Discussion #2 – Too frustrating for an ESL adult
I don’t currently use an iPad in my class and I don’t own one – I have a blackberry playbook. I got the playbook because of it’s size, it is easier to thumb type than one finger type like on the iPad, it’s multitasking abilities, and it’s ability to run flash. The biggest advantage my playbook has over my lap top is portability, but I only usually use it for reading, surfing, and playing games. I don’t feel like it has had much of an impact on how I conduct my school life or my teaching.
In a classroom situation a distinct advantage an iPad seems to have is it is green and it is novel. However, beyond that I think tablets in my class might be a disaster. As I teach adults how to speak English I feel that requiring them learn something additional would only serve to further frustrate them. I’ve had students get angry and upset and one even walked out when they had to use a regular computer in English and I think a tablet might be even more frustrating.
Posted in: Week 09: iPad Apps
Juliana 2:16 pm on November 6, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Tamara,
Thank you for your post. I like the fact that you brought this other perspective to the discussion. It is true that we need to think about what the incorporation of technology does for our students. For instance, does it make learning better or does it make it more frustrating? I remember the same thing came up about Second Life and its use in education. The immersive learning environment can be great for adults to learn in complex situations, but many of the students found that trying to interact with the Second Life platform was very frustrating.
Juliana.
Deb Giesbrecht 2:35 pm on November 6, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great point Tamara – user frustration and the learning curve that comes with it. The ipad is built to be very intuitive, however, not every user finds it that way.
I found that it is a great way to teach my girlfriends kids action terms – like ‘shake’ or ‘flip’ etc. We used a story book app that showed Humpty Dumpty and you had to shake him off the wall – very fun but becomes overkill very quickly when you have to do it numerous times in a row.
I think the ipad is good as a ‘tool’ – just like anything else – and not to be the object of learning.
Tamara Wong 1:21 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Juliana,
I see your point about Second Life – sometimes it just takes too long to learn the tool. When I tried out Second Life I got frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how to use it and decided that it might not be appropriate for my students who struggle with the most basic things on the computer when it’s in English (or sometimes even in their language).
Deb, I love how intuitive tablet can be – and it seems especially for children, and Mac’s in particular are great at making things easy to use. Older people seem to get them much easier than PCs at least my mom’s questions about her computer now that she has a Mac has decreased significantly. She seems to understand it way better. However, I feel for my some of my students (others are way ahead of me in the technology department) learning a computer and learning a language at the same time is too difficult and the learning time is too long. I find that other tools might be better suited for this situation and I’d only be using an iPad as a ‘cool’ factor (I think if I were teaching younger students I’d have asked my boss for iPads a long time ago!)
Tamara