With iPads, Olympia students have world at their fingertips - Olympia School District - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington news, weather and sports

LISA PEMBERTON | Staff writer ? Published December 18, 2011 Modified December 18, 2011

With the touch of a finger, students in Jody Underwood?s classes at Olympia High School can work on assignments, watch foreign films and connect with people from around the globe whose native language is French.

Instead of hardback textbooks and supplemental materials, the Olympia School District recently purchased 36 Apple iPads for her classroom.

At nearly $20,000 ? about $5,000 more than the cost of a new set of textbooks and supplemental materials for Underwood?s 150 students ? it wasn?t a small investment, but it?s one that school officials think will pay off in a big way.

?Textbooks have really great things, but they?re also very limiting,? said Underwood, who is in her 24th year of teaching at Olympia High. ?Our kids are digital kids. They respond very well to this kind of tactile environment, where they can get immediate feedback.?

The school district has made major improvements to its wireless infrastructure, and began introducing mobile devices, such as tablet computers and portable media players, to classrooms about two years ago, said Ron Morsette, instructional technology director for the 9,400-student district.

In the neighboring Tumwater School District, some principals use iPads, but the wireless devices aren?t in the hands of students yet, said spokeswoman Kim Howard.

And South Sound?s largest school district, North Thurston Public Schools, hasn?t used iPads because they don?t work with the district?s technology system, said spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve.

So far, the Olympia School District has purchased about 160 iPads, at about $600 each.

They?re lighter, more mobile, less expensive and have a longer battery life than laptops, Morsette said. They require wireless Internet systems, so as the district upgrades its technology infrastructure, it likely will expand the program, he said.

?There?s great potential for them, and I think we?re going to see the numbers increase in our schools,? Morsette said.

District officials are closely watching Underwood?s program ? the first classroom to have a set of dedicated iPads ? as well as a pilot program at Olympia High where students in an intensive college readiness course known as AVID were issued district-owned iPads to use throughout the year for note-taking, research and organization.

Olympia High principal Matt Grant said both programs are using the iPads to help meet the school?s emphasis on ?differentiated instruction.?

?We?re really trying to get our teachers to meet the needs of the learner, and the iPads are able to accommodate that for different learning styles,? he said. ?I think the benefit is you walk in and the students are much more active learners than they might be with a textbook. They?re the technology generation.?

The district is still training many teachers on how to incorporate the use of mobile devices in their classrooms, Morsette said.

Recently, Capital High School received 30 iPads that teachers can reserve for their classes.

Boston Harbor and McKenny elementary schools each have 10 iPads for staff members to use. And across the district, about 25 students in the special education program are using iPads as assisted learning devices.

Morsette recently helped set up an iPad to help a visually impaired student view ? and magnify ? information that was being projected from the teacher?s laptop screen and document camera. ?It was one of the most rewarding moments I?ve had this school year, to watch the student light up,? Morsette said.

In addition, several schools also are using iPods, which can play music, videos, audio books and other media.

?I think ultimately we?re going to see mobile devices that are going to become the single most important computing device that kids will be using in our classrooms,? Morsette said.

And it?s likely the district will apply for some grant funding to help pay for those devices, he added.

On a recent morning, students in Underwood?s fourth-year class listened to a French audio version of ?Harry Potter? on iPads while reading hard copies of the book.

In the past, an audio book on CD would have been played for the entire group, while students read along. With iPads, they can listen to the story with headphones.

?You can kind of go at your own speed,? said senior Alice Henderson, 17.

Several students said they enjoy the iPad?s game applications, which can be used to practice vocabulary words in a fun and interactive format. They said they also like translating tools that are quicker and easier than looking words up in a paper English-French dictionary.

Senior Holley Hughes, 17, said she likes the environmentally friendly element that iPads can have in education. ?We used to have huge packets of worksheets, and now we can do it on here,? she said.

Of course, the iPads have a few drawbacks. They need to be kept charged, and sometimes, like any computer system, they crash or don?t work the way they?re supposed to.

And at first, they were a distraction while students were getting used to using tablet computers that have plenty of built-in gadgets.

All 150 of Underwood?s students usually use the iPads once a day, sometimes for the entire class period and sometimes for just a portion.

?The cool part about the iPads is the amount of apps,? said senior Peter Lindgren,17. ?It?s in many ways an unlimited textbook.?

Underwood said the students have taken extremely good care of the iPads ? something she worried about when they were issued to her classroom.

?They put them back where they?re supposed to,? she added. ?They never put French books back where they?re supposed to.?

Lisa Pemberton: 360-754-5433

lpemberton@theolympian.com

www.theolympian.com/edblog

Source: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/12/18/1918639/with-ipads-olympia-students-have.html

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