad, tablet

When Technologies Collide: Consumer, K-12 and Higher Ed

April 17, 2012 | 10:00 AM | By

Flickr: Orange Fred

By Frank Catalano

Schools have been adopting iPads with lightning speed  — more than 1.5 million have already been distributed to students, a mere two years after the original iPad launch. But beyond Apple’s influence in education, the high-profile tablet appears to be the poster child for a different trend.

Call it the consumerization of education technology.

What the iPad’s rapid incursion into the classroom masks is that the walls that used to slow new instructional technology’s adoption in education are falling. And when walls fall, what’s inside can spill out in any one of several directions.

A lot of teachers, administrators and even education policy makers carry the same tech expectations as their students.

A decade ago, the standard education technology adoption cycle was pretty straightforward. Cool tech was traditionally seeded in the consumer market. If the technology could be useful enough for teaching, it might be adopted in higher education where older students and their parents were the consumers. Then, after being thoroughly vetted and validated, it might eventually work its way down into K-12 classrooms where schools and districts bought the technology.

It was a long process, one that itself might take a decade — and for good reasons.

First, relative to today, technology was expensive – in 2002, a laptop with 512MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive and 15” screen running Windows XP or Mac OS X, sporting a not-so-fast 802.11b Wi-Fi connection and modem, cost about $3,000. For the most part, with the exception of these heavy laptops and some not-so-smart phones, mobile technologies were relatively unfamiliar in education.

Internet infrastructure was also a challenge. If any Web connections were prevalent in schools, they were rarely wireless. It really hasn’t been so long since NetDay, a grassroots volunteer effort, physically wired 75,000 classrooms for Internet access in 40 states between 1996 and 2001.

Yet the old evaluation cycle would work, haltingly. Online classes and distance learning began in higher education, as did digital textbooks, before filtering though the adoption strata into K-12 Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Research, Teaching With Tech, iPad, Mobile Learning, Technology in Schools