Current Use
Tablets offer a variety of applications that can be used by both educators and students in today’s modern classroom. From direct instruction tasks to more constructivist activities, tablets can be utilised to achieve learning outcomes. It can also be a valuable resource through which learners access content. This section looks at a sampling of the current uses of tablets in the classroom, by both teachers and students, as gathered from current publications.
One of the current uses for tablets in the education system is for the distribution of textbooks and related multimedia content. Many institutions are shifting to this system, from K-12 up to post-secondary institutions. In fact by 2014 South Korean schools will use only tablets in their classrooms (Oppenheimer, 2011). As those in the education field at any level know, students have many textbooks that they bring with them from class to class or that are stored in the classrooms. However with this technology textbooks can be uploaded to the tablet, giving students access to several textbooks at the touch of a screen. In early trials of this application of the tablet, students didn’t find it very useful as many students like to highlight and add notes in the margins. However early tablets did not allow students to do this or the digital textbooks were in a format that did not allow this type of interaction with the PDF text (Wieder, 2011). However publishers like McGraw-Hill have worked with software companies to make versions of their textbooks more user friendly for annotations and they are also making texts with more multimedia content (Wieder, 2011). For example the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offers schools in California a version of an algebra book that embeds videos of instructors solving problems and has individualized assessment and practice problems (Hu, 2011).
Another current use of the tablet is for the sharing and uploading of content directly from teachers to students and vice versa. For example by using a few accessories, teachers notes on their tablets can be projected up on a screen to students. Students and teachers can then interact with the content. One software company Dyknow have developed software that allows the tablet to be a virtual, interactive whiteboard, allowing professors to mark up lecture material, share it with students, and accept and display in-class work from them (Wieder, 2011). One biology professor at Chatham University uses her tablet to draw pressure flow diagrams one step at a time that the students can then replicate on their own tablets (Wieder, 2011). In another example students followed along with a multimedia presentation about the anatomy of a flower, with the students being able to access the same content on their own tablets (Mulholland, 2011). In an example of students sending content to teachers, one Rhode Island school has students submit their homework projects to the teacher through the tablet, enabling immediate feedback (Borg, 2011). Students can send an essay to a teacher and then the teacher can make suggestions by writing directly on the document and then send it back to the students for revision. This digital inking (which mimics handwriting) on student assignments has been found by several researchers to increase social presence and can provide a more human touch to the feedback given to students (Steinweg, Williams, & Stapleton, 2010). Further to the immediate feedback piece, one teacher at the National Teachers Academy, Jenny Cho-Magiera, found that what the tablet technology has allowed her to do is to assess her students on that days lesson rather than wait until the next day, allowing for quick intervention should issues arise which she feels makes her teaching more efficient(Mulholland, 2011) Another teacher indicated how they use it for formative assessment by doing pre and post-tests within a lesson and then having students submit their results to see how students views changed during the course of the lesson (Mulholland, 2011). So tablets are being used by both teachers and students for the exchange of content and by teachers to give timely and immediate feedback.
The tablet is also used by schools for collaboration and sharing between students (Wieder, 2011). Some schools have found that the tablets foster better interaction between group members (Mulholland, 2011). Teachers have found the sharing of work through laptops sometimes a bit cumbersome but the physical design of the tablets, being compact and handheld, allow students to easily see the work of others, share with others by just passing a tablet, and also keep eye contact with the teacher as well (Hu, 2011). In the realm of post-secondary settings, researchers following Math students at Pepperdine University found that groups that worked together using the tablets were more in sync than other groups, kept in pace with one another, and used their screens to help one another through tough problems (Wieder, 2011). There are several examples of collaboration between students noted in current publications. In the Chicago High School for the Arts, as part of their physics class groups of students collaborated using iPads to design their own roller coasters (Mulholland, 2011). In Trinity Academy, elementary students draw on their tablets pictures of concepts that have been working on that they then share with a partner for feedback (Borg, 2011). In Mount Carmel Elementary School in Cape Breton 10 students collaborated using tablets to form an iPad band (“BCE, Carmel,” 2011). Students played instruments such as the guitar, drums, and even the triangle and in April they performed a concert for the opening of Education Week using 14 digital devices (“BCE, Carmel,” 2011). Tablets can even be used to form groups. Cho-Magiera of the National Teachers Academy uses her iPad to put together differentiated groups by,”… put(ting) three or four questions in the (Google) form, and the students use the iPads to answer. The results are formulated into a Google spreadsheet in real time, and she can immediately sort through them and form work groups based on which students need help with different topics “(Mulholland, 2011). Thus as the above discussion shows, tablets have uses in the areas of group work, collaboration, and can be a tool to help teachers form groups in their classrooms.
Another current use of tablets is in the area of assistive technology in schools. Assistive technology is defined as, “… an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them”(“Assistive Technology”, July 2011). Using technology is not new in the special education field but the tablet technology, such as iPads, is expanding the boundaries of what can be done using a more compact and affordable format. Children who have difficulty with fine motor skills often find the touch pad easier to use than keyboards on laptops (Shah, 2011). Tablets allow non-verbal students, such as some students with autism or apraxia, to express their needs (Shah, 2011). Text to speech apps allow students to communicate with classmates or teachers by typing in what they want to say and have the tablet verbalize it for them (Krejci, 2011). Students can also select from a series of pictures on the tablet screen and when the picture is touched it verbalizes what the student wants, such as what cafeteria meal they want (Simpson, 2011). It can also be used by speech language pathologists in schools to assist students with speech deficits. Using pictures and audio, students can practice articulation (Krejci, 2011). Their own speech can be recorded and played back to give immediate feedback (Krejci, 2011). Another use is for those students who have behavioural difficulties. There are a variety of apps such as Angry Octopus which teaches children to control anger through muscle and deep breathing (“Special Education Apps,” n.d.). Several other apps allows teachers, parents, and students to monitor and graph their behaviours or to assist a child with working on maintaining eye-contact while other apps have been used for students to learn sequences of behaviours by displaying them on the iPad and also having students record their own voice saying the steps (“Children with Special Needs,” n.d.). So the tablet can allow for more inclusionary practices and assist students in enhancing their school experience.
This was only a snapshot of how tablets are being used from primary school to post-secondary classrooms. There are many more applications that the tablet can be used for and there are thousands of apps that can be used by educators that encompass everything from the arts, language, science, accessibility, organization, and collaboration (“Apple in Education,” 2011). As a result educators have many more resources at their fingertips that can positively enhance the learning experience of the students. The iPad can be used from direct instruction types of activities, like practicing handwriting, to applications used to demonstrate higher level cognitive activities, like designing roller coasters and thus should have a little something for everyone.
One of the current uses for tablets in the education system is for the distribution of textbooks and related multimedia content. Many institutions are shifting to this system, from K-12 up to post-secondary institutions. In fact by 2014 South Korean schools will use only tablets in their classrooms (Oppenheimer, 2011). As those in the education field at any level know, students have many textbooks that they bring with them from class to class or that are stored in the classrooms. However with this technology textbooks can be uploaded to the tablet, giving students access to several textbooks at the touch of a screen. In early trials of this application of the tablet, students didn’t find it very useful as many students like to highlight and add notes in the margins. However early tablets did not allow students to do this or the digital textbooks were in a format that did not allow this type of interaction with the PDF text (Wieder, 2011). However publishers like McGraw-Hill have worked with software companies to make versions of their textbooks more user friendly for annotations and they are also making texts with more multimedia content (Wieder, 2011). For example the publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offers schools in California a version of an algebra book that embeds videos of instructors solving problems and has individualized assessment and practice problems (Hu, 2011).
Another current use of the tablet is for the sharing and uploading of content directly from teachers to students and vice versa. For example by using a few accessories, teachers notes on their tablets can be projected up on a screen to students. Students and teachers can then interact with the content. One software company Dyknow have developed software that allows the tablet to be a virtual, interactive whiteboard, allowing professors to mark up lecture material, share it with students, and accept and display in-class work from them (Wieder, 2011). One biology professor at Chatham University uses her tablet to draw pressure flow diagrams one step at a time that the students can then replicate on their own tablets (Wieder, 2011). In another example students followed along with a multimedia presentation about the anatomy of a flower, with the students being able to access the same content on their own tablets (Mulholland, 2011). In an example of students sending content to teachers, one Rhode Island school has students submit their homework projects to the teacher through the tablet, enabling immediate feedback (Borg, 2011). Students can send an essay to a teacher and then the teacher can make suggestions by writing directly on the document and then send it back to the students for revision. This digital inking (which mimics handwriting) on student assignments has been found by several researchers to increase social presence and can provide a more human touch to the feedback given to students (Steinweg, Williams, & Stapleton, 2010). Further to the immediate feedback piece, one teacher at the National Teachers Academy, Jenny Cho-Magiera, found that what the tablet technology has allowed her to do is to assess her students on that days lesson rather than wait until the next day, allowing for quick intervention should issues arise which she feels makes her teaching more efficient(Mulholland, 2011) Another teacher indicated how they use it for formative assessment by doing pre and post-tests within a lesson and then having students submit their results to see how students views changed during the course of the lesson (Mulholland, 2011). So tablets are being used by both teachers and students for the exchange of content and by teachers to give timely and immediate feedback.
The tablet is also used by schools for collaboration and sharing between students (Wieder, 2011). Some schools have found that the tablets foster better interaction between group members (Mulholland, 2011). Teachers have found the sharing of work through laptops sometimes a bit cumbersome but the physical design of the tablets, being compact and handheld, allow students to easily see the work of others, share with others by just passing a tablet, and also keep eye contact with the teacher as well (Hu, 2011). In the realm of post-secondary settings, researchers following Math students at Pepperdine University found that groups that worked together using the tablets were more in sync than other groups, kept in pace with one another, and used their screens to help one another through tough problems (Wieder, 2011). There are several examples of collaboration between students noted in current publications. In the Chicago High School for the Arts, as part of their physics class groups of students collaborated using iPads to design their own roller coasters (Mulholland, 2011). In Trinity Academy, elementary students draw on their tablets pictures of concepts that have been working on that they then share with a partner for feedback (Borg, 2011). In Mount Carmel Elementary School in Cape Breton 10 students collaborated using tablets to form an iPad band (“BCE, Carmel,” 2011). Students played instruments such as the guitar, drums, and even the triangle and in April they performed a concert for the opening of Education Week using 14 digital devices (“BCE, Carmel,” 2011). Tablets can even be used to form groups. Cho-Magiera of the National Teachers Academy uses her iPad to put together differentiated groups by,”… put(ting) three or four questions in the (Google) form, and the students use the iPads to answer. The results are formulated into a Google spreadsheet in real time, and she can immediately sort through them and form work groups based on which students need help with different topics “(Mulholland, 2011). Thus as the above discussion shows, tablets have uses in the areas of group work, collaboration, and can be a tool to help teachers form groups in their classrooms.
Another current use of tablets is in the area of assistive technology in schools. Assistive technology is defined as, “… an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them”(“Assistive Technology”, July 2011). Using technology is not new in the special education field but the tablet technology, such as iPads, is expanding the boundaries of what can be done using a more compact and affordable format. Children who have difficulty with fine motor skills often find the touch pad easier to use than keyboards on laptops (Shah, 2011). Tablets allow non-verbal students, such as some students with autism or apraxia, to express their needs (Shah, 2011). Text to speech apps allow students to communicate with classmates or teachers by typing in what they want to say and have the tablet verbalize it for them (Krejci, 2011). Students can also select from a series of pictures on the tablet screen and when the picture is touched it verbalizes what the student wants, such as what cafeteria meal they want (Simpson, 2011). It can also be used by speech language pathologists in schools to assist students with speech deficits. Using pictures and audio, students can practice articulation (Krejci, 2011). Their own speech can be recorded and played back to give immediate feedback (Krejci, 2011). Another use is for those students who have behavioural difficulties. There are a variety of apps such as Angry Octopus which teaches children to control anger through muscle and deep breathing (“Special Education Apps,” n.d.). Several other apps allows teachers, parents, and students to monitor and graph their behaviours or to assist a child with working on maintaining eye-contact while other apps have been used for students to learn sequences of behaviours by displaying them on the iPad and also having students record their own voice saying the steps (“Children with Special Needs,” n.d.). So the tablet can allow for more inclusionary practices and assist students in enhancing their school experience.
This was only a snapshot of how tablets are being used from primary school to post-secondary classrooms. There are many more applications that the tablet can be used for and there are thousands of apps that can be used by educators that encompass everything from the arts, language, science, accessibility, organization, and collaboration (“Apple in Education,” 2011). As a result educators have many more resources at their fingertips that can positively enhance the learning experience of the students. The iPad can be used from direct instruction types of activities, like practicing handwriting, to applications used to demonstrate higher level cognitive activities, like designing roller coasters and thus should have a little something for everyone.