Adventures in iPad-ology

I used to be cool — no, really. I was the first of my friends to get a palm size transistor radio, I was one of the first to get a Walkman, and I converted to cassette while most of my friends were still listening to 8 track. But during the time that I was busy raising kids, technology didn’t just pass me by — it leapfrogged me at the speed of light!

I still don’t have a smart phone and consider texting the newest, best thing. Upcoming events are actually written on a wall calendar. I was the last member of my family to get an iPod, which I only did because I had impending dental surgery. I watch my kids access a whole universe of music with a single sweep of their finger. But when my time to use it came, I got it stuck on one song. I spent 2 hours in a dentist chair listening to “Poker Face” over and over. Thank God for nitrous oxide!

Then my 9th grade son came home with his BHS-issued iPad2. The first week, he said he needed some pictures for his art class. When I asked if he needed to print them, he said “no, I’ll just save them as a jpeg and upload them to the dashboard of my wiki.” The thought going through my mind was “I wonder what online translator I should use to make that come out in English?” But the blank look on my face was enough for my son to pat me on the shoulder and say “don’t worry, mom, I know what I’m doing.”

And so he does. Like most freshman parents, I took a wait-&-see approach to this whole iPad thing. Yeah, it looks good on paper, but will it really do all those things they claim? After a few short weeks, I’ve been converted to a true believer.

I watch in amazement as my son whizzes through things with the touch of a finger. He took more notes in the first 2 weeks of his business class than he took in the previous 8 years combined. He moves from subject to subject with ease, able to reference his notes while working on his new material. When he comes across a word he doesn’t know, he slides to an online dictionary and gets the meaning without interrupting his flow. For the first time, I can use his name and the word ‘organized’ in the same sentence. This powerful little device is nothing short of a game-changer.

But how do I know what he is actually doing? The school recognized this issue and has gone the extra mile for iPad-challenged people like myself. Principal Palumbo organized a workshop to teach parents about the iPad and how it is being used. During the presentation, we learned how teachers are using this versatile tool to enhance and enrich student learning. In language classes, students can take virtual tours of the countries where the language is spoken. In small groups, one student can do research while another crunches numbers and a third uses them to graph the results. All connected and working together. Presentations become multi-media affairs, complete with slide shows, animation and music. Students and teachers can communicate with each other and share information on a daily basis. The possibilities really are endless.

What I find most striking about the iPad is how comfortable the kids are with this technology. My younger sons can pick it up and use it with ease. The implications of this are far reaching. In the 9/17-23, 2011 issue of “The Economist,” the 32 most developed nations were ranked according to student achievement at age 15. The U.S. ranked 17th in reading, 23rd in science, and a dismal 31st in math (source: Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development, 2009). If we have any chance of regaining our former status, tools like the iPad will be essential.

Using the iPad adds another, interactive layer of learning, where students are excited to participate. They are not just covering the required material, they are doing so in a way that trains them to use technology. It also affords them information in real time. The average textbook takes more than a year to pass from the review stage to the classroom. Brand new global studies textbooks handed out this year would have Mubarak leading Egypt and Gadhafi leading Libya. The speed with which the world is changing and the need to keep up make the iPad a vital tool in regaining our competitive advantage.

Brookfield is the first public school in Connecticut to introduce the iPad into the classroom. From what I have seen so far, this is a resounding success. Kids love it, teachers love it and the school administration is finding ways to use it well beyond what they first envisioned. It has opened up a whole universe of possibilities. I applaud the school administration for their courage in taking this leap forward. Now I will just need Santa to bring me an iPad of my own for Christmas!