I found a research article about: The iPad in education: uses, benefits and challenges
In it they come to the conclusion that iPads had the following benefits:
1. Increased student motivation
2. Greater access to information
3. Portability of the device
4. Ease of making notes on PDF documents
5. Ease of organizing work
6. Quality of students’ presentations
7. Quality of teachers’ presentations
8. Greater collaboration a) among students, and b) between students and teachers
9. More creativity
10. Variety of resources used (images, videos, applications, etc.)
11. Students can work at their own pace
12. Development of students’ IT skills
13. Development of teachers’ IT skills
14. Improved reading experience
15. Teachers can cut down on paper
the Challenges were as follows:
The collected data also allowed identifying a number of challenges for both students and teachers.
These challenges were revealed in the questionnaire responses as well as the group interviews. The
following are the nine main challenges encountered:
1. The greatest challenge for the teachers, who found it a major headache, was that the iPads
provided a distraction for the students. They enabled the students to do something other
than listen to the teacher, and perhaps too easily so. Even at a young age, the students soon
discovered the iMessage and networking functions that diverted their attention so frequently.
2. Many students and teachers stressed that they had problems writing lengthy texts with
the iPads.
3. In line with the above challenge, it must be noted that the iPads did not make learning to
write per se easier. One notable problem was that the devices and applications did not yet
include all the help features in a single application. Therefore, learning to write appears
to be a major drawback of the iPad. Although the various iPad applications helped younger
students practice forming their letters, once they passed that stage, the resources were less
useful and more complicated compared to those typically found on computers.
4. Many students and teachers felt that some of the textbooks were unsuitable for working
with iPads. For example, they might require continuous Internet access.
5. Many teachers also spoke about the challenges of planning their courses. It is not so easy to
make the transition from a physical book to the iPad, and some found the transition too rapid.
6. Organizing the students’ work was very challenging for some teachers. Many platforms
were involved, and numerous teachers had the impression that they were doing three times
the work, and that in the end, it was more complicated than when they used traditional paper
and pencil.
7. Many teachers were poorly informed about the resources that were available for the iPad.
8. In addition, the ebooks were underused. And yet, this is a flagship function of the iPad. In
fact, the results showed that less than 3% of the students reported that they read books on
their iPad screen.
9. Lastly, many students and teachers mentioned that because they were distracted by the
iPads, their academic performance suffered.
I wonder how many more benefits and challenges we can find?
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