10 Ways to Use the iPad in Your Classroom

Posted Fri, 04/23/2010 - 19:38 by barbara

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

How can teachers use iPads in the classroom? Here are 10 ideas:

  1. Load iPads with eBooks and then select and assign reading groups for certain books. Simply hand the iPad to a group of students and have them read a book together.
  2. Select movies to view and again, hand them to groups of students. Then, have them use the iPad to write to a class blog or online course site, responding to discussion prompts.
  3. Use the iPad just like any Internet-connected computer, having students use Google Docs (install the Google Mobile apps) for collaborative writing and multimedia creation activities.
  4. Have students search for podcasts in iTunes on a topic of study and listen to them on the iPad.
  5. Subscribe to various periodicals and newspapers on the iPad and include a daily reading and discussion period.
  6. Watch any number of quality online shows, searching by the topic of study, bookmarking and maintaining a list and critique of sources. 
  7. Research the various iPad apps and have students list and critique them, creating an online resource guide for the iPad and school activities using Google Sites.
  8. Try out various Twitter apps for the iPad, such as TweetFlow and set up a class Twitter account to keep track of activities throughout the school year.
  9. Purchase the Keynote app and teach your students how to prepare professional presentations, using multimedia learning principles.
  10. Learn along with your students and take a class on iPhone and mobile development, working on an iPad app for your school.
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Comments

But why?

by gudenius - 05/05/2010 - 10:36

These are all ideas of things you can do with an iPad that may be beneficial to a classroom.  Then again, they are all also things that can be done on a netbook -- for less than half the price.  (Netbooks: $250+; iPad: $600+), so what is the justification and the relative advantage of using an iPad?

Drawbacks of iPads in Education:

  1. Does not support Flash.  This eliminates access to 90%+ of online educational resources, including most supporting games, tutorials, and activities made by major textbook companies including Harcourt and Pearson.
  2. Does not play nicely on many networks.  This is why the iPad has been by George Washington and Princeton universities (among others) as well as by the entire country of Israel.
  3. Costs a minimum of $600... more than twice as much as a netbook and 50% more than a touch-screen tablet netbook.

Benefits of iPads:

  1. Touch-screen (but, as noted, you can get a touch-screen netbook for under $500.  It doesn't have multi-touch, but does let you write/manipulate the screen with a stylus)
  2. Apps (but anything done in an Apple App can be done in a Flash app -- and often offered for free.  There are millions of Flash apps available.  There are about 200,000 Apple Apps.)

So, I'm not doubting that an iPad (or iPod Touch, for that matter) can be used for education.  But for a product that costs 100% more and is capable of doing less, my question is: WHY?

-- Matthew Gudenius

iPads are easy and simple to use

by M_Matthews - 08/02/2010 - 12:41

Simple to use for sure when you have videos like these : 

2.5 year old uses an iPad for the first time

5 year old figuring it out

Flash Support:

You can get around flash support:

Convert your educational DVD's with DVD to iPad software

Use an AVI, MPEG, or WMV iPad video converter program

Cost is relative:

You are getting a solid product that runs on a concrete operating system

Networks:

I haven't any issues connecting my iPad to the network at Arizona State University or any of the millions of hotspots across the country that I've attempted to connect to