New Technologies - Old Issues

The week 10 reading was: New Technologies, Old Issues: Arethey worth the effort? by Reid and Ostashewski , 2011. It looked at a project where iPads were introduced in two different upper elementary schools in Canada.

The project specifically looked at digital story telling using ipads and describes the experiences of the two schools.  Reid and Ostashewski suggest that “upper elementary school students were beginning to be at risk for withdrawing or disengaging from the educational journey”. One school was located in an urban setting while the other was an aboriginal school, both however had the same level of access.  

The project found that the ipads were faster and easier to use compared to laptops. Students became engaged in digital story telling and school staff were given support by the research team. Overall the implementation of ipads proved to be a beneficial learning tool in an educational setting.

Advantages:

• the use of low cost or free apps
• user is able to develop fine motor skills by swiping, pinching and interacting with touch technology
• ipads do not have to load or be logged on like a laptop or computer
• the devices can be carried around without being plugged in
• small, handheld and convenient

Disadvantages:

• the study found that teachers had to dedicate more time when monitoring the device, apps and recharging
• computers can be connected and maintained as a unit
• ipads can be expensive

Reid, D. & Ostashewski, N. (2011). iPads in the Classroom – New technologies, old issues: Are they worth the effort?. in T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011 (pp. 1689-1694). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/38089