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This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring ways teachers can adopt iPads to provide opportunities for young children's learning and exploration in an early childhood education and care setting in Hamilton. Interviews with teachers, children and their caregivers as well as observations of teacher interactions with children and copies of children work produced on the iPad informed the study. The findings focused on two teachers' practice to reveal the different ways teachers can make use of the iPad to expand children's learning opportunities and foster closer home-centre links. In particular, four key iPad-supported practices were observed - use of the iPad as a relational tool, as a communicative tool, as a documentation tool, and finally, as an informational tool for supporting child-led learning. 

Grades K-5 Grades 6-8 Grades 9-12 Graphic Infographics New Teachers Reference Teacher-Librarian Web 2.0 Tools A-H Web 2.0 Tools I-P Web 2.0 Tools Q-Z"

In this blog post, David Andrews, a teacher in the United Kingdom, writes about the pros and cons of using iPads in the classroom, rather than laptop computers. Among the benefits, he writes, are usability, superior audio-visual tools, electronic books and tools that enable creativity. The downside, Andrews writes, is that the devices are not compatible with Adobe Flash and Javascript, do not facilitate multitasking and have poor word-processing capabilities.

This week, we will address Creation, examining what is possible when we empower students and teachers as innovators with iPads and other mobile devices.

Andrew Douch wrote "the iPad is a swiss army knife of content-creation tools".

The study looks at the use of iPads at the Longfield Academy, where a large scale 1 to 1 iPad program was implemented last year. A brief overview of this groundbreaking study is provided.

"School is just about to start, or has already started, and you have been armed with iPads for this year. Whether your students will be 1:1 or you have access to a handful of shared devices, the expectation now exists that these tools will be put to good use. So now what? How do you get started? What can you do in the first five days of school to get going on the right foot?"

In this four-part series, we are using the Someday/Monday concept to explore four dimensions of using tablets, such as iPads, in educational settings. We will do this by examining how teachers can take students on a journey from the consumption of media to curation, creation, and connection. 

Last month, the Institute of Play released a 160-page whitepaper on successfully designing and implementing video games as classroom assessment tools.

Educational institutions have rapidly progressed from computer labs for teaching and learning to the use of laptops and now to a wider use of tablet devices. The iPad is gaining popularity as a learning tool at all levels. However, there is limited empirical research available about the nature of students' interaction with the device or the potential of these devices to support student learning. iPads in the Primary School: Emerging Findings from Research, by Garry Falloon, a paper presented at the 2014 Australian Council for Computers in Education conference articulates 'key findings from the first two phases of a 3-year study exploring primary school students' use of iPads and apps in general class settings.

'We are now entering the mobile age, where phones are carried everywhere...cars are becoming travelling offices, airplane seats are entertainment centres, computer games are handheld ... We now have the opportunity to design learning differently: to create extended learning communities, to link people in real and virtual worlds, to provide expertise on demand, and to support a lifetime of learning' (Sharples, p.2 ). New technologies are enabling change, socially and economically, and education is cautiously embracing these tools for 21st century education. A paper presented at the recent 26th Australian Computers in Education Conference, titled Developing Early Learners' Creativity and Collaboration Using iPads, reports on a case study designed to investigate pedagogies using iPads that develop creative and collaborative skills in young learners. 'How can teachers use iPads to facilitate the development of creativity and collaboration in early learning?' (p. 3) is the focus of this research. The study was conducted in a Year 2 class where one of the authors was the teacher. Six iPads were available in a class of 25 students. Ten learning activities were developed and students in small groups used iPads to complete the assigned tasks. For some activities students worked in pairs. A reflective journal, guided by questions that focussed on creativity and collaboration was maintained by one of the authors. The paper responds to the forces of 21st century education: the surge of mobile computing devices and what have been termed the 21st century skills (critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration). The authors focus discussion on creativity and collaboration from various perspectives including those outlined in the Australian Curriculum documents (ACARA). It is through the review of these sources that the authors adapted and developed checklists to measure creativity and collaboration in their study. Three vignettes are shared by the aut

Enterprises deploy technology slowly because they tend to plan methodically and for the long term. In most situations, the IT departments and managers are the ones calling the shots. They think they know what's best when it comes to incorporating tech and they want control over how that tech works. But the iPad is different for some reason. Many organizations are seeing employees rebel and bring iPads into the fold without IT approval. It's often a situation of "it's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission."

An experience from Marymount School in New York.  

Managing device updates using Apple Dev tools.