The iPad for Teaching and Learning

Dr. Iain Doherty

Associate Professor

Director eLearning Pedagogical Support Unit

Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

3rd February 2012

Apple TV

No Apple TV

The Educational Process

• Intended learning outcomes and graduate attributes

• Resources to enable students to engage in learning

• Tasks and activities to help students to learn

• Supports both built in and human

• Assessment to determine whether learning has occurred

Technology & Teaching

• Using technologies purposefully in teaching and learning means being learning led and technology enabled

• The question to ask has to do with how technologies can support students in achieving the intended learning outcomes for any particular program / course

• In other words, what place does the iPad have in providing resources, engaging students in tasks / activities, providing supports and carrying out assessments

Doing Things Better

• Educational benefit can be conceived of in terms of improving student learning

• Educational benefit can also be conceived of in terms of enabling students to do things in the learning environment that would not otherwise be possible

• These are not mutually exclusive.

Murray, O. T., & Olcese, N. R. (2011). Teaching and Learning with iPads, Ready or Not? TechTrends, 55(6), 42-48. doi:10.1007/s11528-011-0540-6

Just Another Laptop?

• The form factor means that the iPad is more akin to a mobile phone that is carried everywhere i.e. integrated into a life / extension of self

• The iPad runs on code written specifically for the device which means fast boot up + processing speed + the battery life is good (about 10 hours)

• Interaction with the device is tactile and engaging giving a distinct User Interface experience

• There are 200,000 + applications written specifically for the iPad

http://www.ipadineducation.co.uk/iPad_in_Education/iPad_v_Netbook.html

Agile Space

• “I am using the term ‘agile’ here to signal a new technology space in between handheld and portable. Devices which fit this space are particularly useful for teaching and learning purposes, as they offer the flexibility needed for modern learning practices. It has taken the iPad to really cement this space although there will be countless others arriving in the market fairly soon. Whether or not they will offer the right blend of features successfully of course remains to be seen”.

http://www.ipadineducation.co.uk/iPad_in_Education/The_Agile_Space.html

Let’s Be Clear

• There is a lot of hype and a lot of subjectivity in claims made about the value of the iPad in education

• Only a limited number of the 200, 000 + applications are specifically educational

• Whether there is actual educational benefit still has to be shown through scholarly research

Doing Things Better

• “Our study suggests that there is a paucity of applications that truly extend capability, much of what these application allow can be done with other devices, and this leads us to conclude that the current trajectory will not revolutionize teaching and learning. The lack of collaboration capabilities underlie this point, as do the overwhelming number of application that are simply drill and practice or focused on delivering content for consumption.Murray, O. T., & Olcese, N. R. (2011). Teaching and Learning with iPads, Ready or Not? TechTrends, 55(6), 42-48. doi:10.1007/s11528-011-0540-6

Might Still Make It

• “Contemporary ‘digital age’ university students in developed countries are familiar with social networking through Facebook, instant communication via Twitter and mobile technology through their smartphones. They compare these with university e-mail and e-learning systems, projected lecture slides and handwritten assessment tasks. They have expressed a desire for more varied forms of communication and more vibrant learning methods”

Manuguerra, M., & Petocz, P. (2011). Promoting Student Engagement by Integrating New Technology into Tertiary Education: The Role of the iPad. Asian Social Science, 7(11), 61-65. doi:10.5539/ass.v7n11p61

Might Still Make It

• The iPad may also become central in education in order to graduate students familiar with devices that will be used in the workplace e.g. agile devices for maintaining patient records, accessing information instantly, presenting to patients

Resources

• Digital Encyclopedia of Dentistry

• Glossary of Dentistry

• Restorative Dentistry Guide

• My Dental Hub Mobile

Digital Encyclopedia

Glossary of Dentistry

Restorative Guide

My Dental Hub

My Dental Hub

Activities

• White Board – Classroom interactions

• Mendeley Reference Manager- Complete readings

• Documents to Go - Work on assignments

• GoodReader – Read all document types

• Evernote - Solve problems

• Moodle Mobile - Interactions

White Board

Mendeley

Documents to Go

GoodReader

GoodReader

Evernote

Evernote

Mobile Moodle

Supports

• iTunes U – Built in supports such as rubrics

• Email – Personal asynchronous support

• Skype – Personal synchronous support

iTunes U Application

Skype

Email

Assessment

• Dedicated applications & Moodle quizzes - Multiple choice, short answer

• Drop Box - Written assignments

• MindJet - Problems / cases for formative and media rich PDF documents for summative

Moodle

Drop Box

MindJet

Application URLs

• Whiteboard http://www.gummybearstudios.com

• Mendeley http://www.mendeley.com/

• Documents to Go http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/

• Good Reader http://www.goodiware.com/goodreader.html

• Evernote http://www.evernote.com/

• Skype http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-mobile/download/ipad-for-skype/

Application URLs

• Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com

• MindJet http://www.mindjet.com