Thursday, February 09, 2017

An iPad in every classroom and for every student

At Maryville College in Missouri, campus President Mark Lombari speaks to CHE about their recent initiative providing iPads to all students:
Well, we about outfitted our entire student body with iPads, 2,800 deployed thus far to our traditional and certain selected graduate programs, loaded with free apps, about 80 learning apps of all different types, around different disciplines.
And then we've provided training for our faculty. We actually added two weeks to every faculty-member contract so that one week in May and August would be faculty training in the use of all this technology. And thus far 90 percent of our faculty have gone through the training and then are applying it in the classroom.
So what happens in that classroom is we've got our students and our faculty engaged in this vibrant learning process, where the students own it. They're involved, they're engaged, they actually are a part of creating that content.
So an example of that would be in a science class, for example, we would be going through a smart textbook. And the students and the faculty would be downloading and bringing video and other materials and loading that in so everyone can benefit from what the students and the faculty are bringing in and learning.
And the other part of this that's crucial is it's based on learning theory and learning diagnostics. So we have a learning diagnostics profile of every student, and we also provide that and implant that into the class for the faculty member. So the instruction on a one to one can be very personalized.
So if you're an auditory learner, you might be listening to the faculty member talk about this while I may be sitting next to you watching a video on the same topic and learning. So it really gets at the multiplicity of learning styles that exist, that we know exist, in every student and in every classroom.
 Link: http://www.chronicle.com/article/One-Campus-s-iPad-Revolution/238942

1 comment:

Inkling said...

Quote: "Well, we about outfitted our entire student body with iPads, 2,800 deployed thus far to our traditional and certain selected graduate programs, loaded with free apps, about 80 learning apps of all different types, around different disciplines."

Obvious implication: Our students are too stupid to make these decisions for themselves. We have to do it for them.

Quote: "And then we've provided training for our faculty. We actually added two weeks to every faculty-member contract so that one week in May and August would be faculty training in the use of all this technology."

Obvious implication: As stupid as our students are, our faculty is even worse. It takes them two weeks to learn what preschoolers master in a few hours on their own.

Quote: "So if you're an auditory learner, you might be listening to the faculty member talk about this while I may be sitting next to you watching a video on the same topic and learning."

Possible implication: Are they going to put a blindfold on this "audio learner," since he doesn't need the visuals and will the reverse be true for the video learner. In addition since they're simply watching a faculty member talk, why couldn't this take place in a classroom with the professor actually present? That would save the cost of all those iPads and apps. Or conversely, if the presence of a professor is not required, what's the point of spending tens of thousands of dollars to be on campus? Why not just use Khan Academy, Google, Wikipedia and YouTube videos?

And yes, there's an even more chilling implication, should this idea actually work. Fire the professor, send the students home, and let them study there.

--Michael W. Perry, writer