Interesting post on Ipads and how school districts are buying them and investing in them without even knowing if the infastructure or why we want them. Our school has always had a broadband problem. For some reason the old part of the school has had its issues. About a year ago the tech department realized that student traffic was enormous at our school. The broadband being used up to play games and download movies. As a result, they cut cut down the broadband width, so they couldn’t do this. The result is that the students can only email or text, doing anything else is painfully inefficient. Bringing your own device to do research in the classroom is very difficult.
So everyone is keen to get ipads, but as a school we haven’t addressed the broadband issue. We have a couple of servers, the teacher server is fine, and I’m sure the administrators are doing well with their access. The techs seem to have a rule, if a student touches a piece of hardware must be configured to work on the student server. So theoretically the laptop I have at school can only be used by me. It makesso much sense to know the technological issues before spending so much money.
We don’t know why we want the Ipads. It seems to be a trend and everyone is jumping on the band wagon and making Apple very wealthy. I use some applications with my classes, but I haven’t had the chance to get trained. We had a couple of older ipads which came to the school for a trial and teachers were able to sign them out for two months. However without any training, it was a portable email reader. We were allowed to download applications, but with so many in the app store it was a pretty intimidating process. I guess in this situation we were the students thrown some device, and asked to get comfortable with it. There was no teaching or pro-d., nobody tried to help nor did anyone think about setting up some collaboration time to help each other out.
I decided it was a waste of my time and left the thought of ever getting one to retirement. I did get one and thought if I could get trained it could lead to possibilities. I find an online Ipad course and am enrolled in it. I have a year to learn the modules.
We had a mobile lab of Ipads come to the school, but the teacher using them wouldn’t share. She didn’t want any student work lost and the time or booking wasn’t flexible for her. I think we need all kinds of policy and infrastructure before we consider buying them. I don’t think we addressed the “why” aspect of getting new hardware. I know that the teacher who previously used them would book them and I might try something with my students, but two teachers are not enough teachers to make full use of them. i know some teachers would use them for research, but we have a lab of new computers
We have two high def tvs with apple T v and ipads attached to them, but most of the time they sit in the VPs office collecting dust. Teachers are busy people and learning how to use equipment is not always that easy. The decision to buy those Tvs was an administrative decision and so it just sits unused.
I suggested that the tvs be relocated where teachers could have easier access. To walk to and from the administrator’s office is 1/4 of a mile. We are really spread out! No wonder the majority of the teachers didn’t use it. For next year I suggested that at least one unit be left where teachers are so they could get more use out of the tv sets.
The future might be a scenario llike thiis, the laptop to word process and the iPad to read something-two devices being used simultaneously.
Who knows what the future really holds Karen. I suppose that only time will tell. It is so interesting to me that rather than finding ways to manage the band width, they just chose to shut it down. Doesn’t that seem to go against all technology strides we have made in the past several years?
I also must say that I commend you for purposefully going out and finding a course to take about iPads. In the absence of good Pro-D, you have gone out to find your own. Is there any way to suggest this topic for Pro-D? Our district is very accommodating and if we ask for something (within reason) almost always can we get it for a Pro-D workshop. I have learned that they are very helpful if you just ask. The one thing that technology has taught me in my district is that there is always someone willing to help me but I have to be brave enough to just ask. I hope to put this into practice in the classroom and try some things out this year that I may need support with but if we don’t try, who will? Hopefully you have great success with iPads in your classroom this coming year. Have a great rest of the summer!
Hi Karen,
You bring up such a valid point when you talk about the iPads that arrived at your school on a trial basis that became nothing but mobile email readers because no training was a part of the iPad equation. This is something that happens all the time in our school system and sets both the teachers and students up for failure rather than success. We, as a united group of leaders, have to make our voices heard and demand that administrators and the school board provide the necessary professional development to accompany the technology they are pushing in order for us to know the why and the how.
It boggles my mind that the money gets spent to bring in the equipment but there is no provision to ensure it gets used in practice. It does sound like crazy-making conditions. The policies that rule the use of technology are not conducive to using technology for learning (ie. narrowing down broadband width, storing tvs in a remote administrator office). The acquisition of the technology implies that it is meant to be used for learning, there is an expectation that teachers are going to use it. But there is no preparation for its use. Very difficult conditions. These conditions have persisted for decades and it is surprising that they continue. I do believe it is teachers that are going to lead the way. No one else has up until now.