By: Barbara Elliott
Apple’s products have innovated the way people improve the learning experiences and have offered so many opportunities for students. Many of the products they have produced have engaged and challenged the curriculum, as well as encouraged diversity and tolerance in order to expand horizons and make learning opportunities relevantly suitable in today’s set of young minds and the future.
One may question: “Does technology really enhance the quality of learning in your classroom?” We believe that, through technology and its continuous advancement, students nowadays are becoming more inquisitive, analytical and creative as they apply what they learn in the classroom and online to real world contexts.
In fact, today’s leading schools integrate technology in their curriculum and system to guarantee that the students are provided with ample (even abundant) amounts of opportunity with regards to the current trends in the 21st century.
It could be possible that majority of you that are reading this blog article are efficiently born during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Our generation is known to have witnessed the first evolution of technology through personal computers, but at the same time we have also experienced traditional school environment and good ole traditional play. If we look around, we’ll see that a lot of the younger generations of our society today are engaged in modern technology.
Before, a traditional classroom setting is innately standard to us. As students, our main tools for education are paper, pens, and books. Do you still remember how we would spend hours inside the library, collecting and reading random books, researching on encyclopedias, and browsing dictionaries? Today, our students are using iPads, laptops, the Internet, and mobile phones to do research. Some may even opt to pursue a degree online, rather than go to school every day. It’s amazing how a few clicks on the keyboard, an internet connection, a virtual mouse and a laptop or iPad can help life become so much easier.
When Apple’s iPad 2 was launched, it has created a revolutionary way of approaching technology and the internet. A few of us may wonder, what the heck is a “Tablet”? Well, it’s just something different that makes a big difference.
Apple has, yet again, created a technology which caters to a huge variety of industries. The medical profession, education or academic realms, from ordinary people to exemplar leaders have patronized such gadget. In the school setting, the question remains, can these technological gadgets replace age-old textbooks?
The iPad 2 has profoundly influenced the education system positively. In addition to this, its battery life can last up to 10 hours, its lighter weight, its maintenance is a breeze, it has an intuitive interface, automatically saves files, and is simple yet self-contained. However, school budgets may seem too tight afford iPads for all [students].
According to Apple’s Phil Schiller, 1.5 million iPads are being used in the education settings, which leveraged over 20,000 education applications thanks to iBooks. McAllen Independent School District has already distributed 6,800 devices (mostly iPad tablet computers and some iPod Touch devices) in a week. School districts in Texas have been planning to offer over 25,000 students in grade K-12 an iPad or iPod Touch in the course of next year. Even public schools in Michigan and Chicago have given thousands of iPads to high school students in the hopes of giving students in grades 3 to 12 the opportunity to efficiently learn through technology’s help and support.
These people hope to transform the way teaching and learning exists, by improving the classroom culture with interactive and creative ways of digitally transforming the curriculum.
In relation to this, teachers from the Manhattan Beach (97 percent) have reported that the integration of the iPad “makes class more engaging”. Additionally, a new research study shows that kindergartner students who are using iPads score better on literacy tests in contrast to those who don’t. Though this education convergence with technology has had its share of critics and skeptics, Mike Muir, Multiple Pathways Leader of the Auburn School Department has this to say: “The objective has to be learning, not just getting the technology out there […] we are paying attention to app selection and focused on continuous improvement — we aren’t just handing equipment to teachers?
Here we have integrated such efficiency with regards to academic and technological control through the use of the internet and SEO dynamics. Back in the day, students would slave for hours just to complete an assignment. Just like Apple’s iPad, we believe we have revolutionized the way students and professionals work; in terms of providing you with ultimate support and specific responses to your inquiry and requests.
Barbara Elliott in a teacher in college. She know a lot about education process and students need. She also help with dissertation her students and assist in improving their academic writing skills.
