I tutor a student who misses a fair amount of school for an illness that he can't control. We spend a few hours a week playing catch-up in order to help him understand the work that he misses, which at times can end up being four days in a row. His school uses iPads in the math classroom (for everything, not just as an extra resource), and we were talking the other day about getting access to a textbook to help with his exam review. He told me that they use an online textbook. When I asked him about how he felt about it, he said that he didn't like it. It takes away from flipping through the pages and writing things down on paper. The time that it takes to switch from the line function to the pencil function, changing font colours, erasing mistakes, etc etc; he feels that he's not learning the same as he would if he were using a paper and pencil, because there are so many added distractions from using the iPad.
What has been everyone's experience with using an iPad? Do the students truly like it? This particular class does EVERYTHING on the iPad, like I said. They have all of their notes on there, they write directly on to the iPad, they do textbook questions off of it, onto a Google doc which they then submit, etc. My tutoring student thinks they're cool, yet does not really care for it all that much. Does anyone find that the students really want to use them for all things math? Or would they rather just use it as an extra resource to help them understand something better? I'm interested to see how the STUDENTS feel about it.
I think this is an important blog entry because it brings the student perspective to the forefront. Although we have discussed the benefits of the iPad and heard some of their drawbacks, it is important to keep in mind the typical student's feeling toward using the iPad on a regular basis. I have not had the opportunity to speak to a student who has used an iPad in class, however, I can personally relate to the student you talk about Jenna. Even though I consider myself a tech savvy person who embraces all new forms of technology, I would not like to use an iPad in place of a book - especially a textbook. I need to turn the page, see the width of the chapter pages left, physical place and see page tabs and so much more. I know very well that all of this, plus more can be done easily on the iPad however, I am a visual/kinesthic learner who loves traditional books. I believe that many students, like myself welcomes the use of iPads for many reasons in class but not for everything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Lori. I think it's really important that we consider the student perspective when trying to bring technology into the classroom. We also need to take into account that different students have different learning styles, much like the student Jenna talked about. I'm much like you Lori, in that I, too need to have the physical textbook to smell, and thumb through, and hold, and be able to see how many pages I've read and how many more I have to get through still. Also, my undergrad degree was in chemistry, which involves a lot of math, chemical equations, drawing molecules, etc, and I found that all of that was very challenging to do on the computer, even with the appropriate software. When writing lab reports half my time would be spent trying to format everything so that it looked the way it was supposed to. Very frustrating. So yes I would agree that iPads should be used for many things, but not everything.
DeleteI think that unfortunately, a lot of teachers maybe don't know exactly how to incorporate the iPad properly, so they are trying to go all the way with it and it ends up kind of backfiring. Maybe they could offer paper textbooks to the students who want them, and electronic copies to those who are comfortable with that. I agree with both of you, I understand the appeal to a Kindle or iPad or similar devices, but when I'm reading (and not just a textbook, regular old literature as well), I want to curl up with a good BOOK, not a good handheld device.
ReplyDeleteI worked with this student again yesterday and we chose to do all of his work with paper and pencil, because he doesn't feel comfortable doing it on the iPad anymore. His teacher does give the students the option of doing it on the iPad and submitting, or doing it on paper and pencil, but still... How far is too far with this technology?