I Pads in schools

[redsox]

Does anyone have any actual experience of a scheme where they issue every child with an ipad to take into school each day in return for a monthly fee - I am interested in pros and cons as this is a proposal at DCs (state) secondary.

[aliasPrickleandJones]

Sorry, can't contribute to any experience but curious to know what the dcs will be using the iPad for. Will they be using some educational, interactive ebooks?

[bluescissors]

A prep school near us introduced this. The result? Bullying (via the ipad) and lots of minecraft. Haven't yet met anyone with anything positive to say about it

[muminlondon]

No but Rupert Murdoch is pushing his own version for use in US schools so he thinks there's money to be made from that sort of thing:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21683616

[lljkk]

. (curious, too)
Sorry but all DS does with his iPad is socialise & game. Struggle to see it as a valuable learning aid.

[busymummy3]

Our primary has Ipads for kids to use and the kids have to show the teachers how to use them !!

[ScariestFairyByFar]

No but I know a primary school where all p7s get netbooks. No charge though.

[Happymum22]

At the school I am a governor at we purchased two class sets, these rotate around the classes, it seems to work that when teachers want them for specific things they request them and book them for that lesson.

Wouldn't allow the children to take them home, it is likely they would never reappear!

There are loads of fab educational apps. I have seen staff use them most effectively for the children to film documentaries or mini news reports etc. as there are great child friendly video editing apps.

Have seen other schools use them to reduce printing costs and as more in lesson tools, so they are on the desk and used at the start of the lesson as mini whiteboards they can hold up, there are voting tools, can 'text the teacher' your answer, worksheets or questions can be brought up on the i pad to reduce paper and textbook purchasing. For modern languages listening activities can be done via headphones so children can work to their ability, they can also record their answers and listen back to improve pronounciation and fluency.

Great tools but think further tech advances will come so maybe not the time to invest in whole school having ipads (or tablets) but a class set is definitely an amazing tool. I think it is so important to embrace technology and recognise it. Mot shelter our children from it and refuse to evolve with the times as many schools do.

[noblegiraffe]

I wish I had a class set of iPads, there are some great teaching apps out there. Interactive voting software called Socrative, so you can instantly get a snapshot of whether the class understands what you're doing or you can set up a multiple choice quiz with a series of questions, the teacher gets a breakdown of the class answers for each question.
There's a piece of software called Nearpod where the teacher can write a series of slides (like a PowerPoint), doing away with the need for a whiteboard, all the class see the same thing on their screen at the same time, controlled by the teacher. It can also contain questions where the student writes the answer on the screen, which then gets sent to the teacher. The teacher can then share a good answer with the whole class (this would be great for maths).
Worksheets no longer need to be printed off, students can annotate their answers onscreen, save their work and send it to the teacher - such a saving in photocopying.
Students can email work to the teacher and the teacher can mark it by annotating and at the same time record a sound file discussing the work - how much quicker than writing a detailed comment.
Kids can create their own videos, or write notes and record their voices over the top explaining methods.
Then there are loads of educational apps available, e.g. interactive hearts for science, the possibilities are endless.

[deleted203]

They are a fucking nightmare IMO! (Secondary teacher). We have a scheme where parents could opt into paying a monthly fee for their child to have an iPad. I fucking hate it. I now have classes where approximately half the kids have an iPad and the other half don't. Any lesson I am doing half the kids are smugly producing iPad saying, 'Yeah..I'll do it on here' - or claiming they are needing it for research. When I ban them they whine that they are allowed to use them in class - SMT said so, and their parents paid for it. If you let them use it you spend most of the lesson circling the class catching them playing bloody games on it and having to bollock them for it. And the rest of the class are whinging that they haven't got one - or else shouting, 'Miss! Paul's playing Minecraft. It's not fair!'

I would bin the bloody lot of them. Worst idea ever.

[slambang]

Our school (secondary) brought these in last year. Now all the kids have either their own ipad, or a rented one from school (we pay £10 a month) and there are in-class spares for those very few dcs whose parents have refused to join the scheme.

My dss love them. I don't know what the tecahers think but they seem to be attached to them at all parents meetings, talks, homeowrk is emailed etc. They even get spoken messages from their teachers. They are made of magic really .

[slambang]

Blooper city

[Loshad]

We have them at school, they are fab. Every kid and teacher has one, either they pay a monthly fee or dependent on economic circumstances get one for free. They do take them home, that is an essential part of the tool, so they can continue work on them.
I use them for (and am by no means an IT geek ) internet research (no need to wait for weeks for an IT room), socrative immediate afl app, nearpod for presentations, and this "locks" them in the app, i email them worksheets and exam questions, which they fill in and return, many apps for that such as showbie, massively reducing our photocopying bill; they make animations to demonstrate their understanding of complex processes, using apps like iMovie. I can mark and give verbal feedback and email it to them. I can email the whole class homework, reminders for anything and know they have got it, use whiteboards without the fuss of non working pens and no wipes, etc etc.
If kids are on non work apps then that is a classroom management issue, what do you do if they have a phone out - tell 'em to put it away or confiscate it.
When the scheme was first suggested i was a real sceptic, no like most teachers in school and i am a massive fan and convert.

[Loshad]

no - tsk now

[lljkk]

Is that a state school, Loshad? Is it an affluent area? Because I know parents around here would riot at the idea. Maybe okay in the 6th form.

[smee]

Our inner city state primary uses them - the kids in KS2 all have a dedicated hour lesson with them a week, plus teachers use them across lessons for all sorts of things from research to animation. I think the school has 30. Everyone there seems to think they're brilliant and the kids love them. Nobody gets to bring them home though.

[lljkk]

Only used in class makes some sense, with the ability to not allow new apps to be installed, of course.

Not what OP was asking about, though.

[slambang]

Ipads only used in class defeats one of the main objects of having them though - dcs being able to research, complete activities, send homework, communicate with teachers out of class time.

[smee]

Agree lljkk, but I was a bit surprised by some saying they can't see how incredibly useful they are. Have been very impressed by the way schools can use them, though clearly v.different to every child having one!

[deleted203]

If kids are on non work apps then that is a classroom management issue, what do you do if they have a phone out - tell 'em to put it away or confiscate it.

Pupils don't have phones out. Ever. They are banned in school and are immediately confiscated if they are discovered. Non work apps sounds very easy to manage, but it is NOT the case - or perhaps you have better technology than we have. Kids are supposedly researching the topic in question, perhaps, by googling the Internet. I cannot, unfortunately, lock them into the only thing I want them on. If you have a suggestion as to how I can 'manage' to prevent a significant number of teenagers actually opening a second window in which they are in reality reading about Slipknot, playing some kind of game, checking their FB account, etc then I would love to hear it. This second window can be immediately shut down the minute I get near so that they are 'apparently' innocently reading a website about the actual topic - fully intending to immediately go back to the time wasting activity as soon as I am safely occupied with dealing with another pupil.

Any suggestions as to how to deal with the 'haves' and 'have nots' also gratefully appreciated. I think it most unfair that the kids are separated in this way. It makes use of them completely inappropriate IMO and causes a lot of jealousy and resentment in the pupils who don't have parents who could afford it. I can't use them in any useful way as so many of the pupils DON'T have access to one.

BTW, teachers weren't issued with them either - which makes it difficult to come up with a practical way of incorporating them into a lesson!

[BooksandaCuppa]

The classroom management issue is a really important one and, yes, it's completely different to phones. Phone usage is easy to monitor because they're just not allowed at all.

Having said that, the tablet issue is no different to a room full of pcs where some students will and do spend an entire lesson doing something they're not supposed to and just close the window down as the teacher walks past them.

[Loshad]

re : not an affluent area, actually it easiest for very low income families as they are provided free to them.
Some apps are blocked for pupils in school, eg facebook, some are not permitted eg iMessage, and if we catch the kids on that then the HoY locks it for them for a week Sometimes they do have another app open, but it is like other IT lessons you need to keep a beady eye on the little dears.
Agree would be a nightmare if only some kids had them, we also keep a few in IT to lend to kids without one for any reason, and how you could do it without one of your own to play with and learn on I don't know.