Are iPads for every child a welcome addition to the classroom?
at St Thomas Aquinas, a state secondary in Glasgow’s suburbs, the post-summer return to school was leavened with the promise of a gift: an iPad for every child. The tablets cannot download apps, are tracked by the school and come with a firewall to block off-limits parts of the internet, but the pupils can take the devices home. Not all year groups have so far received them, leaving the rest jealous, says Barry Quinn, the deputy head. “They can’t wait for theirs to be deployed.
If so, that would make it different from similar past experiments. Philip Oreopoulos of the University of Toronto, co-author of a forthcoming review of randomised control trials on education technology, notes that results show academic consensus: although handing out laptops increases computer use, it has no impact or even a negative one on attainment. There is not as much rigorous research on tablets, but little reason to think results would differ.
Some programmes that use computers for personalised tuition have, though, produced promising results. With the right software and careful management of how they are used, tablets could help, says Mr Oreopoulos. Yet so far their use in Scotland seems to be less well defined. At St Thomas Aquinas, they have been used for catch-up quizzes at the start of maths lessons and to film gymnastics to check on technique. Teachers have been told to use them in every lesson, but left to decide how.
Another argument for the handout is that it levels the playing field for children who do not have access to the latest technology at home, and does so in a way that does not stigmatise those who most need the help. Critics respond that buying expensive gadgets for all is a poor way to help these pupils, especially when there are cheaper programmes that have shown better results.
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