A New York elementary school has digitized its teaching environment by having their students from grades 3 to 9 use their iPads during classroom lessons 75 percent of the time.
Gail Robinson of the Hechinger Report spent a day with 24 third-graders in Jackson Avenue School. Their teacher, Morgan Mercaldi, said that they have been doing this initiative for the past five years. The school has a total of 417 children from grades 3 to 9 who have their own tablets, which they use in the classroom most of the time.
There is no data yet on whether digital learning can actually improve the school performance of young students, yet Jackson Avenue School relies on iPads to meet the Common Core standards. Common Core is important because it is designed to ensure that the students would be successful after high school by equipping them with competitive math and English language arts skills.
Many schools who have attempted to incorporate technology in class have reportedly failed, but experts believe that digital learning can be beneficial to children if paired with a good teaching agenda.
"Are you using the iPad just to use the iPad, or you are doing it to take the teaching you are doing and do it better?" Heather Schugar, associate professor of education at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, told The Hechinger Report.
Mercaldi has been working with eSpark, a company that develops iPad curriculums that teachers can use. She is also training other teachers to adjust their teaching styles to go with the technology. There are technical glitches along the way, such as the camera not working or the quiz that isn't loading. Teachers show children how to troubleshoot, and students are also allowed to share the fix that they discover.
Most teachers gave positive feedback on how the iPads made their teaching more efficient, and so did most of the parents. The Rochester Public Schools officials released their survey results showing the students and parents' reactions after iPads are brought inside the classrooms, according to Post Bulletin.
The survey revealed that 67 percent of the students either agreed or strongly agreed that iPads helped them learn faster. Only 11 percent of the 3,139 students who answered the survey considered the device as a distraction. Most of the parents, about 64 percent, were happy that their children continue to study with their iPad even outside school.
