Remedial & Special education blog

Would you consider using something like the recently released iPad in a classroom environment?

This is one of the questions we at RemSpecED have been kicking around over the last few weeks since we heard the device had been released by Apple.

The first instinct from a lot of teachers and parents is “no” and the primary reason – “the child will break an expensive device”.

Alternatively they will argue that the child will then seek to do other activities like chat to other children or surf content other than what the class is working on.

Both are valid concerns and nobody can afford – at first glance – to allow their kids to be walking around with a R5000 tablet computer or iPad.

But let’s take away cost for a moment and instead focus on the opportunities which the device offers:

Lightweight:
Have you ever tried to pick up your childs school bag recently? I’ve tried to pick up my 12 year olds bag the other day and had to put it down almost immediately. If it didn’t have wheels, I have no clue how she would lug all these books around.

Imagine stripping out the costs of school bags, text books, writing instruments / stationery, note books etc. and simply having your child carrying a light-weight tablet to school. From both a cost and physical strain perspective, the investment would start to make sense.

Improved organisation
The bane of most parents existence is the forgotten newsletter, homework, lost text book or the workbook sitting in the childs chairbag. If the only thing you needed to double-check each day was that the child had their tablet or iPad, organisation would improve markedly.

Automated diary functions – much like people use in the real world – would remind children and their parents of upcoming functions, project and assignment dates. The organisation of parent and child would improve significantly and this in turn would create a more organised teaching environment.

Richer learning experience
What is going to capture the attention of a child when they are learning – a dog-eared text book that is five years old with black and white photos of how a volcano works or rich content with video and sound depicting the volcanic action taking place in Iceland at the moment?

It sinks in better if the child sees it and experiences it. For example my seven year old son knows exactly what a Cuttlefish is, because he spent a half hour engrossed watching National Geographic when he was bored.
 
Changes the teachers playing field
How much of a teachers “free” time is taking up by doing marking?

Imagine being able to “push” a test to a childs tablet or iPad and letting them get on with the test and then having them submit either a test or homework to you when they are finished. Even better – imagine those tests being marked “on the fly” and entered into a marking system.

Conclusion:
Reading the above, might sound like a “nice to have” but the reality is that this is a very feasible technology to be considered for classrooms in the coming years. Already universities are gearing themselves up for higher levels of electronic or “e-learning” capability.

You might argue that a similar case was made for the laptop to be in every South African classroom but there are at least two fundamental differences between when the laptop argument was rolled out and the tablet argument. Firstly broadband at the time meant that a laptop was little more than a box where you could capture a bit of data or do some word-processing. Now if you can get cellphone connectivity in the area you can move content around wirelessly.

Secondly there has been a huge increase in the levels of mobile technology adoption over the last few years. Last year there were more people doing banking transacting on their cellphones than there were people doing internet banking – this is a big change in user habits.

Give us your thoughts
We’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you agree or disagree that this kind of technology could change the way South African parents, teachers, therapists and children approach the education process in the coming years.

Either leave a comment below or e-mail us at paula@remspeced.co.za