Faculty Group Explores Use of iPads in Instruction April 17, 2012

The LTC has always explored new technologies and how they might be used by College of Education faculty to improve instruction. The most recent technology to take the world by storm, the Apple iPad, and other tablet-type devices, is certainly no exception.

"With the emergence of these new technologies, we wanted to explore the possibilities of using tablets in instruction. It's very important to involve the faculty in the process and leverage their expertise. They know a lot about teaching and learning and what works with students and what doesn't," says Karen French, LTC IDEA Studio Coordinator.

"We also want to objectively make decisions on whether or how to implement new technologies, based on actually trying things out and seeing how they work," Karen adds. "We don't want to just get a bunch of iPads and start trying to use them without any idea of what works well or what problems need to be solved."

Karen organized the iPad Working Group in the fall of 2011 and manages its activities. Its members are COE faculty who committed to bi-weekly meetings and to trying the iPad in their classes. In exchange, they each received an iPad 2 to work with and $100 to purchase apps. The members include: Leema Berland, Barbara Pazey, Detra Price-Dennis, Tere Ramirez, Haydee Rodriguez, Diane Shallert, Julian Vasquez Helig, and Melissa Wetzel.

During the fall, the group learned how to use the iPad and tried out a variety of apps. They then developed plans to use the iPads with their classes in the spring. Meanwhile, using Vision Plan funding, IDEA Studio staff purchased and set up a fleet of 30 iPads and a storage cart.

This semester, the group members are using the iPads in their courses. Hughes and Shallert have used them in graduate research classes, while Wetzel and Rodriguez have used them in undergraduate classes.

Melissa Wetzel, Assistant Professor in Curriculum & Instruction, has used the iPads quite a bit in her Community Literacy class. Students created "multi-modal" narratives, which combine video, audio, pictures, and text to create stories. Later, when students conducted training classes for predominately Spanish-speaking parents, they accessed Google Translate with the tablets to help them communicate with the parents.

As they have used them in their teaching, the instructors have found the iPads are quite different from laptops. They are, of course, smaller and lighter and do not create the visual barrier that an open laptop can. The lack of a keyboard has caused some students to struggle with the touchscreen typing.

The IDEA Studio staff has worked to overcome technical and logistical issues with the use of the iPads. It has been difficult to connect them to the College's wireless network. WebSpace did not work well with the iPads, but there was no way to use storage devices with them.

During the summer, the faculty group will gather information from their students about how they feel about using the iPad in their classes. After an iPad assignment, students will describe and exchange views on the experience using an online discussion board that the IDEA Studio will set up. This will give the instructors further insight into what works and what doesn't when using the tablets.

There are plans to continue the exploration of iPads in instruction during the fall 2012 semester. For more information about the iPad Working Group, contact Karen French.

—Laurie Caldwell, LTC Communications Coordinator