Apple's iPad is heart of Idaho elementary 'iSchool' pilot program

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
A company that specializes in implementing Apple products in the classroom has deployed the iPad to elementary school students in an Idaho pilot program.



Paul Elementary School in Minidoka County, Idaho, is where iSchool Campus recently implemented Apple's iPad in its education pilot test. In the program's first two and a half months, students and teachers have been provided with Apple's latest full-size iPad for use in the classroom.

In a promotional video posted online, faculty at Paul Elementary praise the iSchool Campus program as an effective way to engage students. Principal Colleen Johnson said the iPad has dramatically changed how her school operates, and she anticipates Apple's tablet will be able to completely replace textbooks in the future.

"This is our resource, and it's limitless," she said.

Fifth-grade teacher Ashlee Johnson said the adoption of the iPad has given students the ability to take ownership of their learning, which fosters genuine excitement in the classroom.

"They're excited to learn, they're excited to show you what they know," she said. "They're allowed to use their higher computing skills. It allows the kids to be more creative."

iSchool Campus


In addition to boosting education, the iPad has also been a cost saver for Paul Elementary. The principal revealed that her school has reduced paper copies by 20,000 a month in doing digital, resulting in what she called a "significant financial savings."

"We don't need consumables anymore," Principal Johnson said. "We're able to use the iPad to take notes, to practice skills. It replaces almost every worksheet that we used to give students, and is much more engaging."

The iSchool Campus program also integrates Apple's Mac computers into the classroom. In the video, students can be shown completing assignments on iMac desktops.

Principal Johnson said she believes the iPad's effect on students is also reaffirming for teachers, who can see the results firsthand.

"When [students] own their learning, the ability to increase scores and understanding rises dramatically," she said. "With this deployment, with technology, students are excited about learning. They're not sitting in a classroom where one student is raising their hand and answering one at a time. They are actively participating in every single part of the lesson."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 19
    richard getzrichard getz Posts: 1,142member
    awesome!
  • Reply 3 of 19

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Richard Getz View Post



    awesome!


    Agreed. Didn't AI recently have a story where a Medical school had issued or required iPads and noted a 20% increase in test scores? If I had a child in elementary, middle or high school they would definitely have an iPad.

  • Reply 4 of 19
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member


    Look like tablets and servers are killing papers. Wait for when we can write and draw on it and it will be game over for papers.

  • Reply 5 of 19
    It appears to be a good news , oh , AAPL is gonna drop for that . LoL
  • Reply 6 of 19


    "reduced paper copies by 20,000 a month in doing digital..."


     


    I think in the video the principal say a reduction of $20,000 a month in paper copies. :)


  • Reply 7 of 19
    I hadn't even thought about all the consumable costs a school would save by changing to tablets/digital books. That's a lot of money per month!
  • Reply 8 of 19
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    "When [students] own their learning, the ability to increase scores and understanding rises dramatically," she said. "With this deployment, with technology, students are excited about learning. They're not sitting in a classroom where one student is raising their hand and answering one at a time. They are actively participating in every single part of the lesson."


    Yeah, they are participating in every part of the lesson but they are not participating in social interaction with the rest of the class. They have their headphones on and staring at their own screen. The effects of mobile computing may have some not so beneficial side effects for the next generation. I see kids all the time with their ear buds, hunched over their device completely oblivious to the rest of the world. That can't be healthy when prolonged over the course of their formative years. Kids should be interacting with others, developing relationships instead of being so antisocial and only focused on that little screen.

  • Reply 9 of 19
    am8449am8449 Posts: 392member
    Too bad the video didn't show kids talking about why they enjoy learning on an iPad. I think that'd be compelling, and maybe telling of the impact of iPads on their learning.
  • Reply 10 of 19
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Yeah, they are participating in every part of the lesson but they are not participating in social interaction with the rest of the class. They have their headphones on and staring at their own screen. The effects of mobile computing may have some not so beneficial side effects for the next generation. I see kids all the time with their ear buds, hunched over their device completely oblivious to the rest of the world. That can't be healthy when prolonged over the course of their formative years. Kids should be interacting with others, developing relationships instead of being so antisocial and only focused on that little screen.





    Sounds like you're assuming they spend all their class time wearing headphones.  At that age, I suspect (and hope) the teachers have them doing social stuff too away from tech.

  • Reply 11 of 19
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    Yeah, they are participating in every part of the lesson but they are not participating in social interaction with the rest of the class. They have their headphones on and staring at their own screen. The effects of mobile computing may have some not so beneficial side effects for the next generation. I see kids all the time with their ear buds, hunched over their device completely oblivious to the rest of the world. That can't be healthy when prolonged over the course of their formative years. Kids should be interacting with others, developing relationships instead of being so antisocial and only focused on that little screen.



     


    A few 5 second clips hardly show us their entire day. 

  • Reply 12 of 19
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by am8449 View Post



    Too bad the video didn't show kids talking about why they enjoy learning on an iPad. I think that'd be compelling, and maybe telling of the impact of iPads on their learning.


     


    That gets into legal issues that can be messy to sort out.  Just shooting b roll is enough for an issue for many companies. 

  • Reply 13 of 19
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


    A few 5 second clips hardly show us their entire day. 



    Even as teens, kids today are too preoccupied with their devices, while riding in the car, hanging out at the mall, after school at home, and now even at school, essentially all day long. Kids today spend way too much time on their devices in my opinion. Not just in this video. BTW that video is terrible. The audio is bad the transitions are way too long and that out of focus stuff just looks awful.

  • Reply 14 of 19
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Has a SINGLE educational institution announced any program with Android devices? No. Corporations? Barely.
  • Reply 15 of 19
    hftshfts Posts: 386member
    Maybe samdung will try and sue.
    They did it when Apple implemented engineering for the sight-impaired.
    Nothing surprises me anymore with this scum.
  • Reply 16 of 19
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    slurpy wrote: »
    Has a SINGLE educational institution announced any program with Android devices? No. Corporations? Barely.

    I'd like to know exactly what is being done with iPads here.

    If they are only replacing text books with PDFs (or any other eBook format), then it is really opportunity lost, or at least not fully realised.

    Sure, kids will still rather scroll through tablet than turn pages of real book, but that is not really even tapping in tablet's potential as educational device. It is also making insisting on iPad pointless. Every tablet, laptop, netbook... can browse eBooks.

    Can iPads (or any other tablets) be used in system where teacher can "take control" over classroom devices and project something on all of them - say, a video about cheetah running in slo-mo, for biology/nature class. Or, run GoogleEarth simultaneously and search for Great Wall on all of them, for history lesson? Or starting interactive app where teacher can "project" scenario on every tablet, but then students have to do something within that scenario, before teacher does next step?

    Things like that would make real next level in learning, IMHO.
  • Reply 17 of 19
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by nikon133 View Post




    Can iPads (or any other tablets) be used in system where teacher can "take control" over classroom devices and project something on all of them - say, a video about cheetah running in slo-mo, for biology/nature class. Or, run GoogleEarth simultaneously and search for Great Wall on all of them, for history lesson? Or starting interactive app where teacher can "project" scenario on every tablet, but then students have to do something within that scenario, before teacher does next step?



    If you watch the video you can see that there is a large screen TV apparently running AppleTV with AirPlay. That is how the group lessons should be displayed, not pushed out to individual iPad screens. iPads, I think are better for home study assignments and for testing of learning achievement levels. For lessons in class, they need more quality teachers not digital replacements. Getting children used to using an iPad is great but using them as a full time content delivery system, I think is a mistake. Before you know it there will be no teacher, just a security guard forcing them to engage in the content being transmitted from the school district headquarters.

  • Reply 18 of 19
    bleh1234bleh1234 Posts: 146member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post



    Has a SINGLE educational institution announced any program with Android devices? No. Corporations? Barely.


     


    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100548741 


     


    Roll out of 5,000 Samsung Chromebook 550s to provide equal opportunities to students and empower an educational transformation

  • Reply 19 of 19
    Have you looked at Educational Resources' LearnPad solution. The LearnPad solution enables educators to do directed instruction. The student only can access what the teacher has given him or her access to. The LearnPad also works without Wi-Fi assuming the lesson has already been loaded on the device. Also assuming the lesson isn't comprised solely on websites and other web properties. The LearnPad is built off the Android platform and fully locked down along with CIPA browser... so students really can't break out of the lesson in front of them.
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