IPAD Integration
Has anyone piloted or actively using IPAD in the classroom as means of an instructional tool? What are your perceived and real positive reactions and challenges? Other institutions in our educational organization have begun piloting, but no information is ready for sharing yet........just curious as to progress others have had!
IPADS piloted? If you are exploring putting iPads in the classroom, you are missing the point. The classroom is now in the iPAD, not the other way around. Progress has to do with abandoning old thinking. Putting technology into schools is old thinking. Putting schools into technology is progress. My iPAD is my school. Millions of hits are "real positive reactions."
Think Different
@Ken, explain what you mean by saying the IPad "is" your class. I find myself very mobile and use my iPad and smart phone to communicate, research, and direct students from anywhere. I think of it as my classroom. I agree with you that we need to stop thinking about bringing technology into the classroom. I think as instructors we owe it to our students to be at least as computer literate as they. For some of them, the computer is their classroom and some teachers don't know how to use this to our advantage.
Am I on the right track here?
Yes, you seem to be on the right track. Or, it might be more accurate to say you are on the new track.
I've been using the Internet since the late 1970's. I started my own online school for students in my community in the 1980's. By 1990, we had about 5,000 regular participants in my school. I, along with many other teachers, were pioneers in starting virtual schools. Eventually, the Internet was standardized and embraced by millions during the 1990's. By the year 2000, technology devices were moving beyond being portals to the "environment" to being the place where the classroom "is." It is exemplified by the word Google going from noun to verb.
When I see messages from educators that are trying to figure out how to make computers (iPads and other devices) "fit into" the schools, it pains me to think of how far behind the curve they are. If a teacher in the year 2013 is still trying to figure out how to make technology work in the school, I'm of the opinion that they simply don't get it. They don't understand what Google and Facebook have become. When I want to learn something I don't go to school, the school comes to my screen with a click or a touch or a voice command. My computer device "is" my school, and since I carry my own "hotspot" with me wherever I go, I'm never without books, articles, lessons, music, art, news, movies, etc., 24/7.
When it comes to schools, think of it like this...I no longer wear a wrist watch because I no longer need one.
KB
@kblystone :
My problem is none of the platforms that the schools I teach for do not support Apple. I have no idea why and this really needs to change. It is very difficult for me to post to discussion boards and students cannt visibly see that I am online. Has anyone else experienced this?
