Many private schools in the Nashville area have been toying with iPads in the classroom. But starting in the fall, at least two schools will have the Apple tablet for every student.
Nashville Christian School and Columbia Academy are going all in. They will be the first in Middle Tennessee to have an iPad for everyone, though schools like St. Paul Christian Academy and Currey Ingram Academy have already had a few in each classroom.
School President Connie Jo Shelton says Nashville Christian isn’t just using the iPad because it’s trendy. She says it has – at least the capability – to provide immediate feedback to the teacher.
“It allows a teacher to instantly be able to assess children individually. And so, they can give a quiz and within a turnaround of five minutes that teacher’s going to be able to see how kids handled that new concept or who needs to go back and be re-taught.”
Shelton acknowledges the iPad’s ability to sidetrack students but says the school will do its best to get rid of distractions by limiting what can be loaded onto the tablets.
Technology for every student isn’t new. Many of Nashville’s more elite private schools have laptop programs. But tablets can have more teaching potential especially for younger students, says Ted Hasselbring. He studies the impact of educational technology at Vanderbilt University.
“Having to keyboard and understanding keyboarding and that sort of thing can be a bit of a problem for very young students. But with the iPad, I mean it’s touch and drag, and depending upon how the software is developed, it can be very intuitive.”
Schools going to the iPad intend to use them in every class, but that might not be realistic at this point. Hasselbring says much of the educational software written for laptops is not yet available on the iPad.
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