ipads in school

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timslim

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#538419 27-Oct-2011 23:36

tdgeek: So what happens when 5 kids have iPads, 10 have 5 different types of netbooks, and a few have 5 different types of Android tablets???

Surely the best plan for all is to get a deal of a classroom worth of identical netbooks, with 10 hour battery life? $400 ish

Which is like saying all students must use a particular brand of pen or pencil and only

Most content is going to be cloud or web-based. Some of the resources may be on a local server though.

Many schools are looking at a Google Apps or Live@Edu model for providing email, calendaring, blogging for students. Many schools are working towards Learning management systems such as Moodle or Ultranet. Many schools are working towards an increased use of e-portolios. Some schools are rolling out iPads, some netbooks, some full laptops.

Catalyst IT host/build and support http://myportfolio.school.nz/ - which is a massive undertaking - that has much potential for life-long learning.

Standardised devices are great if you're in charge of the IT support. And they may be great if you're in charge of the budget for the school. But as is evidenced on this thread - some parents, and some students are going to want other options. Orewa have settled on a standard device - and they're getting bagged for it. Some schools in NZ have Bring Your Own Device policies, and provide network, SSO login capacity and server resources for students as appropriate.

Burnside High in Chch has undergone a major upgrade and has a BYOD policy I believe. Another example of excellent ICT integration and thinking about ICT and its educational impact is Albany Senior High School.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Senior_High_School,_Auckland

Mark Osborne the DP there - has an excellent attitude to FOSS and an open pedagogy. As well as being very tech savvy - they have set their flexible learning spaces to cater for wired students as well as for those who actually are happy enough to work using pen, paper and a pencil.

timslim

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#538422 27-Oct-2011 23:46

freitasm:
PaulBrislen: Point England Primary School is astonishingly cool at this - a decile 1 with senior kids all owning their own netbooks.

And that's great. I think we have just some worries that are not clarified anywhere:

1.typing an essay on any tablet is not the same as using a keyboard
2.educational software needs to be web-based, seeing a native application would not be compatible with all sorts of different devices and operating systems.

Is there anywhere with a full description of what's being done and what is the results to be achieved?

I can't speak for Orewa - but to your points:

1. Typing an essay.
- I doubt an iPad will be the only tool that students will have access too. If typing is the majority of their work, it may require a wireless keyboard, or they may also access work using GDocs from another terminal.

But digital portfolios or examples of work include a much wider range of mixed content than just text.

2. I'd imagine most content would be web-based, to allow it to function on as many devices as possible. Especially if the school is myportfolio or a similar online of digital portfolio.

You'd have to talk directly to Orewa to see what their plans are and how they are looking to design, deliver and assess their learning.

http://www.elearning.tki.org.nz/ - has some of the MOE initiatives being developed around e-learning and digital delivery of content. The very new elearning planning framework has some very useful guidance structures for schools trying to progress beyond just tech for techs sake.

StarBlazer

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#538499 28-Oct-2011 08:25

An update in stuff from a couple of the parents;

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/5865777/School-bullied-parents-over-iPads

I particularly like the fact that the college held meetings for the parents, but that there were staff from Cyclone Computers offering "plans", and how any "curly" questions were directed at "the sales people" - the meeting being described as a "sales pitch".

As a parent, I still come back to the issue of issuing expensive and delicate electronic equipment to school children who do not have the maturity to treat them with the required care.

If schools and colleges are so set at introducing this teaching method, firstly trial it with 1 classroom where the pupils are provided with the device and prove that there is a benefit and an improvement to learning.

If the trial children increased their scores by a measurable difference (not opinionated by the person marking) then roll it out - but consider the social impact to the families and make the system viable with the cheapest of devices and not aimed at the most expensive.

Having a team of Apple sales people at a meeting and then trying to claim that "any device" is fine, gives me an uneasy feeling.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

tdgeek

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#538504 28-Oct-2011 08:34

StarBlazer: An update in stuff from a couple of the parents;

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/5865777/School-bullied-parents-over-iPads

I particularly like the fact that the college held meetings for the parents, but that there were staff from Cyclone Computers offering "plans", and how any "curly" questions were directed at "the sales people" - the meeting being described as a "sales pitch".

As a parent, I still come back to the issue of issuing expensive and delicate electronic equipment to school children who do not have the maturity to treat them with the required care.

If schools and colleges are so set at introducing this teaching method, firstly trial it with 1 classroom where the pupils are provided with the device and prove that there is a benefit and an improvement to learning.

If the trial children increased their scores by a measurable difference (not opinionated by the person marking) then roll it out - but consider the social impact to the families and make the system viable with the cheapest of devices and not aimed at the most expensive.

Having a team of Apple sales people at a meeting and then trying to claim that "any device" is fine, gives me an uneasy feeling.

martyyn

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#538588 28-Oct-2011 10:52

StarBlazer:
As a parent, I still come back to the issue of issuing expensive and delicate electronic equipment to school children who do not have the maturity to treat them with the required care.

I also wonder how long it will take before a dozen kids are mugged on their way to/from school for their $1000 ipads. Ten minutes work for someone with the balls to confront a couple of kids could be extremely profitable.

Weve recently had several burglaries in our neighbourhood and currently have someone knocking on doors asking if 'so-and-so' is home etc and the Police tell us he is scoping the area out.

Even though the people he has encountered are all adults the description of the bloke is nothing more than a Caucasian male of average height and build with brown hair who's aged between 25-40. Is that the best they can do ? That description covers 80% of the people I deal with on a daily basis so what chance do we have of kids being able to give an accurate description of their assailant ?

The Police arent going to be following up any complaints and the insurance companies would hit the roof once the claims started rolling in. So add increased premiums to the cost of the tablet.

The problem I have as a parent with this is the never ending cost for something I strongly believe should be free. I mentioned earlier in the thread the costs I already have to pay for my two kids at school which range from stationery to 'voluntary' donations which are used to fund teachers salaries.

We have a cheap laptop at home for them to do their homework which is perfectly good enough for anything they need to do, so why should we have to supply a tablet as well ? Battery life seems to be the main point and when I go into my kids classrooms I can see why. They were built many years ago and there is probably only two power points in each room. Perhaps if they were to sort out power to the desks we could have them take the laptop instead.

Ultimately though, until I see the full reasons behind why the kids need tablets and what they are going to be doing with them, I cant really comment and I think a few people in this thread should hold judgement on that aswell. I dont trust whats in the press as they just want to sell papers and the most alarmist story will always win regardless of whether its based on facts or not.

If the school can prove its a worthwhile investment then I would gladly suck it up and work out a way to fund it. Until then Im going to be strongly on the side of 'youve got to be joking'.

jonherries

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#581727 15-Feb-2012 11:27

Hi,

Thought this article was interesting, while not directly related to ipads, gave some concrete performance metrics around the benefits of one-to-one computer ratios in a school:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/education/mooresville-school-district-a-laptop-success-story.html?_r=2

Interesting that it would appear that the success of the initiative is more related to how the laptops are used in the class rather than just handing them out and carrying on the status quo.

I liked the thought that the structure of leanring changes, and access to a teacher is provided as needed rather than on a routine basis.

Food for thought.

Jon

timslim

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#581766 15-Feb-2012 12:27

martyyn:

The problem I have as a parent with this is the never ending cost for something I strongly believe should be free. I mentioned earlier in the thread the costs I already have to pay for my two kids at school which range from stationery to 'voluntary' donations which are used to fund teachers salaries.

Not sure about this - I'm in state sector - and at our school the voluntary donations provide for our librarian, and teacher aides, who are often parents.

But teacher salaries, in public schools, should be from the Ministry of Education.

Which, yes, in a roundabout way is paid by the voluntary donation, known as taxes. :)

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b0untypure1

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#581980 15-Feb-2012 17:54

Nothing can beat textbooks and good old pen and paper (I'm 19)

martyyn

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#582259 16-Feb-2012 11:00

timslim:
Not sure about this - I'm in state sector - and at our school the voluntary donations provide for our librarian, and teacher aides, who are often parents.

But teacher salaries, in public schools, should be from the Ministry of Education.

Which, yes, in a roundabout way is paid by the voluntary donation, known as taxes. :)

Perhaps the word "teacher" shouldve been a little more generic, however its been mentioned a couple of times in different kinds of school literature the voluntary donation is needed to help fund 'salaries' with the inference being teachers in particular.

tdgeek

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#582286 16-Feb-2012 11:45

b0untypure1: Nothing can beat textbooks and good old pen and paper (I'm 19)

Your post implies that textbooks and pen and paper are instrumental in teaching and learning? The teachers are instrumental, not the tools that are used. Same applies to tablets.

Tablets are not the means to teach, they are a more efficient means in many ways, and more efficiency should provide more teacher time. A small side benefit is that kids are often quite IT literate, and its "cool" to be using IT gear, so you will get some increased buy in from some kids.

I feel that issue in these threads is focussing too much on the up front costs (still a very important issue) and not seeing that anything that can be more efficient is a plus for the time spent on being able to teach. This latter point is the key to education.

mattwnz

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#582355 16-Feb-2012 13:45

Now that a lot of them have purchased an ipad 2, and a new one is likely next month, will the schools require they also upgrade? What life time will a school put on them. Kids with the old ipad 2 will put pressure on parents to upgrade too.

tdgeek

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#582376 16-Feb-2012 14:09

mattwnz: Now that a lot of them have purchased an ipad 2, and a new one is likely next month, will the schools require they also upgrade? What life time will a school put on them. Kids with the old ipad 2 will put pressure on parents to upgrade too.

I would hope not!! A base wifi iPad1 will do the same job as an iPad3 and it is helpful that iOS can be kept standard across all versions, any differences such as Siri, camera, Facetime are not relevant for school.

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