One Year of iPad in School | iPad in SchoolsiPad in Schools

Now that a year has past since Apple introduced the iPad it’s no longer ‘new’ to talk about the fact that more and more schools are using iPads. Every week I see more articles mentioning this – in fact, not only are they being used in schools but people are finding very creative uses for them.

Here are a few from this week:

A company (Safe School Security) has made an iPad application for bus drivers to use to take attendance on the bus. The application has the bus route management system programmed in to it so the location and time of when a child entered the bus can be logged.
This article (from last week) in the Omaha World Herald discusses how schools in Nebraska and Iowa are using the iPad for learners of all ages – http://www.omaha.com/article/20110330/NEWS01/703309893
This article talks about a charter school in Colorado that has found a way to get iPads for all students – http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/27384567/detail.html
This Florida school district has received a $1million gift. They are planning on using the money to provide every student an iPad in August when they return to school. The donor said the gift was intended to change the high school and the community.
The University of Southern California (USC) has announced the release of an iOS application for use in the college of education. It will be used by new teachers in training. “This new app gives our MAT@USC students the ability to do their learning from almost anywhere, while preserving the quality of the learning environment our faculty and administration have worked so hard to create,” said USC Rossier Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. “This is a big step forward for the program, our school, and teacher education.“
This is a bit more than a week old, but a Minnesota School Board has approved more than $1.1million to buy 1450 iPad 2s (and a bunch of other stuff) for an initiative they call Project REAL.
Another article a bit older than a week is about a high school in Massachusetts that is planning on providing students. Students and teachers at Burlington High School next fall will be helping to break new ground in Massachusetts on incorporating technology in the classroom. The school will be distributing Apple iPad 2s to students for use at school and at home. The district plans to acquire the computer tablets in a three-year lease-purchase with Apple, and then provide them to be used for free to all students who choose to participate.
The Waiting for Superman folks have released an iPad application that ‘teaches’ why education is important and brings light to some of the issues facing schools.

and supposedly, the President of the United States is using an iPad 2.

And just for fun here is a video I think is worth watching.

This is about man that is implementing iPads in a school in Scotland – Fraser Speirs. Here is his application for Apple’s Distinguished Educator.

and the video on this page talks about paperless classrooms and the use of the iPad.

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19 thoughts on “One Year of iPad in Schools”

its very good that the use of iPads is implemented in junior schools. If we provide our students with such innovative technologies from such a young age than it will improve their conceptual and analytical skills.

Apple is working with the major textbook publishers to change education forever. The plan is to convert textbooks to electronic format. Let’s think about that.

Students could have access to the best teachers in the world through an tablet. These teachers would have assistants to answer any questions from students either by a traditional phone call or directly online. Students would have the ability to go at their own pace in listening to the professor’s lecture with his notes posted online. Top professionals in a given field could give lectures. Think of how cool it would be to take an online Harvard class taught by Michael Dell without actually being fully enrolled at the school.

The possbilities are endless. Online lectures will be fully interactive. A medical student, for example, would be able to see three-dimension picture of any part in the body. They could watch surgical procedures over and over again before performing the procedure themselves.

Simply put, learning will become much more efficient.

Why attend an expensive college when this option is available?

It is not a question of “if” this will happen. Students will need to learn this way to be competitive in the market place. They will not have the luxury of wasting time and money at a traditional college with traditional ways of learning. Market forces will dictate that highly efficient learning in necessary.

mkaufman on January 20, 2012 at 9:53 pm said:

I think you are right on. I have a friend that is enrolled in an online class from Stanford University that has more than 100,000 people in it (currently enrolled and participating). I’m sure very few people are aware of this. The magnitude of the implications of something like this are enormous.