Educational Tool or Toy? – Week 9 Discussion #2
Prior to the start of the school year, and this MET course, I attended a workshop in my school district which asked a question similar to the one above, whether the iPad will provide useful educational content for teachers and students, or if it will be used for games and other distractions. The principal who led the workshop was optimistic about the positive effect already seen at his elementary school’s pilot program, a grade 4/5 split class with only 5 iPads to share amongst 25+ students. The most important tips he provided: never to give out the iTunes account password, and to download apps afterschool, as there is about 12 minutes once you enter the password that account stays open, allowing anyone to download any app they want, which could get expensive for the school.
Flat Stanley app a hit with grade 3's
While the workshop was mostly about app management, I was really happy to see two teachers from my practicum school, with their school’s two iPads. The workshop mentioned how obviously delicate these devices are, and preferred to keep them locked away in the classroom. When I went to visit the grade three classroom at my practicum school, I was pleased to see that their iPads remained out in the open. As I visited this class during the teacher’s non-instructional time, to discuss how eBooks could be used in the guided reading program, I could tell that students were making good use of the two devices. It was also a relief to hear of the teacher’s attitude: “if one of them breaks, the students know the class will be down to one iPad.” Perhaps it would be a different story if there were 25 iPads, but the limited number ensures that more care is taken while handling the iPads.
Out of the toybox
Back at the pilot school, I had a chance to talk with the grade 4/5 teacher, who this year has grade 4’s only. Some of them are a bit wild, and she is keeping the iPads locked away until she become more familiar with this year’s students. It would be exciting to work with her on social studies, making use of GPS and other apps for the Explorers and Fur Trade units, especially if the student can take their learning outside (provided there are a few sunny day this year!). The first hurdle for this classroom is to get these iPads out of the locked cupboard and into more students hands. In order to make them less of a high-maintenance toy, and more of an educational tool, there should be more smudgy fingerprints, bumps and scratches on them.
Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Angela Novoa 12:11 pm on October 31, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for sharing your experience. I think that creating a conscience among students that they are a community, and as a community, they are responsible of the learning process of all its members (in this case by taking care of the iPads) is great.
Angela.
Julie S 7:43 pm on October 31, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
@kstooshnove
I didn’t know about the 12 minute rule – thanks for that!
Your story about the locked away devices reminds me of a study I did a few years back for BCNet about the educational use of video conferencing across a few Universities engaging in a pilot program. A minority of pilot users kept their video conferencing equipment locked in a closet. There stories were failures where almost everyone else was a huge success. It seems that the difficult access kept everyone on their teams, including themselves, from using the technology. The equipment may be safe but does it matter if it’s not going to get used?
I’m also interested in the GPS capabilities. I think this is one of the most high potential areas for learning. Getting outside and interactive will be huge fun for the kids.
There is an article (GPS mobile phones but not Macs – it’s flash based) – Mobile Game Based Learning: Designing a Mobile Locaiton Based Game by Sandra Schadenbauer, that you may be interested in. They describe a game in the framework of Moodle. It’s clear and has conceptual model screen shots.
Cheers,
Julie
hall 11:25 pm on November 1, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi kstooshnov,
Your post was very informative. Thank you for sharing your experience which has proved useful in classes with limited resources. Through your post I saw the use of technology can be effective in cooperative groups.
Deb Kim 3:05 pm on November 2, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for the tips on the “12 minutes”. It was a very informative post.
I haven’t used the iPad for formal or informal learning, but have been considering to purchase one for educational purposes (especially for my teaching) since I couldn’t afford to purchase a tabletPC.
Deb