Using an Ipad doesn’t always create an engaging learning experience.
Especially if the Ipad has simply replaced the textbook
and the full advantages of having Edtech in the classroom isn’t utilised!
Integrating Edtech in the classroom can be a beautiful
thing and if you are lucky enough to have a set of Ipads at your disposal, your
options are almost limitless for creating a fun, interactive classroom.
But just because students are holding an Ipad doesn’t
necessarily mean they are engaging in the learning experience. This week Sport
Kid told us how he had a double lesson of Mechanics where his class read theory
off the Ipads. Regardless of the access to an Ipad, Sport Kid found this lesson
boring and not engaging because reading for 2 hours from an Ipad or a book has
little difference when it comes to being engaged with your lesson content.
Most students these days would be classified as
bodily-kinaesthetic learners and the Ipad certainly appeals to the kinaesthetic
learner through the motion sensor in the screen that allows students to use
their hands in guiding all of the actions on the Ipad and literally direct
their own learning.
There are two camps when it comes to the positives and
negatives around having IPads in the classroom. The positive camp have utilised
IPads to increase efficiency with homework and communication between students
and between students and teachers, with teachers having the capacity to give
feedback much faster via the Ipad. Providing all students with an Ipad can
reduce equity issues, giving each child access to the internet, which some may
not have had at home, giving everybody equal learning opportunities as well as
increasing teacher capacity to develop personalised learning opportunities for each
student.
The negative camp makes an argument around cyber safety
and issues with students losing or breaking their Ipad, not charging them or getting
easily distracted by having any number of other enticing distractions available
to them during their lessons. The negative camp describe many scenarios that end
up wasting more time than saving time and managing this can be an ongoing issue
for teacher’s as part of their daily classroom management routine.
Whether you pitch yourself in the for or against camp,
there is no denying that there is plethora of educational apps available for
teachers to integrate into their lessons, creating an interactive learning experience
for students.
Whether or not students are retaining the information that they
are learning on a digital platform is also a topic of debate that gets paddled
back and forth, but it is safe to say that most children of the school age
generation enjoy having the opportunity to have an Ipad in their classroom and generally
having some sort of device at their disposal.
However, as we have seen with Sport Kid this week, the
presence of Ipads in the classroom doesn’t automatically guarantee sunshine and
rainbows. Without the right support, training and knowledge, teachers may not
have the capacity to develop lessons that immersive their students into the
world of the Ipad. It is essentially that teacher are given access to training
and support when it comes to integrating Edtech in the classroom, or the
presence of Edtech can become a burden rather than an educative tool.
To wrap it up, lets go back
to Sport Kids experience this week, remember that technology doesn’t equal
engaging by default and when it comes to engaging learning experiences,
repetition and a lack of hands on learning opportunities is always, and always
will be, just plain out boring.
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Bibliography
BBC Active (2010) Ipads
in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/iPadsintheClassroom.aspx
Catapano,J.
(n.d) Advantages/Disadvantages of the Ipad classroom
Johnson,B. (2013) The
dos and don’ts for integrating Ipads. Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/dos-donts-ipad-technology-integration-ben-johnson
Johnson,B. (2011) Teaching
and Learning: Using Ipads in the classroom. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/ipad-teaching-learning-apps-ben-johnson
Wainwright, A. (2013). Why I use Ipads and other technology in the classroom as learning
tools. Retrieved from https://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/Why-Use-iPads-Other-Technology-in-the-Classroom-as-Learning-Tools.
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