Here is a story about how Report: iPad in the classroom raising kindergartners’ literacy scores
The school district in Auburn, Maine assigned 16 iPads to a classroom of 16 kindergartens over a 9-week period. A total of 236 students were given literacy test before the 9-week testing period for the iPad began. Over the 9 week period, 129 students were taught using an iPad, while 137 students were taught the old fashion way. The school district found that students using an iPad out-performed students not using an iPad in every literacy test by a significant margin.
Our simple experiments in a public school with 7th graders in Chennai, India showed us a few things about tablet usage by students. We took a mixture of both iPads and Android tablets:
- It improved engagement – Students were more likely to work in groups with tablets for longer periods of time
- It improved interaction with the instructors – Students were more likely to ask questions, listen to answers and apply what they heard
- It let them explore more – Touch interfaces lower the barriers to explorations. Students quickly figured out how to swipe, click and engage with apps
I think engagement, interaction and exploration are some of the attributes for more effective learning.
We are planning to experiment with some simple educational apps over the next year.
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