The following is an excerpt from an article published on Emerging Tech.
The study looks at the use of iPads at the Longfield Academy, where a large scale 1 to 1 iPad program was implemented last year. A brief overview of this groundbreaking study is provided below:
Longfield Academy in Kent, England is a recently built school covering years 7 through 13 (ages 11 to 18). Over 800 students (the vast majority of students at the Academy) had or were issued iPads, across the full spectrum of grade levels (although not everyone had one, apparently a small percentage of students used other devices).
The study used surveys to assess the impact of iPad use on motivation, quality of work, achievement, collaboration, and other factors.
Among the findings:
- 77% of faculty respondents felt that student achievement appeared to have risen since the introduction of the iPad
- 73% of students and 67% of staff felt that the iPad helped students improve the quality of their work
- 69% of students that completed the survey felt that using the iPad was motivating and that they worked better with it than without it
- 60% of faculty thought that students were more motivated by lessons that incorporate the iPad than those that did not
The full study report can be found here. The report offers many details, some graphically illustrated, about the breakout of student and teacher uses of the tablets.
I beleive that iPad kind devices are engaging students to learn. The only thing I do not know is why ACE has not make its own application for iPads.
So the results of this study we’re primarily from questionnaires asking student if the “felt” their performance had improved, rather than any actual measurement of their performance, correct? While this study is encouraging —and I strongly support the use of technology like the iPad— we need more in-depth studies which clearly measure the performance of learners with iPads vs those without.
It’s great to see these devices used in the classroom and before long they will more than likely be prevalent in education across the globe. Great article showing technology helping as opposed to a distraction. Check out good resource for learning iPad here: http://learnipadandmore.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/ipad_training/