I'm conducting a study on the use of tablets, and more specifically iPads, as an educational tool. The reason for this study is two fold. Firstly I have been given an ipad as part of my PGCE course, with seemingly little thought on its actual use, and secondly because I have a group of PE students who were given iPads as part of their course. If anyone has experience of using them as an educational tool I would be interested in hearing your experiences and suggestions.

Tags: Technology, application, apps, education, iPads, resources, tablet, teaching

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Hi Chris, a study of how a college library could incorporate tablets/iPads was conducted last year at City College Norwich by Graham Denny, Learning resources adviser.

Attachments:

Chris, on Sat 8 Dec Karen Lirenman (Canada) will conduct an online seminar including use of iPads for teaching. Good luck

http://learningandsharingwithmsl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/using-ipad-... 

I have some ideas on how some of these can be adapted for post 16. Any further ideas?

Hello Chris,

I think students should be offered an alternative - a laptop perhaps - which would be more beneficial for some in terms of studying both in college and at home. Although iPads are clearly very useful for researching quickly etc in the classroom (as we've found on many occasions) I think they are a non-essential, expensive tool which have the potential to distract students and disrupt sessions due to the temptation to 'hide' behind the iPad cover/stand to engage in social networking and so on. And like mobile phones (many of which already have apps), I fear the routine use of iPads could become another gadget that will need to be policed and therefore require the making of further policies. To me, this doesn't seem a productive use of valuable time and human resources when free, easily accessible internet is available throughout the college.

Hi Chris. I was given 40 iPads to integrate into my school 3 years ago. I have a few things you can look at on the following web page:

http://malloyclass.weebly.com/technology.html

Keep in mind that I teach at an elementary school.

Hope this helps.

Thanks John

That's a great help. Love to see so much active learning going on. The shark dissection in particular looks fun. 

Chris

Hi Christopher,

I've done a fair amount of bring your own device (BYOD) in class teaching as well as in computer labs. In my experience, I'd say that iOS, the operating system in iPods, iPhones and iPads, is possibly the least suitable for learning purposes. Learners have too many problems with trying to submit their work to their teachers or upload it onto their eportfolios or the school's/university's LMS. In many cases, it just isn't possible (I've provided direct IT support to learners and teachers on some projects) meaning that learners have had to abandon projects and start over on another device or computer. I found that learners with Windows PCs, Macs, and Blackberry and Android devices could operate far less problematically. Also, consider that needing to contact IT support for help is one of the best ways to kill off learner and teacher productivity and creativity.

Device wise, I think it's well worth considering what you expect of your learners. If you want long form writing, I think tablets and phones are discouragingly difficult to use and I'd recommend something with an actual, physical keyboard. If you want learners to create and edit media, consider investing in equipment that is #1 powerful and utilitarian enough to do the job, and #2 the appropriate software is available and affordable - Can you install and run open source software on it? In my experience, the best platforms are Windows XP, Vista, and 7, Mac OSX, and Linux (Mint or Ubuntu).

I hope this helps! :) 

Hi Chris. Have you seen this: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/top-7-guides-on-how-to-u...

Looks very relevant.

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