Do schools need ipads

[CrownCoats]

My daughter’s primary school wants to fundraise for a handful iPads for each classroom. I believe they want to use them for IT lessons and to allow kids to further research the topics that they are studying.

Is this normal for primary schools in the UK? Is IT really best taught on a tablet? My first instinct was that screens have no place in the classroom. Would be interested to hear what others think.

I'm surprised they haven't got them already to be honest, it's a brilliant versatile resource and it's been completely normal technology in most primary schools I've worked in for the last 5+ years.

I also can't see any problem having iPads for use during computing time and to be honest your child will already have screen time most days in class via the interactive whiteboard so worrying about screens in the classroom seems a daft argument.

They're incredibly useful. For example, today, my class of year 2s used a geoboard app to create all sorts of different shapes. Quick, easy, easy to clear up and evidence and no wanging elastic bands round the classroom!!

However, better than a few for each classroom is to have a set of 15 I.e. a whole class set when used in pairs. Any class can book them when needed.

There is very much a place for screens on the classroom - I'd be surprised if each classroom
didn't have an interactive whiteboard.

The days of going to the school library to consult the encyclopaedia are long gone. These days DC grab an iPad and Google what they want to know.

Yes, IT is best taught on an iPad in KS1. KS2 might use Chromebooks. I'd expect the school to have at least a class set of iPads.

That are great and kids use them to learn valuable skills.

Having tablets means that they can more easily move around and work in small groups.

They learn to do research by doing small research projects like learning about a charity or about fair trade. This means they learn how to use search engines, how to critically appraise the results and select the reliable ones from the rubbish.

They learn coding through using scratch and similar. They can do great things so quickly on an iPad.

They don't have to sit in a computer lab, they can sit around tables together, move around, more readily mix using books and other materials alongside the screen. I think it's great.

We're doing a Cub sleepover in a school soon and we are being permitted to borrow the iPads and I'm so happy because the kids often ask to do things like coding but we don't have the resources so we are going to have a really chilled time and instead of scampering around outside as normal we are going to have a bit of a coding camp.

Is that really preferable to using pen and paper or other physical tools? I can’t believe it does anything to help the motor skills of a class of 6 year olds.

I should add, the school does have some iPads but they’re very old and barely functioning as a result.

Why does the task need to help with their motor skills? They can develop their motor skills in some activities and their computing skills in others it's not one or the other?

My daughter has dysgraphia, which means she struggles with handwriting. The standard solution now is to type. It doesn't have to be on an iPad, but she needs something, laptop, chromebook, whatever. And she is far from alone. Not sure about her current school, but her class last year had 4 children out of 26 who typed regularly. They had a chromebook each for those children (I think leftover from the government covid scheme) and then a pta funded laptop set which could be used by any class.

As part of the mix, absolutely. It depends on what you're trying to achieve. Yes, you need to work on the motor skills with the children, and they need to know how to use a ruler etc. But, this can be incredibly time consuming, and the curriculum is very full. If i want to really focus in on children being able to articulate and justify why their shape is or isn't a hexagon for example, then spending hours trying to get 30 kids to draw them, given some have fine motor challenges, some will misbehave with the rulers etc. Is unhelpful and takes away from the focus of what we are trying to do. If we are focusing on drawing with accurate measuring, then of course we would need to spend that time trainjng them to use a ruler accurately, and measure on paper and pencil. Also, using an educational iPad app can be very motivating for children and get them interested in something. It's not about using them all the time, it's about choosing your tools to enable them to learn best for whatever you are trying to teach them at that time. Those tools could be an app, or pencil and paper. Do you see what I mean?

Yes, computers are already there, individual tablets used by many. This is why school funds deplete very quickly as technology isn't cheap! Xx

With our iPad set up, where we have a set in a box in the corridor, constantly plugged in to charge, it takes no longer to hand them out and open an app than it does to hand out books and get them to find the next blanks page, but obviously it depends on what you're doing as to what would be more appropriate!

Why wouldn't they teach IT via ipads? It's how everyone pretty much accesses IT these days life is app based.

Once they get to secondary they'll also learn about proper computers too.

There are some incredibly fun and engaging educational apps available to schools.

This is part of my concern. IPads have a shelf life and school budgets are only going down. How is a school meant to afford to replace 200+ iPads every ~5 years?

Our school uses desktop computers and are actively against becoming an Apple accredited school.

Schools still use plenty of pens paler, scissors, dough, building blocks. It's not an either or situation.

I think you are being obtuse.

Well they won't be using them all day every day, will they... It's not all iPAD...

Why?

But everything in a school has a shelf life. Paint jobs. Playground equipment. Sports equipment. It all has to be replaced. Why would they need 200 anyway?

A primary school isn't going to be buying 200+ iPads. They will have one or two class sets at most. Even the 5 form entry school near me only has 4 sets for the infants and juniors combined they use them on a rota.

Its a tool. Screens aren't all bad, its mindless scrolling, inane videos and some social media thats bad. Not the technology itself.

DS is learning to touch type. A skill now lost due to iPads usage. OT recommended he use touch typing to help increase ICT skills as he has difficulty writing fast. He is behind many of his peers in some ways. We are hoping this skill will help him articulate what he wants to say quickly in a piece of work.

It would take ages to list all the excellent learning done with iPads, but one of the best reasons I've found is teaching phonics for children who have fallen behind. Those in Y3, Y4, Y5 who need gaps filled.

Those year groups are no longer doing basic phonics, and the students who missed out cannot be handed pen and paper and be told to teach themselves to read. They need to hear those phonemes pronounced again and again. They need to hear blending.

15 minutes a day with a phonics programme talking them through the learning is so powerful - the students make excellent progress. And that helps them access every other part of the curriculum.

And that's before we've considered IT, geography, history, design and technology, maths...

Surely they should have the opportunity for both.

I have no issue with them. They are used in my children's school where they do range of maths, reading and skill building exercises on them. Of course they do plenty of pen and paper work as well and they're not just used instead of that. There's also normal computers but not enough for 1 per child. It all goes hand in hand.

My kids are older (18 & 14) and they both used IPads in primary school. Their secondary school also uses them, each child has their own (we pay thru a scheme over 3 years). Each teacher has a surface pro and they are used in class and for homework.