By Emily Blackner
Elm Staff Writer
With diverse capabilities from music to games to writing software, Apple’s iPad has taken the world by storm. Washington College is no different, as OIT’s iPad Pilot program is exposing students and faculty to the advantages of the technology in the classroom for creating a more dynamic learning experience.
“The Instructional Technology group in the Office of Information Technologies offers an iPad Pilot Program for faculty,” said Sharon Sledge, Associate CIO of Academic Computing and Support Services. “The goal is to put iPads in the hands of faculty and students to gain insight into the educational application of iPads at Washington College. This semester we have five professors and approximately 70 students participating in the pilot program.
“The iPads and iPod Touches are on loan to the faculty and students. At the end of the semester, the faculty will report back on their successes, challenges, and lessons learned. We encourage the faculty to share their students’ experiences as well,” she said.
English professor Corey Olsen is one of the professors who uses the iPads in his class.
“The primary usage in my class is as an electronic reader,” he said. “It displays PDF’s and e-books, and very importantly, provides access to online texts. This was especially useful this semester because I assigned some medieval poems that are not widely available in print but are available online. I wanted students to be able to consult the texts in class, so iPads allow us to look at them together without printing them out.”
Professor of French Kitty Maynard utilizes the iPad with her French 302 students for similar purposes: to access the database Gallica.fr and view authentic Renaissance artifacts.
“I’d like to be able to discuss the content, but also the format of those texts in order to talk about the history of printing with them. One of the biggest developments of that period was how the advent of printing changed the relationship that people had to reading and written work. An iPad would be the next best thing to having the real 16th century material there with us in the classroom,” she said.
“Students are not just consumers of information but they also create content,” Sledge said.
“Applications like Keynote, Pages and Numbers, along with a wireless keyboard, enable students to create media rich presentations. ‘iMovie’, coupled with the high definition cameras on the iPad 2, makes it possible for students to record, edit, view, and share their video projects with their professor and their favorite social networking website. Students can use GarageBand to learn to play an instrument or create their own musical composition using the iPad on screen touch instruments. Students can then incorporate their original music into their video presentation,” said Maynard.
All iPads come equipped with the same software, which helps professors when doling out assignments.
“It’s a real help to be able to count on what hardware and software all students have access to,” said Olsen. “For example, at times I require students to make audio recordings, and in the past it has been hard to write instructions not knowing what software students had, or what kind of microphone; there are a lot of variables. But with the iPads, I know that everybody is working on the same system and with the same software, so I can really do step-by-step instructions.”
Apple’s App Store also offers other educational apps at little to no cost. Programs like Star Walk and The Elements prove useful for students in science courses, and the e-reader applications like Stanza allow English students to download required books right onto the iPad.
There is also iTunes U, which Sledge says allows students “to download original and primary source materials from museums and cultural institutions to the iPad. Students can listen or view podcast of lectures and presentations by renowned scientist, authors and researchers from around the world.”
Olsen feels that even the basic Internet access functions of the iPad improves the classroom experience.
“One thing that I really like is the fact that sometimes having everyone with the ability to access the Internet really adds something to the discussion,” he said.
“Students can get information online, for example if I’ve forgotten something off the top of my head, or if they’ve read something outside of class that relates to the topic,” he said.
However, the availability of the Internet and the variety of apps including games mean that there are more opportunities for students not to pay attention in class. Olsen recognizes this.
“I do know that people play games in class but my philosophy is, it’s not my job to police what they do with their brains during class. It’s a matter of intellectual discipline on the students’ part. And there are many other ways not to pay attention as well, like doodling or daydreaming; I don’t try to police those,” he said.
In fact, he noticed that students seem less inclined to goof off.
“It’s actually a big improvement from laptops because it’s flat. With a laptop you have the screen serving as a barrier between teacher and student, and without that separation there is a big psychological difference, I think,” said Olsen.
Because the iPad technology is still so new, few students outside of the pilot program use one. “Beyond our iPad pilot program I have not seen a significant increase in the use of iPads by students and faculty,” Sledge said. “Some professors have borrowed an iPad from our loaner pool for use at conferences or simply to try it out before making a purchase. However, iPads are slowly making their way on campus.”
Jim Allison, Director of the Center for Career Development, has started using the iPad 2 in his office. “I plan to use them at the front desk for checking in student appointments,” he said. Also, the technology will prove useful for referencing job search or internship websites. “We tend to point at a ‘distant’ screen 8-10 feet from where they sit and I am not sure students always connect with the message that way.”
According to Sledge, OIT has not received any complaints about iPads yet.
Even so, she said that “innovation is not without its challenges and I’m sure we’ll hear more about these challenges at the end of this semester’s pilot.”
March 25, 2011
Volume LXXXI Issue 19