Are Ipads used a lot in secondary schools?

The techology is on the way to conquering most of us. Schools included.
And amazing game changer for good or ill(both I suppose)

At my DS's school all boys from year 7 right through to the 6th form have iPads. Scheme was rolled out last year and has been successful. We pay for them on a monthly basis.

We use them all the time, students and teachers. Some students get them free (fsm), some use the school ones, many pay a small sub per month.
They are so far from being gimmicks. the number of apps that really enhance student learning and engagement is huge. I am not saying another tablet couldn't do the the job, but they are far superior to laptops in terms of battery life and weight for students to carry them around all day. They are imo the best option for afl - assessment of student learning, handing in of assignments, making movies etc to demonstrate understanding, etc etc.
I was a real sceptic 2 years ago when the idea was first mooted in our school, I am now a total convert. The students love them and are far more engaged with their learning.

most of the big ones round here use them - probably an lea wide deal from before they became academies

None of the secondaries I'm familiar with use iPads or tablets or anything similar.
My dc do use their laptops every night for homework though.

Not used in any state schools I am familiar with (DC in 2 secondaries, 1 primary).
Probably another sign of our backwards ways in Norfolk? (Or our bounty of common sense)

If DD1 had to carry a lappy round (even a MacBook Air) her life would be intolerable, it's difficult enough for her as it is, she is severely dyspraxic and has to carry instruments around too. Being able to use her iPad in all lessons is a real boon. DD2 will also use an iPad once she is at secondary school. I agree with the point about spreadys, but school kids don't need spreadys. For what they need, the iPad is superb.

I would never let a child take one into school. If school provide them fair enough. A lap top or pc for use at home is pretty essential and more use than an iPad.

My children's schools - 1 at primary 1 at secondary - both use ipads a lot at school - Not toys at all but fantastic teaching aids - for art, drama, music, science ,literacy, maths and more - using apps or photographs, video etc etc. However, there is no expectation they will have one at home. They are however expected to have a pc at home - lots of homework is on pc - mathletics etc or just typed up stuff and laid out in word/publisher. Also often have to use internet for research.

Every Y7 in ds's school (local comp) has now got an ipad supplied by the school and they are seeing how it goes with the Y7s before rolling it out through the school. School spent the best part of two years testing and working out which tablet would be best for battery life, what they could do on it etc, etc and the ipad mini came out top so they went with that. Parents can either pay £20 per term for 6 terms or a one-off £180 and the ipad is yours at the end of three years. All of them arrived with a school case and with the child's name engraved on it. If you can't afford £20 per term then the child isn't allowed to take the ipad home.

The children are allowed to put a few games on as long as they don't take up too much memory (no shoot 'em up type games obviously) and they are allowed to have their music on it. School can oversee exactly what they have on and what sites they have been accessing as soon as a child turns it on on the school premises.

So far, 4 weeks since arrival, it has been used extensively for various homeworks including PE, RS and geography with far more imaginative projects than we ever did at school, that's for sure.

Certainly not a toy.

My school is currently looking into all the kids getting iPads. Can't wait, it's going to be fab :)

DCs use them a lot
but they are school ones not ours
I refuse to buy one
the school has over 100 ipads and they are in constant use

Both of my DCs' schools have spent inordinate amounts of money on iPads that very rarely get used. Tablet computers are not well suited to a lot of educational tasks because you can only really interact with one app at a time. By contrast a laptop makes it easy to have multiple web pages open plus a word processor, spreadsheet or whatever, to quickly and easily flick between them and bring that information together. Tablets, by contrast, work best at media delivery rather than content creation.

I think a lot of the time schools buying into technology like this is a massive waste of resources that are of more use in looking good for prospective parents rather than being useful for delivering real educational value. And I'd very much put Windows tablets and Android tablets in with this. What's missing is the same thing that a lot of IT projects miss - you should select the applications first and only then decide what platform to run them on.

One of the reasons why iPads are used is because Apple gives much better educational discounts than other manufacturers. When you are buying 200 of them that counts.

oh and forgot to add tablets can store lots of lovely textbooks on them ...in full colour and interactive too...like carrying your own personal library around ...portability is key these days... anyone dismissing them as a toy is clearly not using them the right way

Tablets like ipads are not toys (though they can of course be used as such) - they are powerful portable computers and great for taking notes especially if you don't want pages of scruffy writing to revise from ...would recommend tablet (for classroom notes/portability) plus laptop at home. You can always add a small keyboard to a tablet to make it easier to type with.

In the work place, people use tablets all the time for taking meeting notes/ diary...etc, not sure why senior school should be different.

Every student in my dc secondary (hit-achieving comp) is getting an iPad! Year 10s already have them, I think Yr 7 is next, DS1 who is in Yr 11 won't get his until beginning of 6th form but I think by beginning of the next academic year they will have been distributed to every year group. TBH, I am ambivalent, school has never let us down so far so I trust they know what they are doing here and I'm afraid I also have no idea how these are funded.

iPads really aren't toys. For school use their main advantage is the weight though.

I suppose a key advantage of a Windows tablet would be nobody would want to nick it. Mind you, you might find your DCs 'losing' it.

I'm sure the school applies for every grant going. I teach in a huge comprehensive in an area of deprivation - we have many IT needs that are far more urgent than some 'nice to have' tablets.

Our school has a huge shortage of IT in general.
I've just worked out that I will never be able to do computer work with my year 9s as we only have lessons when computing is on (so can't room swap). Most secondary schools are far away from the everyone having an iPad situation.

apply for the grant lady

We have ipads and macs at school. Given the choice, the kids always go for the macs. Ipads hardly get used.

Show me the money, Brad.