iPad in the classroom: Conditions for success to initiate real change

The Summit on the iPad in education of 1^er May was rich in sharing of experience and good practices, often applying to several technologies. Here is a report from Annie Martin, Apple Canada, on Transforming Education Using the Digital Tablet.

(continuation of yesterday's article)

How to promote the success of the integration of the iPad in the classroom? Annie Martin, an educational technology specialist at Apple, offered the 400 or so participants of the 1^er IPad Summit in Education, held on 1^er last May in Montreal, several interesting avenues on this subject.

1. Know precisely why you want to acquire iPad tablets (define your mission, vision). She gives the example of a teacher who first imagined his class and succeeded in convincing parents thanks to his structured vision and precise objectives. By having everyone's support, the implementation was greatly facilitated. Here are a few examples of “why”: budget issues, a desire to personalize learning, encourage class attendance, develop 21 skills.^e century, etc.

2. Next, you have to be able to measure success. For this, observable criteria must be defined. For example: student comments, number of absences, behavior. Ms. Martin made the audience laugh when she recalled a conversation with a manager: “I asked him what was the goal of acquiring the iPad for his school, and his response was that he wanted to take back the lab. to make it a class. And now, his goal was reached! "

3. Also, you have to train yourself. "The teacher must take charge of his training, not just wait to be trained," she believes. She explains that it has been shown that between 5 and 14 hours of continuous training by the teacher, no impact is obtained on the results of the students. “It takes 49 hours to expect 21 % to have an impact on the results. Impossible, they say! This is why teachers must accept to be partly responsible for their training. To this end, she suggests exploring the ÉDUmobilesQC site, from the RÉCIT of the Commission scolaire des Chênes.

4. Then, you have to change and rethink your practices. “We shouldn't use the iPad in class just to be cool and do the same projects as before! Ms. Martin cites for this purpose the SAMR model, de Puentedura: he maintains that the real change takes place on 4 levels: substitution (changing one way of doing things by another), increase (for example, adding a multimedia dimension to more traditional content), modification (for example, offer his course notes in a format like iBooksAuthor, allowing the addition of images, videos, 3D animations, but also interactive quiz), then redefinition (for example, the integration of new learning tasks which would be impossible without technology).

5. Involve the students. For example, having a code of ethics for using iPads in the classroom. “Ideally, you have to create it with the students. Determine together the consequences of not respecting this code, and you will see that they are more severe than us! Also, it is important to involve the students by identifying the “experts”, those who can offer technical assistance, etc.

Ms. Martin finally recalled that it is possible to call on the Apple team, both pedagogically and technically, to obtain reinforcements. “Ultimately, our common goal is to make a real difference for your students. "