iPads in the Classroom

As our first assignment, we are to look further into one of the technologies deemed the "Top 100 Tools for Learning" for the year 2011.  I decided to delve deeper into a technology available at the school in which I'm a special education assistant, but for which I have little expertise-- the iPad.
When it first came out, I remember thinking to myself, and perhaps aloud to fellow college students, "Isn't it just a glorified iTouch?" "Tablet" just seemed like a fancy word for oversized iPod that they could charge you hundreds of dollars for.  After my experience as an assistant in an elementary school and my research for my technology class, I can assuredly say that they price discrepancy between an iTouch and an iPad can be accredited to more than just a difference in size.


Given that you're reading my blog, you are probably technologically savvy enough to know generally what an iPad is. But, for the sake of adhering to the assignment's directions, I will define the iPad as a touch-screen tablet with wireless internet capabilities, built-in applications, and a store of purchasable and downloadable supplementary applications.


Now, how is it implemented in curriculum and instruction?


As it turns out, iPads are applicable and useful complements to most any classroom size, age, and activity. iPads have mathematical, scientific, linguistic, and literary applications, as well as those which help strengthen social and motor skills.  They are malleable products (not literally, of course), that can be extremely helpful in implementing differentiation.  To illustrate this, I will present a few apps I have used personally with my children at school and a few I have just now discovered through my research.


1. Dragon Dictation



 With this tool, students with motor disabilities or difficulties can dicate their stories, essays, etc. to the iPad, which, through the Dragon app, scribes it incredibly accurately.  The document can be emailed, shared, and/or saved right on the iPad.  I have personally used this app with an autistic student with motor skill impairment and have seen first-hand the change in his perspective on "writing" and Language Arts as a whole. He has brilliant, creative ideas that before the Dragon app were near impossible to get down on paper and be turned in for a grade.  Rather than relying on an adult to scribe his work, he can find a quiet space, dictate his thoughts, and edit the product of his dictation. 


2. Handwriting applications

There are a variety of handwriting apps that facilitate learning letters and sounds, to writing in cursive.  As evidenced in the picture above, these apps can be used by most any age child and can be useful tools in developing motor skills and correct penmanship habits. 


A specific handwriting app that I have not personally used, but have researched and deemed to be extremely useful in the elementary school setting, is iWrite.
iWrite not only helps children learn their letters, but it also teaches them how to write them correctly.  I've explored other handwriting apps that simply have the child trace their finger over letters, rather than show them where on the letter to start and which way to go once they begin tracing.  Without the arrow showing them where to begin and where to go from there and how many strokes to use to make the letters, the app is not really teaching the child how to write, but rather how to draw.  The objective is not having the child trace the letters, it is to have them understand the correct method with which they should write the letters once they need to scribe without the help of a letter to trace. iWrite also corrects for backwards letters and numbers, which is a prevalent error of most school-aged children of every elementary grade.


3. Educreations

This, thus far in my search for educationally applicable apps, is my most favorite. Though I have not used it directly, I can imagine the enriching effects it would have on a child's understanding of a concept from any subject area. The makers of the app call it a "recordable whiteboard" on which children can provide vocal, pictoral, and handwritten information for peers and teachers.  This app is used as more of a resource for reflection rather than acquisition of knowledge, as the child implements the app to re-teach the lesson he or she has already learned.  It's a way of consolidating the information in the student's mind by giving he or she the opportunity to take what they've learned and teach it to another.  The lesson is in their own language, and they decide what is written and pictured on the screen.  Therefore, they themselves choose what they see to be the most important parts of the lesson and work to teach it to somebody else.  This reflection and reiteration is not only good for review in its simplest meaning, but it is also a great way to enrich student understanding of concepts by developing a self-created lesson in a more accessible way because it's in their own words and pictures.






I have to stop myself from writing more about this wonderful technology since this post is looking a bit long-winded.  I only touched on 3 of thousands of applications available through this apple product, so, in a sense, the application of these apps in the classroom is virtually limitless and should be exercised whenever possible.