The Future of the Textbook

Posted on June 11, 2011 by mkaufman

I’ve written about how I feel the iPad is going to revolutionize the way people access content – and specifically how it can change the experience of accessing textbooks. Here’s a short video that gives a very good look at the possibilities.

What do you think?

I think this is just the beginning. We will ultimately see 3 dimensional content combined with 2 dimensional content and likely even holograms.

If this kind of experience is available on devices like the iPad or the iPhone and those devices can be used anywhere, that should completely change the types of experiences young people have when the get together with others in a school setting. That should also radically change the teacher’s role in the learning process – and reduce the need to be the sage on the stage.

I look forward to seeing how this evolves.

One Year of iPad in Schools

Posted on April 7, 2011 by mkaufman

Now that a year has past since Apple introduced the iPad it’s no longer ‘new’ to talk about the fact that more and more schools are using iPads. Every week I see more articles mentioning this – in fact, not only are they being used in schools but people are finding very creative uses for them.

Here are a few from this week:

A company (Safe School Security) has made an iPad application for bus drivers to use to take attendance on the bus. The application has the bus route management system programmed in to it so the location and time of when a child entered the bus can be logged.
This article (from last week) in the Omaha World Herald discusses how schools in Nebraska and Iowa are using the iPad for learners of all ages - http://www.omaha.com/article/20110330/NEWS01/703309893
This article talks about a charter school in Colorado that has found a way to get iPads for all students - http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/27384567/detail.html
This Florida school district has received a $1million gift. They are planning on using the money to provide every student an iPad in August when they return to school. The donor said the gift was intended to change the high school and the community.
The University of Southern California (USC) has announced the release of an iOS application for use in the college of education. It will be used by new teachers in training. ”This new app gives our MAT@USC students the ability to do their learning from almost anywhere, while preserving the quality of the learning environment our faculty and administration have worked so hard to create,” said USC Rossier Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. ”This is a big step forward for the program, our school, and teacher education.“
This is a bit more than a week old, but a Minnesota School Board has approved more than $1.1million to buy 1450 iPad 2s (and a bunch of other stuff) for an initiative they call Project REAL.
Another article a bit older than a week is about a high school in Massachusetts that is planning on providing students. Students and teachers at Burlington High School next fall will be helping to break new ground in Massachusetts on incorporating technology in the classroom. The school will be distributing Apple iPad 2s to students for use at school and at home. The district plans to acquire the computer tablets in a three-year lease-purchase with Apple, and then provide them to be used for free to all students who choose to participate.
The Waiting for Superman folks have released an iPad application that ‘teaches’ why education is important and brings light to some of the issues facing schools.

and supposedly, the President of the United States is using an iPad 2.

And just for fun here is a video I think is worth watching.

This is about man that is implementing iPads in a school in Scotland – Fraser Speirs. Here is his application for Apple’s Distinguished Educator.

and the video on this page talks about paperless classrooms and the use of the iPad.

Deploying iPads in Schools

Posted on November 20, 2010 by mkaufman

Since receiving a comment under the iPad Videos post about the deployment of iPads in Schools I thought I would post the following list of resources.

I have found a few resources on the web that have helped me to understand how people are using the iPad and what applications they are using. The best resource for philosophy and strategy I’ve found is by a guy named Fraser Speirs who is implementing a 1 to 1 program at Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland. His blog is pretty awesome. And, I just found out about this resource he’s put together. It’s a question and answer site and covers a lot of ground so if you are deploying iPads in any way this is a great resource.

The Canby School District in Canby, Oregon is writing about their experiences deploying iPads and iPods. This is a pretty good resource for the kinds of things you are looking for about deployment.

Here’s another resource from a school librarian about the experience of implementing iPads in school.

There are a few school districts writing about their experiences using iPads in the classroom. They are: Berthoud Elementary School and Franklin Academy High School.

There are probably more but that’s a good start! If you know of other resources that can help people deploying iPads in schools understand some of the complexity and solutions available please leave a comment below.

Schools in Australia Going iPad

Posted on October 9, 2010 by mkaufman

It looks like school boards and departments of education in Australia are going for the iPad. In this article in the Delimiter, it says there are many schools testing out the iPad – some with formal policies and some on a trial basis.

Western Australia’s Department of Education and Training revealed this week that some schools in the state were displaying an increased interest in iPads and tablet devices, purchasing the handheld computers independently to trial in various education programs.

“The department does not have a policy on the use of iPads or Android-based technology at this stage, however some schools have bought tablet devices to trial in various settings,” said departmental chief information officer Bevan Doyle. “There appears to be a level of interest in this technology for educational use.”

The Queensland Government confirmed that a dozen “small” schools are involved in a trial where “handheld” computers – and other devices such as computers, data loggers, MP3 recorders and USB microscopes — are used as education tools to compliment and enhance science classes.

The Tasmanian Department of Education’s official stance on iPads or similar devices is that not enough time time has passed to give the technology serious consideration. “As the technology of iPads is so new, the Department of Education has not yet had a chance to consider their potential use in the department or in schools,” said a departmental spokesperson.

Since the school year in Australia is different from the US I imagine they will have some experience to speak of before many of the US schools. We’ll keep an eye out to see what they report.

Schools Using iPads Before Business

Posted on October 8, 2010 by mkaufman

I just came across a great resource documenting some significant school investments in iPads. The author makes a bold claim that since there is this much investment to buy iPads for school use it is likely schools will be using them ahead of businesses.

I don’t think this is a fad. Schools cite numerous reasons for investing in iPads including:

Instant and personalized access to information
Creating more interest
Making users more productive
Freeing users from wires (and letting them move around)
Saving money
Keeping users up to date with current technology

Here’s the top 13 schools and their investments from the list I found (see a link to his google doc below for more than 50 examples of schools making investments in iPads):

1) Florida State College at Jacksonville has deployed 350 iPads to executives, administrators, faculty, IT staff and students. “It’s the first phase of a project calling for a thousand iPads to be delivered throughout the college by the end of the year, including at libraries and labs where students can ‘check’ them out,” wrote Tom Kaneshige in CIO magazine.

2) As many as 736 students in the Chicago Public Schools will test iPads this year in 23 schools. One school, Burley Elementary, will use them to provide individual instruction and encourage critical thinking through multimedia apps and collaborative tools.

3) The California Department of Education, in conjunction with textbook vendor Houghton-Mifflin, are testing iPads with 400 eight-graders in four school districts (San Francisco, Long Beach, Riverside and Fresno).

4) Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop High School is investing 7,748 for 320 of the 16 GB Wi-Fi iPads with extended two-year warranties plus wireless infrastructure for the public high school near Mankato, Minnesota.

5) The University of Adelaide in Australia plans, starting next year, to give free iPads to “hundreds” of first-year science students. Lecture notes, audio, background docs and textbooks will be delivered through “tailored web-based apps” for iPads as well as regular notebook PCs.

6) In rural northern California, Avery Middle School is using 170 iPads with 6th-8th graders to help “displace expensive textbooks, promote active engaging and learning…and greater flexibility in accessing course materials, even in rural areas,” according to a news release.

7) Marymount School has given 150 iPads to its students and teachers. The private all-girls school in Manhattan hopes to have enough for all 550 students by early next year.

8) Cedars School of Excellence in Scotland has rolled out iPads to its 115 students, a project being documented as The iPad Project by teacher and blogger, Fraser Speirs.

9) Stanford University is trialing iPads with 91 first-year medical school students.

10) Alexander Dawson School, a private K-12 school near Boulder, Colorado, is leasing-to-own 90 iPads for 3 years for $36,000 total (normal retail price: about $45,000). The iPads are preloaded with about 30 textbooks for the 5th and 6th grade students using them.

11) Morristown-Beard, a private middle and high school in New Jersey, hasissued iPads to 60 students. If the trial is successful in encouraging teacher-student interaction (compared to the laptops used today), it will give iPads to all 500+ students next year.

12) Pikes Peak Prep in Colorado Springs, Colorado has bought 50 iPads for students to use in math, science, language arts and social studies. Students will send screen shots of work rather than turn in papers and also perform virtual frog dissections using the iPads, according to the principal.

13) Notre Dame University is testing iPads with 40 business students, according to a Forbes magazine article by Elizabeth Woyke.

Google Doc with more than 50 examples of buying iPads for school.