iPads Showing Up in Schools

My little sister loves her iPad.

To hear her tell it, the iPad is what every fashionable fashion executive in New York carries into meetings. They all travel with them and make their presentations from them, she says, but after that, the list of things she loves about her iPad are less about creating work.

For example, Kim has 150 e-books loaded up right along with all of her music. She can always find the nearest Starbucks and track her stock portfolio. She is able to play games and download applications from anywhere via her wireless phone network. The iPad has some limitations when it comes to working with spreadsheets, another staple of the fashion industry.

The more she talks about it the more I think I am right about the iPad. It's a little honkin' consumer device designed to sell the buyer more stuff. Many of the applications are cool, but in a classroom setting, I'm not sure how student creativity is engaged much at all and that ought to be a concern to educators. Are iPads really superior to laptops in any significant way?

A quick review of Gizmodo's Essential iPad apps reveals more and more consumer items including Netflicks (movies), ABC Player (TV shows), Marvel Comics, iBooks, NBA Game Time Courtside, and a whole host of games, entertainment and music outlets.

I'm just not sure how much or how successfully iPads will be used in the classroom.

As a technology lover, I enjoy all of the flashy things the iPad can bring. But in the end, technology is simply a tool. It's a better book, or a better telephone, or a better pencil, or a better abacus....but will the iPad prompt the kinds of real creative work our students need?

This from the Charlotte News & Observer:

The high school students in Tim Hall's AP World History class at Franklin Academy whirled through the Middle Ages this month on their 1.5-pound, $500 iPads.

After reading through a digital textbook, students got a fast-paced visual tour of Gothic architecture, the feudal system and the Crusades. All on their trendy tablet computers.

"You just have to get used to it," student Jordan Dunne said, "and you have to check your battery life."

The Wake Forest charter school began its experiment with iPads this fall, when it bought 10 for the AP class. Leaders have been so happy with the results, they recently made plans to order 20 more.

IPads, notebook computers and mobile devices are destined for the classroom on a much bigger scale. But questions remain about how successful they will be in widespread use...

This from Rick Hess at Straight Up:

When "Digital Natives" Discover the Encyclopedia

I'm sure my friends at the Department of Education were thrilled to read in the Raleigh-based News & Observer that North Carolina school districts are using their Race to the Top funds to advance structural reform by... purchasing iPads. Durham, N.C. is spending $3.5 million in RTT funds to "put Apple iPads in the hands of students and teachers at two low-performing schools." Durham Public Schools Superintendent Eric Becoats said, "Our kids are telling us, 'This is how we
learn. This is what we want.'"

Ah-ha, yes, this is the change we've been waiting for. Look, I own an iPad. I like the iPad. But I'll tell you, when I've been to schools that feature one-to-one computing, personal computers, and iPads, they seem to get mostly used in one of two ways. Neither impresses me. The first involves students working on graphics, clip art, powerpoints, or adding sound and visual effects to video shorts. The second is students Googling their way to Wikipedia for material to cut-and-paste into powerpoints or word files.

This was all brought home to me again, just the other week, when I had a chance to spend a couple days visiting acclaimed "technology-infused" high schools. Yet, most of what I saw the technology being used for was either content-lite or amounted to students using Google-cum-Wikipedia as a latter day World Book Encyclopedia. Making powerpoints and video shorts is nice, but it's only us "digital tourists" who think it reflects impressive learning...

This from the San Jose Mercury News:

Are iPads a game changer in education?

Some California districts consider the iPad to be a "game changer" and are launching programs to put them in students' hands. However, some educators question the iPad's usefulness. They say technology distracts students from learning and have largely banned such devices in schools. Others worry that students at disadvantaged schools won't have access to the technology...

Warning, this from FoxNews.com:

How do parents feel about technology in the classroom?

Opinions among parents differ over whether their children should be using technology -- including computers, cell phones and iPads -- in the classroom. Some parents say students should be using technology as educational tools because they will use similar devices in the workplace. However, some worry it can cause health issues such as neck and eye strain or serve as an overall distraction. "The exciting thing is the potential to use these 'time-wasters' or 'over-stimulators' to our advantage in the classroom," one educator said...

This from the Berkeley Independent:

S.C. is testing iPads as learning tools in 2 districts

Fifth-grade students at a Berkeley County, S.C., school are using iPads in the classroom as part of the state Department of Education's Digital Pilot Program operating in two districts. Students recently used the devices to learn about multiplication and fractions, and now are integrating the iPads into lessons about inventors and inventions. "We try to use them every day," one teacher said. "... I don't even think they view it as learning."

And from BlogHer.com:

Children with autism learn, have fun with iPad apps

The writer of this blog post lists 10 apps for iPod Touch or iPad devices that may be fun or educational for children with autism. Some of the suggestions such as "Tappy Tune" and "Splish Splash Inn" help children with pre-reading and pre-math skills, while others such as "My First Tangrams," "Hand Drums" and "Chalkboard" feature puzzles, music and art.

Then, there's this from the Wall Street Journal:

Are students encouraged to be creative in school?

Scores on a standard creativity test showed a steady decline between 1990 and 2008, particularly among students in grades K-6. Researchers attribute the findings to more time on computers and watching television, plus an increased focus on standardized tests and rote learning in schools. Enrichment programs can help encourage creativity in children. Some say parents and teachers can assist by asking more open-ended questions and showing interest in answers.

Thanks Mikey

Device of the Future?

This from the San Angelo Standard-Times :

More than 120 employees of Angelo State University — professors, lecturers, advisers and office staff — are testing the world’s hottest technology device, the iPad.

“Many of the schools in our area have laptop programs (to provide every student with a computer) but I think this probably is the device of the future,” said John Miazga, dean of the College of Education.

He called it a device for the “Post-Information Age” and said the challenge for teachers and students in the future will not be accessing information but managing it as it grows at an increasingly rapid pace....

Introduced in April by U.S.-based Apple Inc., the device is billed as a tablet computer and has the same “touch screen” as Apple’s iPhone cell phone. It uses “apps” — applications written for the iPhone or specifically for the iPad — that enable the device to serve in a rapidly growing number of ways....The starting price for the iPad is $499. Accessories and software applications known as apps are extra...apps cost about $2 to $3 each. The apps are what make the device more than a tablet for recording information....

The iPad connects to the Internet through Wi-Fi, a wireless broadcast from an Internet hub, or through cellular technology like a cell phone. It has no real hard drive as it works through the Internet, drawing down information as needed and storing new data in cyberspace....

Miazga said the interactive aspect of the iPad allows for new possibilities in the classroom, such as creating a “back channel” for students to ask questions or give answers during a lecture. He said this means that a student who might be shy about raising a hand in a classroom can communicate with the lecturer through text message, e-mail or services such as Twitter....

Within the System or Without? Mitchell and Cheek Square Off on Technology

Turns out that would-be Kentucky Education Commissioners Mitchell Chester and Dennis Cheek squared off in June, in Philadelphia. The contrasts are notable.

This from Alana Goodman at Campus Report Online:

School of Future Shock

At Philadelphia’s School of the Future (SOF), textbooks have been replaced with laptops and high schoolers are taught core curriculum through technology-based programs like YouTube and instant messenger.

SOF is a charter school in the Philadelphia School District serving mostly low-income students, and was created through a 2006 partnership with the Microsoft Corporation. But the school, once hailed as “the next big thing” by National Public Radio, is struggling to live up to these high expectations.

SOF’s original goals were to supply each student with a laptop computer that he would personally care for, open the school to the community in order to educate urban adults in technology and use technology and a project-based curriculum to increase student learning. Unfortunately, problems have been plaguing the school since the beginning: Students are unable to properly care for their laptops, there is very little community involvement and test scores have been inconclusive in measuring student achievement.

On May 28, teachers, administrators and researchers got together at the American Enterprise Institute to analyze the successes and failures of the school.

Some analysts expressed concern over what seemed like the lack of clear goals for SOF. “It’s very easy to convolute ends and means. Online learning is not the end…You need a very clear vision,” said Mitch Chester, commissioner of the Massachusetts public schools.

“When not wanting to be like what exists becomes one of the main qualities, you can’t grow on what’s good,” Chester added. “You reject what might be worth saving.”

...However, some analysts believe that SOF will never be able to foster innovation as long as it is working within the public school district.

Dennis Cheek argued that technology in schools has an inverse relationship to the strength of teachers unions. “The system is resistant to technology,” he said. “Technology is going to take some of the jobs of teachers.”

Chester E. Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, agreed that working within the system is not going to yield results. “Vendors are not reformers. Consultants are not agitators,” he said. “At the end of the day, are we talking about school reform, or are we talking about being consultants to a system that does not want to change?”

Margaret Cullinane, the director of innovation and business development for the Microsoft Corporation, disagreed that innovation could not happen within the public school districts, saying that you “can only change the system if you’re involved in the system.”

Preparing Creative and Critical Thinkers

This from ASCD:

Teachers can help students become 21st-century problem solvers by introducing them to a broad range of thinking tools.

If you doubt that we live in a world of accelerating change, just consider the everyday life experiences of millions of children and teenagers today:

• They can view live images from every corner of the world and talk with or exchange video images with other young people who live many time zones away.


• They have more technology in their classrooms (and in many cases, in their
  backpacks) than existed in the workplaces of their parents 20 years ago.


• They will study subjects that were unknown when their teachers and parents
  were students, and they may well enter careers that do not exist today.


• In contrast with most of their parents, more of today's young people will
  routinely come into contact with other people of diverse backgrounds and
  experiences. They will grow up to interact, collaborate, and compete with others around the globe.

Once upon a time, educators might have said to their students, "If you'll pay close attention to what I'm going to teach you, you'll learn everything you need to know for a successful life." It's doubtful that this message was ever entirely true, but it's certainly not true today. We don't know all the information that today's students will need or all the answers to the questions they will face. Indeed, increasingly, we don't even know the questions.

These realities mean that we must empower students to become creative thinkers, critical thinkers, and problem solvers—people who are continually learning and who can apply their new knowledge to complex, novel, open-ended challenges; people who will proceed confidently and competently into the new horizons of life and work...

Digital Learners

In our aged wisdom we "old timers" occasionally forget that our children have grown up in a world very different from the one in which we were reared. We thought the shift from radio to television was a big deal; and one that had implications for teaching and learning. But the rate of technological change our children have experienced has been staggering and challenges our notion of what childhood is really like for today's youth. Blogs, podcasts, cell phones with cameras, distance learning, text messaging, video.... What are the implications for teaching and learning?

This 4 minute take on 21st Century learners encourages an expanded use of new technologies in teaching - but the objectives aren't really new.

We need to teach our students to think...and create.



Thanks Roger.

In US classrooms, 'tech sherpas' assist teachers with computers

In a role reversal, students provide

the tech support,

creating a 'culture of respect'

between teachers and teens.

Newport, Maine - Doran Smestad walks through the empty gym to the office in the back corner. The high school sophomore's mission: to recover an important file that physical education teacher Jim DiFrederico can't seem to open on his new Macintosh laptop. Doran's long fingers cover the keyboard as he taps at it with cool concentration.

It's a typical call for students known around the halls of Nokomis Regional High School as "tech sherpas." Whether they fell in love with computers when they were 2, as Doran did, or when the state of Maine issued them a laptop in seventh grade, the digital world is so familiar to these teens that they can guide their teachers up some steep learning curves.

Within a few minutes, Doran has a file open on screen and asks, "Is this what you need?" With a relieved smile, Mr. DiFrederico gives him a pat on the shoulder. "Something that would take me a couple hours, they can do it in five minutes," he says.

The timesaving for teachers is a big plus, but it's not the main point of this informal program in rural Maine. For students who are keen to keep up with technology, helping adults is a way to broaden their own experience and practice communication...



This from the Christian Science Monitor.


Thanks Mike.

Schools adapt to digital age

There was a time when students showed up on the first day of school with backpacks stuffed with nothing more sophisticated than solar calculators.

Those days are long past, and administrators and teachers are finding themselves having to adapt their rules and teaching techniques to a new generation of students - the kind who are likely to be more at home with a cell phone than a pen and paper.

Gary Bernardini, store manager of Radio Shack in the Florence Mall, said the main item high school students are buying this season is the cell phone with Internet and music capabilities.

The phones are really becoming more music-centric," Bernardini said. "The keypad doesn't just have numbers any more, but controls for music right on the front of the phone. Kids expect their cell phones to do a lot more than they used to."

Dixie Heights High School senior Lauren Eldridge said her cell phone allows her to keep in touch with her parents and take photos and get on the Internet. She loves her iPod as well, but she said she's careful not to use these gadgets when she's in class. Not everyone is as conscientious, however.

"I do find it annoys me when students are blatantly using cell phones in class," Eldridge said. "It's against school policy to do that. Technically, they're supposed to be in our lockers when they're not in use, but kids do sometimes get away with snapping pictures in class or texting."
To help them deal with the ever-changing technology that students bring to class, the three largest Northern Kentucky School Districts - Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties - all have acceptable-use policies that students must sign at the start of the year. The policies vary slightly but are consistent in requiring that cell phones be turned off during the school day and the Internet be used for educational purposes only.

Such policies, according to Campbell County Schools Technology Director Linda Smith, are all about protecting students from themselves.

"We want students to be safe. We try to protect them as much as we can, but with technology, that's hard to do. Just when we think we've found a way to safeguard students, they find a way around it," Smith said.

That is particularly true of sites such as Facebook and MySpace, Campbell County High School Associate Principal John Hardy said...

This from the Cincinnati Post.