Schools to try iPads in classroom
In recent years, schools across the country began using iPads to enhance the educational experience of their students. This fall, the Manhattan Beach Unified School District will join them.
One grade level in each of the district’s four elementary schools, all science classes at the middle-school level, and eight teachers at Mira Costa High School have been chosen to implement iPads into their curriculum.
“We’ve started by having the teachers come in and have training on how to use their iPad,” said Karina Gerger, the teacher on special assignment from 21st Century Teaching and Learning Educational Services who will be overseeing the program. After receiving basic instruction, teachers were told to take their iPads home and practice using them over the summer. “We want them to be very familiar with it,” Gerger said. The teachers will participate in professional development workshops with Apple later this summer.
The idea to bring iPads into Manhattan Beach classrooms first came up last year. “We looked at the technology plan and how we wanted to move forward with it,” Gerger said, adding that students at the time spent only about an hour a week in the school computer labs. “Technology shouldn’t be a place where students go to get it, but it should be in their hands as much as possible.”
She explained that the new technology would be used in a variety of different ways. “We’ve asked (teachers) to do group work to teach word-processing skills and graphic design through Keynote and Pages,” she said.
The teachers involved in the program also have many ideas on how to use iPads to further their lesson plans. “There are some awesome science applications that are out there,” said James Locke, a science teacher at Manhattan Beach Middle School.
Locke described an application that will display real time pictures of stars and constellations when held up to the sky. Another one will allow students to build their own virtual roller coaster while learning about physics. “You run your roller coaster through a track and it keeps track of force and momentum,” he said. “The possibilities are limited by the imagination.”
One of the main benefits of using iPads in the classrooms will be that students will have access to a more individualized education. “Teachers can facilitate small groups of students at different levels,” said Gerger. Ellen Chao, whose daughter is in fourth grade at Pacific Elementary School, couldn’t agree more that a more individualized approach will benefit students.
“Our kids are really fortunate that they’re going to be able to have technology at school every day,” Chao said.
The program is being funded by a combination of grants, donations, and non-general fund money acquired this past school year – the total budget for the project is $500,000.
The program may have some benefits in the long run, Gerger said. She noted that implementation of iPads in classrooms will be the first step towards a paperless school.
Throughout the year, she will work closely with other school administrators to study the effect of the program on student learning. Parents, teachers, and students will be surveyed throughout the year as a way to evaluate the program’s success.
If the program proves successful, the teachers currently involved will train more teachers on the technology so that the benefits can be spread to more students in more classes. “We’re hoping that it’s successful this year and we can push forward and put iPads in the hands of all students,” Gerger said. ER