iPads in the Classroom
It did not take long after Apple's iPad was first released in April of 2010 for the field of special education to begin speculating about its use and potential benefits in the classroom. The benefits of the iPad over some of the other tools that are available in the classroom include the fact that students can directly interact with it with their fingers / hands, the interface is intuitive for even the most beginning users, and the apps that are available to load onto the device are extremely varied and most are inexpensive. It also helps that the iPad turns on in seconds, is lightweight and portable, has a long battery life, and is a mainstream technology that most everyone is familiar with.
By the fall of 2010, NSSED was in full swing of investigating the use of iTechnology in the classroom and had assembled a group of stakeholders to consider the potential benefits to implementation (e.g., increases in student motivation and independence) and areas that needed to be explored (e.g., infrastructure, curriculum integration, district policies) in order for implementation to be successful. In the spring, an iTechnology Pilot program was initiated in the Early Childhood and Educational and Life Skills (EC/ELS) classrooms. The purpose of the pilot was to evaluate the impact on student outcomes as well as continue investigating questions surrounding infrastructure and app management, integration into the classroom curriculum, and the need to reevaluate or potentially create policies. The Pilot Study outcomes were strong. The results suggested that when iPads and iPod Touches were used in the classroom, students tended to be more independent, on task, accurate, and behaviorally appropriate. In addition, important information was gained with regards to supports that needed to be in place for successful implementation. For a full report of the Pilot and the outcomes CLICK HERE.
NSSED continues to evaluate the impact of using iPads in classrooms on student outcomes as well as investigate the most effective and efficient strategies and supports for implementation. This goal of this continued data collection effort to get a larger, more representative sample of students reflected in the data collected and to look for similarities and differences in how the iPads are being used and how students are responding to the iPads from one year to the next.
There are now over 80 NSSED owned iPads and more than 20 iPod Touches in our various programs and services.
NSSED staff are working hard to provide all of the supports and professional development needed to support the iPad users in the district.