iPad's in the Classroom

This podcast by Meghna Chakrabarti is about tablets and the challenge of building the best twenty first century classroom. Her first guest is Shayne Evans, the director of the four campuses of the University of Chicago Charter School. This includes elementary, middle schools, and high schools. Here, students in grades six, seven, and eight have had access to laptops for about eight years. Now, they have introduced iPad carts to classrooms in the high schools which allows for a one to one ratio, student to iPad. This allows students to to take notes in class on the iPad. They are able to access Google Drive and work on their research projects for engineering. Lower grade levels do not have the one to one ratio, but they share iPads and work in stations with apps such as Study Island. Notability is another app they use in the classroom which enables students to record classes. This app is a digital graphic organizer. It allows students to organize their notes and thoughts. Classrooms are both textbook and tablet friendly. Evans stresses the importance of having both written text and technology in the classroom. He feels as though the increase in test scores comes from many things, but technology has definitely helped. There is always the concern for distraction. Evans stresses the importance of engagement. Teachers have always had to get students excited about learning. The best teachers hae management systems for the use of technology. An example would be the way the students seating is arranged. There is also programs in which you can view all of your students screens. Creating chat rooms just for the classroom allows teachers to see which students are actually participating. Evans makes a great point that it is using strategies that teachers would normally use and apply them to technology. Chakrabarti also mentions that according to Chicago public schools technology director, iPads have boosted test scores in math, reading, and science fifty to sixty percent.

The second guest is Janet Frazier, a mother and candidate for school board in Lexington, South Carolina. Her son in seventh grade has been issued an iPad from school to take home with him. Right now in her school district, the technology is new. They just issued 16,500 iPads to middle school and high school students at $6.25 million. She feels as though this has not made a difference yet. They have only downloaded five educational apps to the iPads. Frazier is concerned about server capacity. Students iPads are freezing up. The district has blocked some apps, like Facebook, but not other apps (Instagram, FaceTime) and games. Frazier makes a great point when she says that the teachers should have received the iPads a year prior to giving them to all the students so that they would be able to learn about them. Evans supports this argument. In his schools, they have technology nights for parents so they can learn about the devices and apps their students are using. It is not just about giving students the technology, it is about teaching students to critically think. Social skills is a concern of many parents. Operating only electronically diminishes social skills. Other parents feel as though the iPad encourages social skills. Examples include students working in groups on the iPads, sharing documents, filming projects, reading out loud in class, etc.

The third guest is Daniel Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. He believes technology is a tool and the extent to which is helps depends on how it is implemented. Young minds very intuitive, but how quickly they learn basic applications is less important than critical thinking. Willingham mentions that critical thinking is nothing without the facts. Both need to be intertwined when teaching students. Evans brings up the point again about the importance of both textbooks and technology. He uses the example of students reading their textbook for facts and then using their tablet to see what is on the web. Another concern they address is the importance of being able to identify the validity of a website, teaching students to be good decision makers. Teachers need to find a way to balance technology in their classroom. We need a better way to engage students while still teaching them something at the same time.