The use of iPads has encouraged greater
sharing of resources among teachers. All communication with parents is now done
by email. Working as a group in class is much easier as children can share
documents. Children who previously did not have access to the internet at home
are given the same opportunities as their peers. The whole class can look at
one child’s work by attaching the iPad to the interactive whiteboard. If a
child has forgotten their textbook, the teacher can take a photograph of the
relevant page and send it to the student in class.
Anne Laure says “The pupils
learn more efficiently with the iPad as they get instant feedback. In the past,
they would do their homework and then submit it and a few days later I would
give it back and we would go over it. This time delay means that they have
often forgotten what they have written or why they chose to write it like that.
With the iPad they can receive immediate feedback from interactive tools and
quizzes which means they find out straight away if they have got something
right. Using online dictionaries means they are able to check their work before
they submit it. It doesn’t do the work for them, it helps them to work it out
for themselves.”
Anne Laure teaches French and
access to the cultural resources available on the internet enriches her lessons
and puts the work into context. There are free interactive resources on the
internet talking about holidays and special cultural events. A-level students
can access French newspapers and videos, giving them ready access to material
in the target language.
Jen Foster teaches English at
Enfield County School in North London. In her school, all the teachers are
provided with a laptop but only a select few have been given iPads. She does
not believe that all the children in the school should be given iPads, “All the
teachers should be given one but not the students. I just can’t see how it
would work with the kids. So much hardware goes missing in schools as it is.
Who would maintain them? Who would update them?”
Breakage and loss is a
problem at Mounts Bay Academy. In a class of 25, there are always a handful of
the children who don’t have their iPads with them, either because they are
being repaired, have been forgotten or they are waiting for a replacement.
Mount Bay has a technical team on site who maintain the iPads and sort out any
problems. There are weekly clinics that students can go to when they have
technical problems with their iPad. They are insured against loss or damage,
but the students have to pay £50 excess for any repairs or a replacement.
While the use of the iPad in
schools has revolutionised the way children are taught, it hasn’t completely
replaced more traditional methods of teaching. Worksheets are still used in
class as some children prefer the contact with paper. The children all have a
textbook and exercise books. In Anne Laure’s school, parents were concerned
that the iPads would replace exercise books and children would lose handwriting
skills. Anne Laure says, “The iPad is an extra, it does not replace printed
materials. The teachers are not ready to let go of the traditional style of
teaching. We have welcomed the iPads in so much as they help communication and
widen the resources available but we are not ready to let go of paper yet. The
children themselves still value their exercise books and rely on them for
revision.”
In Enfield County School,
teachers have embraced technology for education. The children may not have
iPads, but Jen has a set of netbooks available that children can use during
class. As an English teacher, she can bring pages of the books they are
studying up on the interactive whiteboard, highlight text and make notes on the
page, to turn the book into a working document. iBooks allows students to
annotate their books, search the whole book for use of a phrase and find an
instant definition of any word. Jen says, “I don’t see this sort of technology
as a threat to the ‘real book’. People will always read printed books, this
just allows people greater flexibility which has definitely changed the way I
teach.”
No comments:
Post a Comment