Exploring Use of ipads for Engaged Learning

Reflection on Webinar: Exploring the use of ipads for engaged learning in Elementary Classroom- a survey of teachers

Attended on: 1st august 2014

By: Lindsay Bordonoro

One of the other interesting sessions that i got a chance to attend at the MMVC14 was by Lindsay Bordonoro on “Exploring the use of ipads for engaged learning in Elementary Classroom - a survey of teachers” on August 1st , 2014. It was good to interact with the presenter and the attendees, seemed like a real classroom.

I was really interested in the research since this directly relates to one of the projects we have been working on for the past one year or so. We have introduced tablets in the Early Year classrooms. We have developed technology integrated lessons and shared them with teachers through our professional community website online. I really wanted to see what does research say about the use of ipads/tablets etc in early years or elementary schools and how do actually teachers and students respond to these technologies. Since we would be introducing tablets in class1 this year, this research would be helpful in analysing the impact on student learning and teaching.

Lindsay started her presentation with the outline of the research and shared the rationale with the attendees. Her research mainly focused on exploring the utilization of learning technology like ipads and web 2.0 by teachers in both elementary and secondary schools. Her research focused on four key questions investigating whether teachers are using ipads, how many teachers are using ipads, what apps are they using and identifying apps which are more beneficial for student learning. The survey was taken from 50 different teachers belonging to 15 different schools and 7 different districts. The results reflect the increase in the purchase of ipads by schools as compared to textbooks or computers.

I was amazed to know that ipads were actually introduced in the market in April 2010 and in just 4 years over a 100 million ipads have been sold, and almost 750 000 ipads are sold every day. Though a look in my own surroundings does reflect that most of the schools going kids have access to such technologies either at home or school and this number has increased in the last two years or so.

She quoted a research which says talks of the common core standards that reflect a wide call for integrating emerging technologies into K-12 classroom for fostering necessary skills for future workforce. The research further highlights the fact that teachers need direction in improving their existing practice but further research is needed to monitor success and problems incurred when ipad use is embedded into the curriculum.

Throughout  the presentation I kept  thinking of our own project ELE and how has actually  the use of tablets impacted teaching and learning in the early year classrooms over this one year. It is true that there is a positive impact on the attitude of learners, they were more active and enthusiastic , enjoyed their learning etc which is evident from my support visits to schools and observations. But what is also evident is that teachers found integrating technology into curriculum challenging in the beginning and feel the same even after one year of successful implementation. I do agree that effective integration of technology into curriculum leads to positive learning outcomes.  I felt the same during my observations, it's not just about equipping classrooms with technology but teachers need a lot of guidance on how to integrate technology effectively to meet their curriculum needs. They need to be trained not only to handle such devices but on how to plan using the available education technology resources in classroom/school, which is actually a huge challenge. With the number of schools increasing, more teachers part of the program, this will be a difficult task. We need to review the plans we have used in classes last year. They need to be edited and better educational technology resources need to be identified. A team of teachers need to work on lesson plans, review accordingly and make changes. Designing tasks using technology that encourage higher order thinking skills seems a challenge at the moment, teachers need to be trained to design activities that provide learners the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge, do things otherwise not possible without the use of technology.

I still feel a lot of research needs to be done on the use of tablets/ipads in schools whether be it early years, elementary or secondary schools and its effectiveness needs to be gauged. I need to go through research on use of ipads/tablets in classroom particularly early years.

Question:

Designing higher order thinking tasks using various educational technology resources for early years? monitoring excessive use of education technology in classrooms?how to cater for equal opps issues?

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Sheeba Ajmal