Flutterby™! : iPads in kindergarten

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iPads in kindergarten

2012-02-21 18:55:04.917337+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Auburn Maine school sees positive results with iPads in kindergartens:

Since Auburn is the nation's first public school system to provide iPads to each of their youngest students, the district is closely examining the program through a yearlong research study. Dr. Mike Muir, Auburn School Department's Multiple Pathways Leader, stated, "Too many innovative programs don't prioritize their own research, and even if they collect observations and stories later, they don't make the effort to do a randomized control trial, like we did. We wanted to make sure we could objectively examine the contribution of the iPads."

Note that this is (positively) surprising to me on a number of levels: That technology is actually improving the educational process, that they bothered to actually try to isolate and study the effects, and that they seem to be working from a curriculum need.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment Education ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: made: 2012-02-21 21:38:02.188742+00 by: ebradway

The sad thing about education today is that we are finally starting to see innovative use of technology - not because schools are saying "we support technology" but because schools are saying "we don't have any other choice."

Similarly, look at the adoption of Khan Academy... That didn't happen because lots of money was spent trying to integrate education into the classroom. It's taken off because schools have had to cut back on teachers to the point where the only possible option is to rely heavily on technology.