iPads in the Classroom

Excerpts from www.dailybreeze.com/education/ci_20001723 
South Bay schools on an iPad mission
By Rob Kuznia/Daily Breeze

Pacific School Mission IMovie from Paula Noda on Vimeo.

...At Pacific Elementary School in Manhattan Beach, fourth-graders in Paula Noda's class no longer write essays about an annual trip to a mission in Orange County - now they put together an iPad video, complete with theme music, sound effects and panning...

...Leading the charge is Manhattan Beach Unified, which purchased 560 devices for a pilot project this fall. That's one machine for every dozen kids in the K-12 school district - although many more students get a little face time with the iPads, as the devices are rotated from class to class, usually on a cart with wheels.

When it comes to the use of the tablet computer in the classroom, Manhattan Beach is the district to watch - and not just because it has purchased so many. For one thing, it is training teachers from throughout the South Bay how to use the tablets. Perhaps more to the point, the district is trying to take a scientific approach, meaning it is not only charting a pedagogical course, but taking data in the process. Specifically, the district is periodically surveying students, teachers and parents on the effectiveness of the pilot.

"We want to demonstrate that it helps teachers to teach and students to learn," district spokeswoman Carolyn Seaton said. "If we can't demonstrate that, then this isn't a pilot worth expanding."

The verdict so far: The iPads are enhancing the learning process.
But the rosy review isn't without its caveats. For instance, preliminary results show that the high levels of enthusiasm exhibited by teachers and students at the elementary level tends to wane slightly as the age groups get older, with high schools demonstrating the lowest levels. As for test scores, they've gone up significantly in the one example studied by the district to date: a middle-school science chapter test on DNA, where the percentage of students scoring proficient or better has climbed in a year from 63 to 76 percent.

Another caveat: The initial wow factor seems to be waning somewhat.

While 97 percent of the participating teachers in Manhattan Beach reported in November that the iPad makes class more engaging, that proportion had dropped to 86 percent by the end of January. The proportion of students who said so also dropped, though less steeply, from 81 to 77 percent.

A Pacific Elementary fourth-grader works on his California Mission movie project on his iPad. (Brad Graverson/Daily Breeze)

Also trending downward was the share of teachers reporting that the iPad has made the classroom a more innovative place for learning: from 82 percent in November to 68 percent in January...

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Pacific Elementary teacher Paula Noda explains how her fourth-grade students can create a movie about Mission San Juan Capistrano on their iPads. The Manhattan Beach School District is an early adopter of the Apple tablet computer, making it available in classrooms across the district. (Brad Graverson/Daily Breeze)

...Tablet technology doesn't come cheap.

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The Manhattan Beach school district shelled out about $400,000 for this year's batch of devices. Soon, the school board will consider whether to expand the program and, if so, by how much. The options range from spending no money next year to doubling down on the current $400,000 program to shelling out nearly $3 million for "full implementation" - that is, one iPad per child districtwide...

Pierce Kingston and Natalie Trayton put their heads together as they create a California Mission movie using iPads. The venerable California education project has evolved beyond models made from popsicle stick to the high-tech virtual realm. (Brad Graverson/Daily Breeze)

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