It didn’t take long for New Trier’s faculty and students to embrace Apple’s newest product. The New Trier iPad initiative began this fall, only two years after Apple released its newest product.
“We have been experimenting with iPads at New Trier since they were released, and had a limited pilot last year. The program last year was successful, so we decided to expand it this year,” said New Trier Director of Technology Chris Johnson.
“We believe that putting the technology in the hands of students will allow them to find ways to use it that we haven’t thought of, and help prepare them to use technology effectively in their life beyond New Trier,” Johnson said.
Johnson went into further detail about the educational uses of the iPad.
“We are excited about the functionality of the iPad, such as interactive textbooks that provide a richer experience with videos, practice tests and access to definitions, and programs that allow students to easily create videos and presentations,” Johnson said.
The Technology Planning Committee determined which courses could participate in the program through a review. This committee was composed of teachers, parents, administrators, and technology staff, Johnson said. Although only one out of two teachers received the grants based on an evaluation of the potential educational merits and technical feasibility.
“The assignment of students to those classes was random,” said Johnson.
New Trier teacher Michael Lee’s Fundamentals of Sports Medicine and Kinesiology and Biomechanics courses were granted iPads. Lee said he finds the iPads beneficial to his classes and his teaching.
“The iPad reduces the amount of paper copies for my classes,” he said. “Students will use the iPad to retrieve class documents such as handouts, worksheets and reference materials and because they are seeing it on the iPad, they have all the color and visual appeal.”
Lee also said the iPads will be great for video analysis, role-playing activities and instructional videos in his Sports Medicine class.
“The iPad is also used for in-class activities where current research needs to be conducted,” he said.
Johnson expressed a strong belief that the program will increase the quality of each participating student’s education.
“We are going into this program with the assumption that access to information and the tools available on the iPad will benefit students academically. Each participating teacher has given careful thought to the educational impact, and spent a significant amount of time planning how to uses the devices effectively over the summer,” he said.
Johnson and other faculty member’s confidence in the program may be rooted in last year’s success.
“Last year, we were impressed with how the students used the iPads in classes beyond the ones participating in the pilot to do work ranging from creating flashcards to typing papers to making videos or presentations,” he said.
To ensure the technology is being used to its full abilities, all student participants were required to attend a seminar over two hours long on how to use their iPad.
“The training session walked the students through configuring the devices, and provided basic training on how to use the iPad,” said Johnson.
Based on the success of last year’s small iPad pilot program, Johnson has confidence in this year’s initiative, despite the fact there are bound to be future issues. Lee said he foresees an adjustment period at first, but eventually the program will be a success.