Case Study: iPads in the Classroom

iPads in the Classroom: An Experiment in Technology

     One year ago, the president of AdvancEd, our school’s certifying agency, visited for two days.  His purpose was to evaluate our school: its facilities, teachers, curriculum, resources and methods, among many other aspects, to investigate whether we were deserving of our certification.  It was a nerve-wracking couple of days.  Before leaving, a report was given to us with observations and recommendations.  Words like “passion”, “engagement” and “hands-on” informed us that we were definitely on the right track.  The two major recommendations (read “make sure this happens before I visit again”) were the need for more uniform textbooks and the need for more technology integration in the classroom.

            Based on those recommendations, our school is in the process of devising a “Technology Plan” that includes the creation of a student computer lab, a SmartBoard pilot program and, most exciting of all, an investigation of the possibility of making an iPad, pre-loaded with needed textbooks, part of each student’s enrollment.  It is for this reason that this case study will examine the iPad mobile device, methods to integrate it into the classroom, and its capabilities to alter – perhaps transform – the ways students can learn.

            Exploring Apple’s website provides a great deal of information on the iPad, including applications that come standard with the purchase of the devise.  Many of these apps, such as PhotoBooth, FaceTime and Mail capabilities, are valuable resources, but may not immediately lend themselves to educational pursuits (although creative teachers can make use of any app in the classroom).  Perhaps most interesting within the standard iPad apps is iBooks.  This application, as the website states allows users to “find over 200,000 books and counting — many of them free. View what’s featured on the iBookstore and the New York Times best-seller lists, or browse by title, author, or genre.”  Literature teachers may rejoice at this capability, especially because the application allows readers to save PDF’s on their “bookshelf”, highlight text as they read, and look up unknown words in the dictionary.

            As exciting as iBooks may be, there is one glaring shortcoming in the classroom: the fact that the textbook industry remains so competitive and high-priced that there exists no options in iBooks to use as a course’s primary text.  Enter CourseSmart at http://www.coursesmart.com/.  This is an online textbook company that sells subscriptions to text books for 180-360 days, ranging in price from about twenty dollars to over two hundred in some cases.  The obvious limitation to this option is cost.  Who pays for the textbooks?  Most schools (and parents) would not be able to pay hundreds of dollars for each child’s textbooks that essentially expire after the school year is up.  This program has pros and cons, but for our school’s demographics, the idea may work.  Each student would receive their course progression upon enrollment, which would correspond to the text book subscriptions on their iPad.  Because we are a private, international boarding school, this one-time cost could be incorporated into our enrollment fee without much difficulty.

            Above and beyond access to literature and textbooks, iPads have numerous applications which can be downloaded for classroom use.  The applications which I can see as being required would be the classroom bundle that includes a word processing program (Pages) and a presentation program (Keynote).

 An interesting site (https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_721gdk5jtd8&pli=1) provides a slide show, created as a collaborative Google Doc, on different ways of using the iPad in the classroom.  Many of these ideas require downloading of additional apps which, usually at $9.99 each, might work for individual students but would be difficult for large classes to afford.  Needless to say, educators would need to be very selective in choosing apps in order to maximize their effectiveness and minimize cost.

This is going to be an interesting experiment.  I firmly believe that the “explorative nature” of the device will help engage students in their learning.  Our endeavors to integrate technology will need a great deal more of research and experimentation, balanced with the initiative and speed needed to actually keep up with the evolution of the technology itself.