iPad Pilot Program Summary

November 2011

I am writing to inform you of the iPad Pilot Program we will be launching January 3, 2012. We are very excited about how the iPad could enhance a child’s learning experience here at Canterbury. Our underlying belief is that teaching and learning drive the use of technology and not the other way around. As the name connotes, this is a pilot program which will not only identify the benefits of the iPads, but the potential issues that arise as a result of them being used on a daily basis. As always, we will keep the students’ best interest at the forefront throughout this experiment.

We will be offering a parent information session about this program on Tuesday, December 6 at 4:00pm in the Armfield Science room. It will include a brief overview of the program and an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback as we investigate the use of iPads.

The Research

Towards that end, schools and universities across the country are undertaking pilot programs and have compiled data about iPads^[1] in the classroom. What we are finding is that the iPad is something which can enhance what we already do well and facilitate the learning process for our students, instead of taking it over. We feel that creating a similar pilot program that provides data specific to Canterbury will allow us to make a good decision about how we would like to use iPads in the middle school. The opening of the new science and technology building in 2013-2014 provides the perfect impetus to do it now.

Over the last year, our technology team and teachers have been researching the possibilities of the iPad in the classroom. We have attended an Apple conference, invited an Apple representative on campus, visited a number of schools which have implemented tablets or iPads, scoured the education world for research and data, created lessons around the iPad, sought student and teacher feedback, and had many hours of conversation about how these machines can improve our students’ ability to warehouse, organize, and engage in information.

Most of these programs have been approached as a one-to-one model or one iPad for one student. To clarify, that means that the iPad was loaned/given/sold to the student for use throughout the school day and to take home at night. They were the individual’s machines for all intents and purposes. The idea behind this approach is that it makes sense to use the machine to its capacity in order to measure its effectiveness.

Our Goals

In our Pilot Program, we want to be able to measure the effectiveness of the iPad in a one-to-one setting. To be clear, we have not made any decisions as a school to move towards a one-to-one model. We have developed this program to give us greater insight into the question of one-to-one at Canterbury so that when it is time to make a decision, we are fully informed. We have outlined a series of questions we hope to answer over the course of the Pilot and identified what aspects of the iPad we think will give us the answers.

• How effective can the iPad be in terms of organization?

• We will train the students to use the Calendar App as well as a class management system which mimics the agenda they currently use.

• How effective can the iPad be in terms of classroom notetaking?

• We will train the students on using Evernote, a note-taking and organization app which allows for a multimedia note-taking experience (in-class note typing, image/video embedding, lecture recording, and (on the iPad2) video recording).

• How effective can the iPad be as an e-reader?

• We have already identified a number of books and texts from our curriculum which can be downloaded. We will train the students on how to use the e-reader App and iBooks to maximize their reading effectiveness.

• How effective can the iPad be in terms of student/teacher communication and collaboration?

• We will enable student email accounts for those students in the iPad Pilot Program. These email accounts will be for school work only.

Equity in Access

In order to find some answers to these questions, we have decided to implement an iPad Pilot Program in the 7th grade on a one-to-one basis. That is, one section of 7th grade students will have an iPad that travels with them from class to class and home from January 3 to March 16. The other section of 7th grade will have the iPads from March 19 - June 3. This will allow us to track how effective the machine is when used to its capacity. It will also allow us to collect data on the use of the iPad across the entire class rather than one or two students.

We have been very lucky this year to be able to add a laptop cart (24 computers) and an extra desktop computer to our already robust infrastructure of technology. This means we now have twice the technological capacity than we did last year. Because of this increase, we feel that the students who are not in the Pilot Program have an equal opportunity to access technology in a meaningful way. Additionally, taking a grade of students mostly off the schedule for the computer lab and carts means greater access at those times for the other middle school students.

The Program in Summary

The Test Group: This is a voluntary program so those families of 7th grade students whose do not feel comfortable with their child using an iPad can opt out of the program. We are asking families who participate to sign a responsibility and liability sheet which would make them responsible for the machine.  

Teacher Training: Our teachers have already begun training for the program. John Schoultz, our Middle School Technology Coordinator, has implemented a curriculum which covers all the questions identified above. Teachers must attend 3.5 hours of training on the iPad specifically, so that they can use the technology effectively.

Student Training: Beginning November 28, those students in the Pilot Program will begin their training with John. He will go over responsible use and liability stipulations, handling expectations, classroom management expectations, wi-fi access limitations, and App orientation.

Measurement: Beginning on January 3, 2012 the first section of 7th graders will receive their iPads and the second section will receive them on March 19. The data collection portion of the program will run from January through the end of the year. At the beginning of the program we will administer a baseline survey outlining the educational experience of the students before they receive the iPads. Once launched, we will have periodic surveys of the teachers and students to check how much the iPad is being used, where it is most effective, and how the students and teachers are feeling about the machine in general. Finally, we will have a more comprehensive survey at the end of the year which will mirror the pre-program assessment to see what kind of difference the iPad has made in student learning. Throughout the program, John will be collecting the iPads for updates and to do spot checks not only for appropriate use, but as a means to collect objective data on the everyday uses of the machine.

As I have said before, we are very excited about the possibilities this iPad pilot could open for our students and their learning, but no decision has been made to move towards a one-to-one model. We want to make sure, as our middle school vision states, that our decisions are fully informed and mirror best practices.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.

David Skeen

Middle School Director

November, 2011