iPad Collaborative Research

"narratives are crucial to memory formation"

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

Students perform better if they share an iPad with another student as opposed to having one all to themselves, according to a new study.

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. 

This paper presents a case study of the iPad's adoption in a primary school, one of the first in the world to adopt it. From interviews with teachers and IT staff, we conclude that the iPad's main strengths are the way in which it provides quick and easy access to information for students and the support it provides for collaboration. However, staff need to carefully manage both the teaching and the administrative environment in which the iPad is used, and we provide some lessons learned that can help other schools considering adopting the iPad in the classroom.

"Maurice Walker reports on an innovative approach to assessment using tablets to monitor educational development in the early years of schooling."

"Khan Academy has launched a free new iPad app featuring interactive exercises, handwriting recognition and more."

"Many of the failures in #edtech are failures in #edtech integration, and frameworks like the Padagogy wheel attempt to clarify the relationship between "big picture" elements. Seeing the pieces-tablets, apps, learning goals, cognitive actions, etc.-and how they work together is everything. Without that vision, any bit of #edtech is limp and lifeless."

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

All 870 students at Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park, Calif. will soon have school-issued iPads that they can use both at school and at home. The school has slowly rolled out the program over the past three years, trying to work out the kinks before issuing the expensive devices to every student. Before students can take the devices home, they'll have to take a course to get their "digital driver license," which includes digital citizenship and learning their way around the device.

The Technology Enhanced Learning Research group, led by Kevin Burden (Principal Investigator) based in the Faculty of Education, has completed the first national evaluation to investigate the use and impact of tablet technologies (in this case the iPad), across schools and homes in Scotland.

" collabrified - that support two or more students, co-located or not, with each student on his or her own mobile device (e.g., iPads), working together simultaneously inside a collabrified app, e.g., WeMap, our collabrified concept mapping app, all the while talking, talking, talking - verbally, not text-chat."

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

"This update highlights what distinguishes Tablets from other technologies that have previously been introduced in schools, such as computers, laptops and netbooks. It describes the factors in particular that make tablets unique; their mobility, increased affordability and functionality."

If you aren't aware of the S.A.M.R. model (devised by Ruben R. Puentedura - @rubenrp) then in simple form it explains the common journey teachers go through when introducing technology. It's popular for introducing iPads in schools.

" iTunes has 6 categories under education, but nothing for social and emotional learning."