At first glance, the iPad looks like a miniature chalkboard. Its surface is black, rectangular and cool to the touch. But with a press of the power button, the screen lights up, the Apple logo flashes, and it becomes apparent this device can do more than a chalkboard ever could.
With their introduction into elementary schools this year, teachers at every level of Williamsburg-James City County schools will have one of those devices in the classroom, concluding a three-year introduction process.
The technology is new at the elementary level, but middle and high schools have used iPads for two years. And while the devices are relatively new to WJCC schools, tablet computers are not.
Until two years ago, the district used Interwrite pads in classrooms. The devices acted as a kind of portable desktop, allowing a user to run applications, open and edit files, and annotate screen images from anywhere in the classroom. Those images could be projected onto a screen for viewing by the whole classroom.
That technology worked for a time, but a district-wide software upgrade made the Interwrite pads obsolete. Rather than abandoning tablet computing, WJCC Director of Information Technology Brian Landers said the district decided to upgrade to the next level of the technology.
“We didn’t want to take away a function that was already in the classroom,” he said.
The district phased in the iPads in connection with the regular technology refresh cycles of WJCC schools — first in middle and high schools, then in elementary schools. For a price of $358,000 over two years, the district plugged 1,140 iPads into WJCC classrooms.
With the new devices, teachers retain the functions of the Interwrite pad, while gaining the increased capabilities of the iPad. The Interwrite pads allowed teachers to access their desktop computers while moving throughout the classroom. But with iPads, the tablet is the computer. Teachers can access the internet, documents, videos, educational apps and other functions through the devices.
Jamestown High math teacher Chris Eames uses his iPad to create class notes. Eames said he creates an outline for each class period, and then annotates it as the class progresses. The outline and the annotations are projected on a screen, and students can copy them into their own notebooks. If students miss class, Eames can email them the class notes, or post them to a file sharing website like Dropbox.
Eames also uses the device to engage students with the material. He can create an example math problem on the iPad and pass it to a student to solve. As the student explains his or her solution, the rest of the class can see the work step-by-step.
“You could not imagine how the engagement changes,” he said.
Eames said today’s high school students are a different generation technologically from students only a few years older.
“I was in college during the age of SMART Boards, and that was the first time you really saw that kind of technology being utilized in the classroom,” he said. “The iPad is the SMART Board of the 21st-century. It’s 10-times better, [and] it’s cheaper.”
Tricia Ridley, who also teaches math at Jamestown High, uses her iPad for notes during her classes. Although the Interwrite pads could also be used for annotating notes, Ridley said the iPad beat it in one crucial, yet simple, way — the ability to use multiple colors.
“In my lower-level courses, the notes can be given in color, and I can change colors as the topic changes,” she said. “They can see it and follow it better.”
For even greater aid, Ridley can insert pictures or draw symbols next to certain information for students to use as a visual aid.
“They see that visual cue, and it’ll remind them,” she said. “That shorthand just kind of clicks. They remember and it doesn’t waste their time.”
Like Eames, Ridley posts class notes to Dropbox from her iPad — a method she said benefits parents as well as students. Parents can download class notes to their own computers, see what their children are learning and help them with the material if possible.
There is also a benefit for teachers. The writing function helps instructors take notes, but the suite of apps available on the iPad provide their own advantages.
“It helps keep me organized,” Eames said.
Both Eames and Ridley said the iPads were making a difference in their classrooms, but they had not yet used the devices to their full potential.
“Audio-visual, that’s where I want to go,” Eames said. “I can provide a sample problem, and then have a student answer it and record themselves explaining how they got it. Then students can go home and listen to their classmate explain the solution as they see the work being done.”
That ability for students to view and repeat the material at their own pace outside the classroom is one of the major benefits of the technology, Ridley said.
“They can start and stop as they want to,” she said. “It frees us up to teach, to go and help those students who really need the extra help.”
Although she said she understands the value of the new technology, Jamestown High math teacher Deborah MacDowell emphasized the devices were enhancing — not replacing — traditional teaching methods.
“We still do the other things; it’s not all tech,” she said. “As frustrated as I get with it, I see the advantages. Anything that you can do that makes it easier for students to learn, that’s a positive thing. We don’t all learn the same way.”
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