A Number of US Schools Using iPad as a Learning Tool Increases

07 Jan 2011 | News | Ria Absin-Viente on Google+

A number of schools in the US that are using the iPad in teaching have increased at the start of the New Year.

First on the list is Roslyn High School which recently bought 47 iPads to its students and teachers, in December. The school is aiming to give a gadget to each of the 1,100 students this year.

Teachers use the iPad in teaching Kafka in multi-media history in “Jeopardy”-like games, and make math easier by presenting step by step explanation with animation on the iPad. The school purchases the Apple product for the price of $750 per unit.

Though using the iDevice has not completely get the vote of the parents for the reason that they’re costly, school officials said using the iPad in schools could save money in the long run since these tablets effectively replace the usage of paper which school needs to purchase anyway.

The Apple gadget is also known to bring the kids into another dimension of teachings not just inside the four corners of the classroom.

Larry Reiff who is an English teacher at Roslyn is currently posting his lesson materials online and he says, It allows us to extend the classroom beyond these four walls.

Schools have previously explored other methods of teachings like videos on YouTube and video games with almost no positive effect.

Educators also doubt if giving each student a laptop would efficiently work like the iPad does.

On the other hand, skeptics like parents and other school professors like Larry Cuban who is a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, is saying it’s still too early for the schools to spend money on the iPad as an educational tool.

According to Cuban, the schools should better use the money on training and hiring more teachers.

This can also solve the problem of firing other teachers due to the lack of school budget to pay all of them.

There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines, Cuban said.

However, school teachers countered saying they didn’t consider the unit as a new cool toy for the students.

They said this was an advance way of cutting the use of paper, enhancing the learning of the kids, and saving from school expenses used to buy textbooks and papers.

There are currently 5,400 educational applications for the iPad in the Apple Store from which nearly 1,000 can be downloaded for free.

More schools are expected to use the iPad this year.

Roslyn superintendent Daniel Brenner said two iPads in the classroom can save an estimated amount of $7,200 per year.

It’s not about a cool application, Dr. Brenner said. We are talking about changing the way we do business in the classroom, he added.