DYER BROOK, Maine — There are many opinions on iPads in school.
At the RSU 50 meeting on Jan. 13 in Dyer Brook, school board members not only viewed a joint PowerPoint presentation on the benefits of the iPads from the district’s two elementary principals Chris Cunningham, Katahdin, and Peggy White, Southern Aroostook, but they also got to use the tablet computers.
RSU 50 Superintendent Larry Malone thanked the principals for the presentation, as the board was able to see how technology is being implemented in the district.
“Our focus is that, the iPad is a tool,” he said. “It is not a device that replaces the teacher. The teacher is what make the most important impact on learning in the classroom.”
The two principals, along with a small group of K-2 teachers had the opportunity to attend a two-day Leveraging Learning Conference in Auburn. The conference is held annually.
“This was the first one I attended and it was amazing,” said Cunningham of the conference. “We came back with lots of information and things to try with the students to engage them.”
The portable presentation was prepared for those teachers who could not attend the conference.
Each of the RSU 50 elementary schools have 16 iPads in their possession. Throughout the RSU 50 district, all teaching staff have an iPad. At Katahdin Elementary School, four iPads are used in grades pre-K, DK, K and 1. Grade two uses two iPads for speech three days a week.
At Southern Aroostook Elementary, there are four iPads in each K classroom and four in each first-grade classroom. Grades 2-5 each have an Apple laptop to use during intervention and class time.
“It’s about the learning, so we have tried to find a way all students can use the iPad,” said White. “But, we have been very deliberate about it.”
“Whatever you want to do, there is an app for that somewhere,” said Cunningham.
There is a lot of different ways to use the iPad in the classroom without being one-on-one. Some suggestions were: use it for differentiation for one student; use it as a reward for another or record student’s reading for fluency and then playback for self-assessment.
“My second-grade teacher has used the reading fluency and self-assessment playback a lot,” said Cunningham. “You can talk to a student about what their reading sounds like, but she sets a little ‘recording studio’ in her classroom, children go to that as a literacy station. They read their level book and record themselves on the iPad.”
The teacher has the recording to look at and the student can do a self-assessment. The student will practice [their reading] a little more and then record themselves again.
“They are thrilled with their progress and they take it very seriously,” added Cunningham. “When you are in the ‘recording studio’, you are on stage.”
Lastly, the iPad can be used as an example or non-example of how a teacher wants students working together at a particular station.
“One of our teachers used this impromptu when a group of students were not working well together,” explained Cunningham. “So, without them realizing it, she recorded them on the iPad. Once they finished the activity, they were to report on how they did. Instead, the teacher said let me show you how you did. So the iPad can be used as a learning tool that way.”
The iPad can also be used like the old telephone game where a person starts a story and the next person keeps adding a piece to the story.
“While the students are working on something else, a teacher can start a storyline and just pass the iPad around the room,” Cunningham said.
Students can also produce iMovies, as well.
“The guidance counselor used her iPad to create a movie for grades 3-6 about bullying,” Cunningham added. “They role played and showed it to their parents at student-led conferences.”
Other ways to use the iPad in the classroom is through small group story projects using specific applications, partner work, note taking to just putting the iPad in a student’s hand and having them try it out.
“Student engagement certainly goes up with an iPad in their hand,” Cunningham added.
At the conference, leaders talked about how to evaluate an app (a software program) for the iPad.
“They cautioned not going out to spend money on apps that have not been tried out,” explained Cunningham. “Some you can get a little preview of them and use them before having to pay for them.”
The conference leaders suggested the iPad align to the Common Core State Standards; make sure the app is authentic — whether it is or is not evaluating what you as a teacher want it to do — make sure it is scaffolding the learning — something that can be used by the students themselves or without a lot of help — and checking on student’s engagment.
“The iPad is a way to document what has been evaluated whether it worked on did not work,” said Cunningham. “That information can be shared. Each person does not have time to evaluate an app individually.”
Many schools use Google docs to share their apps among fellow staff members.
“Skoolbo was something very interesting,” explained Cunningham. “It is an app that can be used on any device. It is math and reading skills. It tracks student data on very specific skills. It’s a game. The student’s play the first four games and it automatically adjusts to their ability level. Once they play 100 games, it adjusts to their ability level again. It appears to be a game that they are competing with another student. But, it really is not competition, they are competing against themselves.
“Auburn has tracked student data — this app was created by a man from Australia who was at the conference — and it is free — on this particular app and their math and reading scores. They show a direct correlation in the time students spend on Skoolbo and their math and literacy scores.”
It has been downloaded on the school’s laptop for grades 2-6 and on the iPads.
“It is not something the students get to do every day,” Cunningham added. “It is an app they can access from home. So this is another tool.”
Another tool in the toolbox is iBook Author.
“A teacher or student can create a book on the iPad and put it on the bookshelf so it can be accessed and other students can access it, as well,” said Cunningham.
White handed school board members iPads so they could experience what a student uses within the classroom. The iPad has the ability to record a teacher teaching a lesson and students accessing that lesson.
“When the student first gets on the iPad, he/she is in small group intervention with the teacher,” explained White. “So, while that is happening, what are others in the classroom doing? We still have paper and pencil intervention. They are working with an ed tech, with other students in the room working on intervention skills.”
Once the students have done this, a teacher can then differentiate, and have two kids at a table working out of a workbook and one student on the iPad doing a skill level.
“Once students get to the point they know how to use the iPad,” said White, “They start using the QR codes. The teacher can talk to them, tell them what she wants for intervention through a lesson on the iPad.”
With the QR codes, a teacher can have a specific tasks or more than one for the student to complete.
“If a student does not understand the assignment, they can replay the recording as many times as needed to understand it,” added White.
With the introduction of the iPad, parents worry about too much screen time.
“We, as educators, have concerns about screen time, but they had an interesting way of looking at it,” said Cunningham. “It is the difference of ‘leaning back’ and ‘leaning forward’. Leaning back is [kicking back] like watching a TV show. Leaning forward, a student is actively engaged in a learning activity.”
Conference leaders continued to stress that the iPad is not about the device, but instead, the learning.
