The iPad is a powerful and versatile tool that can be effectively used in a classroom. It makes life easy for both teachers and students. There are a lot of learning and teaching apps that can help the teachers to teach better, and help the students to learn better.
Teachers can easily access the Internet from their iPads to get more information about a particular topic even while they are teaching about it in the classroom. Students can get a detailed graphic presentation about the topic that they are learning via the Internet that makes the learning more effective and fun.
Take a look at some of the following statistics.
Eight out of ten teachers reported that their students want iPads in class.
Eighty-six percent of students believe that using iPads in classrooms will help them to study more effectively and efficiently.
Sixty percent of faculty reported that students showed more interest in studying topics that were taught with an iPad than those that were taught using the normal medium.
The three largest textbook publishers are all partnering with the computer giant Apple to sell the digital versions of their books.
Eighty-two percent of the total web-traffic generated by all the tablet devices is from iPads.
More than eight million iPads have already been sold to schools/educators worldwide.
1. Apps
There are a lot of educational apps that are specifically designed for iPads. They are customized for each subject, curriculum, grade level, learning style and much more. For example, the app Nearpod, help teachers to deliver different types of quizzes, info slides, videos, and so on directly to the student’s iPads. Take the case of a quiz. The students can work on it and send it back to the teacher’s iPAd. The teacher can then review it instantly, or later. The report can then be generated as a PDF file, and send it back to the students. It can even be shared with parents. Following are some of the other useful apps.
- iBooks Author – It helps students and teachers to create interactive textbooks featuring videos, audio and 3D graphics.
- Dropbox – The teachers and students can drop their files in Dropbox, and access it from home or from classrooms.
- ClassDojo – The teachers can send reports and feedbacks about the students to their parents. This eliminates the requirement for newsletters.
- Edmodo – This app lets the students and teachers to continue their interaction even after the school bell rings. It also helps the students to submit assignments, and teachers to post assignments.
2. Mobility
An iPad is compact and light in weight. Even a small kid can carry it. It fits perfectly in a school-bag. It is easy to carry. Kids nowadays carry a lot of books to the school. This puts tremendous pressure on their backs. With the help of an iPad, you can ease this burden. Also, during study-tours, the students can carry it with them. This will enable them to take notes effectively, as well as take pictures for reference.
3. Beneficial for students with disabilities
The touch-screen capability of iPads helps a student who lacks motor-skills to watch his/her finger movement and write directly on the screen. This helps to improve his/her motor skills as well. iPads help autistic students to learn much better. Teachers can personalize lessons for students with disabilities as well. It will not only make the learning effective, but fun as well.
4. Environmental benefit
Trees are cut down to make paper, which are required to make textbooks, handouts, presentations, and tests. iPads will help to make learning paperless.
5. Better interaction in a classroom
iPads will help to improve the interaction between a teacher and a student in a classroom. There are children who are afraid or shy to stand up and ask questions to the teachers. With the help of an iPad, they can send their questions to the teachers and clarify their doubt. This will also help the teachers to identify such students, and help them with their communication skills.
Following are some of the other benefits of using iPads in a classroom.
- Touch-screen helps students to engage more interactively with the topics.
- You can save money by combining textbooks, writing tools, diaries, calculators, and other physical learning materials into one electronic device (iPad).
- iPads helps students to take control of their own active learning.
- Ability to switch between different applications makes it easier for the students to look and work on different topics.
- An iPad can be easily and comfortably positioned on the desk or on your lap.
- Children nowadays like, and prefer electronics devices. Most kids prefer a kindle rather than a book.
Education is important for a person to have a bright future. Embracing new technologies will definitely help in making learning more efficient and fun.