Teaching with the iPad

The teachers are finding many useful ways to incorporate the iPad into their lessons. Some are using Edline more now to post worksheets and information for their students and students have found many creative ways to use that information. Some teachers are using apps as their lesson. For example, I heard about a teacher who was having her students manipulate virtual molecules today. A teacher told me that she read an entire book on her iPad in a day and she would never have done that if it were a regular book. She thinks it is so much easier to read on the iPad. A student deletes the games after a week or so because she no longer wants them. The spot checks of iPads are good because students are aware that we will either have them remove the app or reset their iPads. They have passed the "honeymoon" phase and are really starting to use the iPad as an educational tool.

Here we are at the end of our second full week of school and all of the students now have their iPads. How cool is that?!?

The 6th graders were so excited to bring their iPads to school today. They are all set up on our network and are ready to learn with this new tool!

Here are some comments this week from students and teachers about the iPads:

• I don't know what I did before I got the iPad!
  
• It is like an extension of my arm - I am always using it.
• The girls are so good at using their iPads already.
• It fits in my backpack, and I can get on the Internet to check edline for my classes when a teacher asks me to.
• It helps me prepare for classes or quizzes. It makes it easier to get the information I need faster and more efficiently. I also enjoy getting emails immediately.
• [It is] so much easier to follow along with the teacher and take notes.
• Teachers have emailed me back so much faster than they did last year. It saves me from stressing over minor issues and helps me to gain information fast.
• We can have instant access to the Internet anywhere on campus. This makes writing papers, studying and accessing information so much easier and quicker than any other years.

It is such an exciting time to be student at Maryvale!

Inception to Implementation

The iPad 1:1 program has been on the minds of the Maryvale Technology Committee for many years. Our goal was to find a way to bring technology to all students in a cost effective and educationally appropriate way. We looked at laptops and netbooks but did not think that this was the solution for our school community. When the iPads hit the market almost 2 years ago, we found our technology tool! It is small, portable and students use it in an intuitive way - very little training or instruction is needed for this iPhone-iPod using generation. They are comfortable using touch screens and expect an instant response, which the "i" tools reliably provide.

Below is the timeline of events leading to implementing the iPad program at Maryvale Preparatory School.

September - December 2010: The technology staff met with the administrators of the school and discussed the possibility of bringing the iPad to Maryvale and its students. They were receptive but uncertain about the reconfiguring of our network to accommodate the just over 400 iPads we would be providing to our faculty and staff. The cost to rewire and update our network grew with each meeting and almost stopped us in our tracks. However, because we are building a new building it seemed like the right time to bring our entire network up to date to meet our growing technology needs.

October - December 2010: 10 iPads for students were purchased and students were allowed to test them in various classes and in the library. The students also tried netbooks and compared their experiences - iPads won hands down! They were so happy with the instant "on" feature, the iBooks, and all of the different apps they could try.

January 2011: The administration announced that we would provide iPads for all students in the 2011-2012 school year. This would be 3 to 4 year program with an assessment of our technology needs at the end of our third year. Our students would pay a higher tech fee to help offset the cost of the iPads but they would not own the iPads at the end of this time.

March 2011: The iPad Committee was formed and made up of teachers, administrators and technology department members. The committee developed a list of questions and answers that they believed parents, students, and teachers would ask. The FAQ page is now on our Maryvale web site. This committee also kept researching how other schools are using iPads, their Acceptable Use Policies, and cases/covers. After ordering the magnetic covers for all our teachers, we decided that these just would not work in a school environment. That was a wise decision on our part. We settled on a portfolio style case for the teachers and ultimately decided to purchase these for our students' iPads.

April 2011: Parent information sessions were held and the technology department members answered as many questions as we could. Unfortunately, our network administrator left for another position on April 1st which made it difficult to answer all of the questions that were being asked. Overall, I think we did a good job based on the information that we had available at the time.

The iPad 2 release date was announced and our iPad Committee decided that we would purchase these instead of the iPad 1 for our students. They would get the latest and greatest device!

June - August 2011: All teachers were given an iPad to take home over the summer. They were given $20 in iTunes cards and told to download apps and books. They could use it for their personal as well as school use. Teachers developed lesson plans that we shared at the August faculty orientation days. Enthusiasm and excitement filled the room as the teachers shared and learned about all of the exciting ways they and their students would be using the iPads during the upcoming school year.

June/July 2011: All of the iPads were ordered for the students and they all arrived on time even though a part that was being manufactured in Japan at the time of the earthquake/sunami was rumored to have stopped being made. There was a concern that the student iPads would not be in before school started but they all arrived in July. I spent my summer using a magnifying glass reading the very tiny serial numbers on the backs of each individual iPad. We used our library database to catalog and check out each iPad to every student. The iPads will be checked back in in May 2012, checked for damage and/or defects, and then checked out again by the students. They will use them over the summer in 2012.

August-September 2011: Parents were required to attend a meeting to pick up their daughter's iPad. Parents were given a packet of information about how to set up the iPads on their personal iTunes accounts. The iPad Committee decided that it would be a good idea for students to use parent iTunes accounts so that they would get the receipts for any app or book purchases. Some parents allowed the older girls to use their own accounts and this has worked out pretty well so far. Younger students may not always have the ability to purchase apps on demand so all teachers were asked to provide a list of required apps and books for the students before the parent meetings were held. Some teachers did not do this but those that did helped the students and parents tremendously as they could go home and begin downloading books and apps that night. All parents attended and by the end of the second week of school all students had their iPads with the exception of the middle school students. We believed that middle school students needed to adjust to the new school year, especially the 6th graders, before they were given one more thing to deal with. This seems to have been a good decision on our part.


Maryvale retains ownership of the iPads and this is a good thing! We have the ability to monitor content, remove apps and inappropriate photos and replace iPads at our discretion. Students are aware that any teacher can audit student devices and students are held accountable for their actions while using the iPads. Our Acceptable Use Policy was revised to address some of the issues that we are facing now.

Have we done everything right? Only time will tell but so far, we are very pleased with our students and how they are using the iPads for their school work. Our teachers have embraced the iPad and we will continue to improve our program as the year progresses.

iPads are here!!!

All high school students received their iPads last week and have been using them in their classes since Tuesday. They are so excited about this new technology tool! They have been playing Words with Friends, using Facetime to find out about their homework assignments, and reading novels on iBooks. It is such an exciting time to be a student at Maryvale!