iPad 2 – do I NEED one?

I think I need this – the iPad not the man.

I have been hearing more and more about these babies lately.  I am currently in the process of convincing hubby that I ‘need’ one, so if you could give me some reasons why I should get one then that would be most helpful 🙂

So far I have mainly been working my plea from this angle –

• my students can use the iPad for their learning. There are so many amazing, PROPER educational apps out there.  Not just the game apps. I have been attending a Master Class run by Tony Ryan these past few months and he has been blowing my mind with the ways you can successfully use technology like the iPad to enhance learning in your classroom. I love how he says, “the iPad can be either incredible for learning, or a disaster. Depends on how you use it”. Very true.

Here are some great apps for educators who have an iPad (which isn’t me…yet):

• all these ones
• top 10 apps for teachers and students
• and many, many more I don’t have time to hyperlink right now….maybe another post down the track when I have one in my hot little hands!

Using your iPad in class

Check out this little boy who has just turned two years old! My oh my how the world is changing! Can you imagine how his little brain is developing compared to when we were this age?

Before I get commenters comparing playing outside to being inside on technology, I want to make it clear that I am a BIG believer in fresh air, making cubby houses and being outdoors! That was how I was brought up and I am pretty awesome 😉 But for those times when your kids are indoors – this iPad would be amazing! Just think about the types of jobs the children of today are going to have in the future. The skills they learn with technology are going to be extremely handy!

I came across the video you just watched of Bridger and his iPad from this website, LEARNBOOST. Here they have listed some benefits and drawbacks on 2-3yr olds using iPads:

Benefits

• Physical development. Toddler-age and preschool-age children often struggle to develop the small muscles in their hands. They work with play-dough, scribble, snap/zip/tie doll clothes and shoelaces, count with their fingers, and put together puzzles to get their little hands ready for all that the world requires of their fine motor skills.
• Pre-literacy skills. With games like PBS KIDS’s Super WHY! and interactive story books, children play with letter sounds, letter forms, rhymes, and words. These exercise a child’s phonemic awareness, which is one of the best predictors of reading and academic success in later life.
• Cognitive development. Puzzles are super important in children’s spacial reasoning, problem-solving, understanding of cause and effect, numbering and ordering, and countless other cognitive skills. Shape Builder is one puzzle app that I’ve worked with, and though it’s not wildly complex, it does enable really young children to explore with shapes while fine tuning their physical and mental skills.
• Social-emotional development. Animated games and prizes are immensely gratifying, which gives children (even those less than 2-years-old) a sense of success and accomplishment. Studies have linked these affirmations to more confidence and more intrinsic motivation down the road. Plus, if a child has siblings, parents are bound to step in and work on negotiation and sharing skills, even if just because iPads are expensive.

Drawbacks

• Instant gratification. It’s a give or take on this one. Children’s attention spans are brief at young ages. The colors, awards, sounds, and movements on the iPad affirm a short attention span with instant gratification. On the other hand, tiny children can sit and focus on the same game for minutes and even hours on the iPad.
• Near obsession. I nannied for a family with 3 children, ages 1 month, 21 months, and 3-years. The toddler’s first word was “iPad.” There was almost no motivation to play outside, imagine, paint, or get messy. The idea that this device could be so overwhelming as to limit a child’s desire and ability to pretend, is deeply unsettling. For more info on how dramatic play stimulates brain development, check out some scholarly articles on the subject.
• The technological parent. Socio-economic indicators may negate this drawback, since affluent families are both more likely to raise children who succeed in school and are more likely to be able to afford iPads. There’s no doubt though that it’s really easy to let an iPad “babysit” a child. Unlike Bridger’s father, who coaxes him through the learning process, if a parent simply sets a young child up with a game without any scaffolding or personal engagement, we may see more negative repercussions.

I do think that some of those drawbacks are perhaps more parenting issues rather than iPad issues, mainly with the obsession one. Parents ideally should be balancing their child’s life with a mix of things – outdoors and technology (computers, TV, etc). Both have been proven to benefit their development! I have a friend who does this beautifully. She discovered this in a book – for every 30 minutes outside, her children can spend 15 minutes on computer/Play Station/etc. Very clever idea!

So other than the education point I am using with my husband so I can buy an iPad, what are some other reasons I need one? 😉

The Homework Debate

Ah, the homework debate. Some parents love it and ask for more and more, others hate it and wish it was sent into space where it got sucked into a black hole never to be seen again. As a teacher, I don’t love it and I don’t hate it. I find it practical and beneficial though.

My class and I had a conversation the other day about why they think homework is important for them. This was not discussed previously or my words put into their mouths. We were actually discussing lots of things – importance of schooling, personal and class goals, how we could achieve them, what we wanted our classroom/school to be like, etc. For the homework question, points were raised such as: so I can learn more, so mum and dad know what I’m doing in school, so I can practice at my own pace and catch up if I need to, so I don’t fall behind, so I get good marks cause it helps my brain get smarter, so if I don’t understand something at the same time as everyone else I can spend more time on it at home and learn it then, etc.

I couldn’t have said it better myself!

The Queensland Government recommends:

Years 1-3: Could be up to but generally not more than 1 hour per week.

Years 4-5: Could be up to but generally not more than 2-3 hours per week.

Years 6-7: Could be up to but generally not more than 3-4 hours per week.

Years 8-9: Could be up to but generally not more than 5 hours per week.

Years 10-12: The amount of time devoted to homework and independent study will vary according to the student’s learning needs and individual program of learning, determined through their Senior Education and Training (SET) Plan.

So if every other student in every other school and state in Australia are doing this kind of work at home and we don’t think it is important so we don’t do it, then what happens when we are trying to get a placement in uni or more importantly a job in the workplace against all these other people? Or we are just simply struggling to understand a few things and as we go through the schooling years, concepts get built on top of foundational ones and so on….and we haven’t grasped the foundational ones yet. There is only so much a teacher and school can do. For instance, when I played volleyball for New South Wales our coach trained us HARD. But if I wanted to succeed above others (and to be selected for the NSW team) I had to put in an effort on my own accord. I had to practice by myself, eat well, exercised my body…all outside of the time my coach could practically invest in me. If I just relied on what my coach could give me, then I would have been the same as the others who did what he said. To get ahead, I had to do extra. It’s that simple.

Homework isn’t meant to be about new concepts. It is supposed to be revising and going over things they have already been doing in class to concrete it in their brains, with maybe a few new challenges chucked in for good measure. We (teachers) do not have time to go back over and over and over the simple concepts we have already taught in class for the following days and weeks as we have a gazillion other things to cover in class as well. We hope that students are putting aside 15-30 minutes in the afternoon to practice it.

I don’t know about you but I still have ‘homework’ to do for my job. So do both my parents – a builder and a theatre nurse. Doing work at home is a good habit to get in to and is a part of life whether you like it or not. The argument that kids should just be kids is true and I agree – and part of being a kid is continuing your learning at home as you try to understand new things. After all, practice makes perfect right….or at least makes it easier for the kids as they go along.

In saying all this, I do believe that there is such a thing as too much homework…but that is a whole different topic! 🙂