The increase of technology in schools

[Hamishbear]

Our school has announced that technology will play a greater and greater role in the years to come - inevitably more learning will happen at home in time as the same technology will be used at home as at school. Taken to an extreme, does this mean that our grandchildren won't be taught to write with the same emphasis (penmanship will not be important) and grammar and spelling will be available at the click of a mouse (some sort of programme which negates the need for us to really learn)?

Eventually any aspects of a knowledge based curriculum (now out of fashion anyway) will be lost and a skills based one will be everything?

Children will be expected to have a laptop from upper primary (if they are not already) in the near future etc. In the next 20 years or so bedtime reading may die out (books will seen as increasingly quaint) and may take place as a bite-sized interactive game on a kindle or similar?

How do parents feel about traditional aspects of learning being potentially lost? It seems most I meet think that technology is all and to fight it is futile :). There are lots of positive aspects to it all too, I am sure.

"Interactive whiteboards are dead. Projectors will still be useful, but when everyone can interact with the screen from their own device, the need to have a single child to come to the front of the class to interact with the board will be redundant."

Disagree. A lot of teachers like using the interactive whiteboard as they can show children what to do. The whiteboard is like a giant tablet device that everyone can see. I imagine that whiteboards will be driven by tablet devices rather than PCs.

I can't think of very many situations where you need an interactive whiteboard to show a child what to do. A normal whiteboard and a pen will usually suffice! Mostly (IME) IWBs are used to project onto and very little else that can't be done from a PC.
But if it was controlled by a tablet, then the teacher wouldn't need to be tied to a computer OR to the whiteboard but could do their demonstration from anywhere in the classroom.

To clarify ' very little else that can't be done from a PC with a projector onto a normal board'

I've had a look at the Wonderpad and a couple of things strike me (apart from the fact that it looks a bit, erm, cheap)
Screen size is 7 inches, ipad is over 9, which will make a difference for reading documents etc
Battery life is only 5 hours compared to 10 for ipad - this wouldn't last a full school day.

I've had a look at the Wonderpad and a couple of things strike me (apart from the fact that it looks a bit, erm, cheap)

Surely for kids you want a device to be as cheap as possible, especially if you expect parents to pay for it. Schools have ever tighter budgets and can afford to provide a tablet device for every child. DH has one of these devices and there are plenty of free/ cheap apps available.

My kindle has a 7inch screen and its useable. If size of screen is important to you then this one gives you a 10 inch screen.

www.lightinthebox.com/muse-android-4-0-tablet-with-10-1-inch-capacitive-touchscreen-4gb-1ghz-hdmi_p378098.html?pos=ultimately_buy_2

It has a six hour battery life. However children would not be using an IPAD an school day entire day.

A laser pointer device already allows teachers to control an presentation from anywhere in the classroom. A tablet would be useful for preparation of resources for an interactive whiteboard.

www.ndeva.co.uk/targus-laser-presentation-remote-pointing-device.html

The big issue with laser pointers in my experience is that teachers are stupid enough to leave them lying around and the kids nick them.

I think if schools would be better investing in visualisers than IPADs. Visualisers in the classroom are brilliant.

www.geneeworld.com/visualiser/genee-vision6100.php

Or maybe a digital microscope.

You don't want a device to be as cheap as possible if there's no support for it - apple at least are generally very good at that. If cheap means less sturdy or reliable or has a shorter shelf life that's also something to consider.

If children had iPads each then I would hope they would be using them at school all day! If not then it's a waste of a resource. At the very least they can replace textbooks/worksheets, in time perhaps exercise books. Apps like nearpod means the lesson can be delivered to each device, along with whole class quizzes (like voting software) to assess progress and individual questions the answers to which are automatically sent to the teacher's device so they can see who is doing what and then show good work to everybody. If the kids have headphones they can watch videos and take notes, rewinding when they need instead of sticking at a whole class pace. And much more!

By controlling the presentation from the back, I was picturing the teacher at the back, writing on their tablet, annotating etc, not simply clicking 'next slide' or pointing to something with a laser pointer.

noblegiraffe

I would worry about the eye sight of children who use an IPAD/tablet all day. I had eye test as a VDU user as its know than constant VDU use can cause eye sight problems.

There has to be a balance of cost versus usablity. £400 per child is not affordable. Realistically these devices are going to get dropped or left on the bus.

Also you need to consider the cost of software, how you plan to back up the devices and the wireless network capablity. Would you allow children to print out work? The problem with every student having a device is that the school's network can swiftly run out of IP addresses. (Although the school can use IP 6 instead of IP 4, but you need a technical guru to set this up)

I feel that teachers should only use ICT if it actually fits the learning objectives. Sometimes non stop ICT can get boring for children. It is possible to have an outstanding lesson with no ICT and a rubbish lesson using ICT. What is important is that the learning objectives are achieved. Sometimes more old fashioned approaches like practical experiences are better.

There needs to be thought into whether its better to book the laptop trolley or ICT suite and what websites/ software are going to be used. Just getting out computers and randomly surfing the net is crap teaching.

I would imagine that good use could be made of technology in science labs. However, anything you take into a lab needs to be robust especially with regard to liquids. If iPads are anything like iPhones then they won't last long in a chemistry lab, will they?

Fantastic post reallytired

Reallytired, you might have a point about eyesight - I have no idea if there is any research about tablet screens and eye strain. It's a different experience to a VDU which is usually a fixed distance from your chair so I'm not sure if it would be the same.

Whether £400 per child (no bulk discount?) is affordable depends on the school and how they approach it, really. I know some schools get the parents to buy the devices at discount on a payment plan. Not sure what I think about that, however. As for dropping them or leaving them on the bus - that's what insurance is for! What also needs to be considered is that the £400 per child could create savings elsewhere. Photocopying costs for sure. Textbooks. Exercise books. No need to update or maintain the current ICT suites of PCs freeing up space and classrooms. Stationery. Board markers!

The need to upgrade the wireless etc - well they are problems that have already been solved, schools would just need to get on with it. Schools tend to already have a technical guru on the staff to manage the computers.

Just getting out computers and randomly surfing the net is crap teaching.

I don't think I have said anywhere in any of my posts that ipads should be used to randomly surf the net! I just don't think you're realising their full potential.

Would you allow children to print out work?

Not sure what your issue is here. Students already print out work at school. What would be brilliant, however, would be a paper-free school where work is submitted electronically, marked on-screen and returned electronically to the student.

Sometimes more old fashioned approaches like practical experiences are better.
Of course. Perhaps while the students are having their practical experience they could video themselves, record a voice-over and present their findings to their fellow students as a bonus.

So £80,000 at the start of each year for a new intake of 200? That's a LOT of money!!

As I have said.

My school have issued all yr7 pupils with an iPad. Next year all pupils will have them. They claim to be using them in about 50% of lessons.

They are provided at 'no cost' to parents.
We are, however, asked to pay a £3 'voluntary contribution' towards the insurance. At the end of 3yrs the idea is that we will be asked if we would like to pay a 1 off cost to keep the device (currently estimated at £50-70).

At the moment they seem to predominantly using them as research tools, cameras to show me what they are making in metalwork, word processing tools and they have an app which they use as an alternative to mini-whiteboards for AFL.

We were provided with a £15 iTunes voucher and 3 specific apps to dowload for school use. All of the other apps they have been asked to download have been free.

There is lots of gaming going on tho....and I find my dcs are currently glued to them from the minute they come in from school which bugs the hell out of me.

It would be if the school were buying them for the kids. Schools which are going down the individual ipad route seem to be getting the kids to buy them through the school.

Haunted, that's interesting. State comp? Out of interest, is one of the apps on the ipad called Nearpod? I saw a demo of it recently and it looked amazing so it would be good to hear if it actually works.

"The need to upgrade the wireless etc - well they are problems that have already been solved, schools would just need to get on with it. Schools tend to already have a technical guru on the staff to manage the computers."

The difficulty comes that the schools network instrastructure was never made to cope with such a large number of devices. The school I worked in tried having every student having their own netbook and it brought the network to its needs.

A school would have to upgrade its major network switches and cabling to manage IP 6 and a larger number of connections.

"
The need to upgrade the wireless etc - well they are problems that have already been solved, schools would just need to get on with it. Schools tend to already have a technical guru on the staff to manage the computers."

A typical school ICT technican is paid about 16K year and will not know how to do something as complex as changing the DHCP range on the server. Its a big consultancy job. Usually a school ICT technician will get in consultant from a major IT company like RM to do really complex networking stuff. (Typically 4 days work at £500 per day for a CISCO consultant)

A simpler solution may well be for the tablets just to have pay as you go 3G cards and the tablets not interact with the network. However you also have to consider how you are going to keep children safe on the web and stop the children from constantly going on facebook and viruses.

I agree with LeeCoakley that 80K is lot of money and I feel that the expense is not justified. To put it into context you can employ three teachers or alternatively 8 TAs for a year that kind of money. I imagine the true costs would be a lot higher once you have paid someone to set up the IPads and upgraded the network. Even with imaging software 200 Ipads is lot to set up.

Schools are having their budgets cut savagely at the moment in real terms. I don't think that IPads would save as much money as you think.

I love technology, but you need to look at the schools entire budget

Yes when we had parents training on the ipads we were shown a 5 min demo of nearpod. As a trainee teacher I must admit I did think...wow...the power of that as a tool for a teacher has the potential to be immense....AFL eat your heart out. Monitorring kids on task behaviour...wow....and I'm sure it must go beyond that.

I haven't heard of them using it in class tho.

It's astonishing with all these insurmountable wireless problems that any school has actually managed to get an iPad to even work

I'm not surprised, reallytired that you think the money isn't worth it as you think ICT is used to randomly surf the web in lessons. There is so much potential to these devices, that negates the need for IWB, visualisers, all the stuff you think is valuable in a classroom. That's all going to be obsolete in a decade.

I love all the technology, I have an old iPhone and iPad both given to me by a generous friend, they are incredible. And I do think they have a role to play in education.

However I would not be happy with them being used so much that each 11yo needed their own one. I'd be very worried about vision as it is not great to stare at a screen for too long. And theft - not so much due to bullies within the school, but all it takes is for some unscrupulous adult to hear about The School With All The iPads and hang around until some little year 7 is walking home on their own.

I would much rather a school paid for a few extra TAs than iPads.

"I'm not surprised, reallytired that you think the money isn't worth it as you think ICT is used to randomly surf the web in lessons. There is so much potential to these devices, that negates the need for IWB, visualisers, all the stuff you think is valuable in a classroom. That's all going to be obsolete in a decade."

noblegiraffe, I worked as an ICT technician in schools for five years. During that time I saw some outstanding teaching and I also saw one or two utterly cr*p lessons. I have seen kids randomly surf the web in lessons. Or watch videos in lieu of hands on practical experiences like we would have had in the past.

I don't think you know what a visualiser is. An IPad does not make a visualiser redundant. They are radically different things. I can't imagine IWBs disappearing soon either.

Education is far more than ICT. A couple of years ago the fad was every child having a netbook. (Loads got dropped) I am sure there will soon be a new fad to replace the IPad. In the meantime the roof will still be leaking and little jonny will be struggling due to lack of money to pay for a TA.

As much as I love technology, its only a part of eduation.

I do know what a visualiser is, my school bought one. I knocked up my own using a clamp stand and a webcam that worked fine for my purposes (maths teacher).

Kids have been watching videos in lieu of hands on practical experiences for years - it's not the advent of ICT which has caused this. Health and safety concerns, lack of resources, lack of training, behaviour management issues have all contributed. A decrease in ICT wouldn't change that. An increase in ICT might just make the experience a bit better.

IWB won't disappear any time soon but that's because schools are still spending money on them thinking that they are great. They're not a real improvement on a computer and projector onto a normal whiteboard. The promise of getting kids up to interact with it slowly dissipates as you realise that one kid interacting with the board leaves 32 kids to piss around while they do it.

My department has a set of netbooks. Netbooks are just crappier computers - too small to do any decent work on them. Ipads are not the same as netbooks without the keyboard, they really aren't.

For a start, they boot up instantly! No more waiting for the netbooks to boot up! As a mathematician I'm excited by the fact that kids can actually write maths on them. No more sodding equation editor. They can download fantastic free apps to manipulate geometric objects and discover properties themselves instead of watching someone else do it. Instant access to graph plotters. They can record themselves as they solve a maths problem so they have dynamic examples of how to do things. You can use dropbox to give them access to worksheets (no photocopying!) and they can use a free PDF editor to write their answers on the sheet then save it so you can see it. The exam boards are writing interactive textbooks, or you can create your own. You can use them as voting software, or to do class tests where the answers are collated and summarised for you (all free). Creating videos, animations etc are a piece of cake.

Or at least they would be if only I had a class set

"Or at least they would be if only I had a class set "

I agree with you there, there is no point in having IPads unless you have at least a class set or two.

The school I used to work in gave all the children a netbook and it took them forever to boot up or do any meaningful work. (This was mostly due to wireless issues and the network instructure coping)

I feel that a school should buy a class set of IPads/ netbooks etc before equiping the entire school or entire year. Often these technologies are bought at thousands of pound without proper evaluation.

IWB work well with special needs children who are in a class of five, but agree with you that once you have more than ten children it becomes boring for the rest. Different technology works for different subjects. I seen visualisers work really well in an Art or textiles lesson where its not suitable to submit work electronically.

I use a visualiser many times each day - for peer assessment, for showing the book I'm reading (not available as an e-book), for viewing artefacts etc etc