The Very Best Thing About iPads (and other devices)

I love everything about my iPad. It possesses a powerful processor and eye-popping screen, has more innovative apps than I will ever be able to use, and it fits easily into my carry-on luggage in its gorgeous purple leather case. What’s not to love?

Because I love my iPad, it is easy for me to understand the enthusiasm of teachers who are keen to get their hands on a class set of iPads, ipods, laptops, or netbooks. I get it when people talk about how engaged they think their students will be, and how many new and authentic activities they can create when students have fingertip access to apps and to the Internet. Nevertheless I must confess to having felt downright curmudgeonly in the last few months as I listened to people extolling the virtues of one app or another. I worried about the certainty I was hearing that any given app or device had the power to ensure both engagement and achievement.  It seemed to me that the focus on learning had been lost, that the ‘gee whiz’ factor had taken over. It was all I could do not to sigh aloud, wag my finger, and talk about the good old days when we knew what really mattered in education and pursued our desired goals with grit and determination. (I’m not sure those days ever existed but in the novels I read, curmudgeons always make extensive reference to halcyon days of long ago.)

A teacher in Victoria, British Columbia saved me from a certain future of scowling and finger wagging. Explaining the benefits of her class’s iPad project, Jane said, “The learning just exploded. I learned from the kids and the kids learned from each other.”

Repositioning teachers from the stance of expert to that of co-learner is the very best thing about iPads and other devices. Our students experience sustained intellectual engagement and achievement not because of an app or a device, however wonderful it might be. Rather student engagement and achievement is, at least in part, the result of adults engaging intellectually with essential concepts and skills, acknowledging that we don’t have all of the answers, and inviting students to join us in building new knowledge. Technology isn’t the only way we can become co-learners in the classroom but because it is an area of genuine new learning for many of us, it is a good way.

This guest post is by Karen Hume, author of Tuned Out: Engaging the 21st Century Learner, Start Where They Are: Differentiating for Success with the Young Adolescent, and many other books. Check out Karen’s blogs at www.karenhume.ca 

Video Games and Learning

As humans, we fear the unfamiliar. As teachers, we fear what is unfamiliar to us and knowledgeable to the students. Video games fall into that category for many teachers. Students today are playing more video games than ever before. They are spending hours each day in on-line gaming communities and fantastical environments and peaking in personal interest and motivation - with no classroom in sight. First-person shooter ("war-type") games are highly successful in their marketing and excitement to many kids - but flawed in their moral message and 'harm' when de-sensitizing us to violence. If school could become an online format of social networking sites and high-interest video games - students would never leave. The reality is that many video games can be a positive experience for a child as a reward, motivator, social experience or simply as fun. If we can tap into their love and dedication to these game series as teaching tools, it can lead to amazing results.

When assigning your next project, try a webpage creation assignment - let the focus be that favourite video game. Even if "Halo" or World of Warcraft" is not your comfort zone - it is the student's world. Not only will they be motivated and successful in delivering the content - they will appreciate your attempt to be a part of their own personal environment. Sure there are inappropriate websites and plot lines and character photos that could emerge, but as teachers we are no longer responsible for keeping the knowledge under lock-and-key for students to have peeks at the next great nugget of knowledge when they time is right. They will access these sites on their own time anyway. In fact, they will find ways to do it at school through proxy sites and internet back doors as a challenge, if they sense that it will cause an uproar. We need to relinquish our perceived control.

Our historical role in the classroom today has been replaced by "Wikipedia." They can search faster online for an answer to any question they have and have instant gratification. We are now responsible for building digital citizenship and critical thinking skills about: WHAT they research? WHO is providing their search results? HOW reputable is the source? We need to take a step back and let their technological world run our classroom instruction. Each day should present a "teachable" moment when you observe what your students do out of habit and comfort. These are the opportunities to learn from them and provide the guidance and support needed to further their own sense of accomplishment and drive for knowledge. The problem is that our sense of order and control is cultivated by this illusion that rules and careful curriculum planning do keep the peace for us. So we find ourselves waiting to enter into their world. The deep, dark abyss that is the student mind - unfamiliar, and therefore, scary.