Tablet potential in the classroom is limitless. I will outline some of the potential uses here.
Learning
- Tablets have a number of learning-based uses. Many text books are now becoming available in digital formats, allowing the students to use their tablet to read information rather than dragging a heavy book everywhere. Furthermore, with books such as history, math or literature, districts can save money by not having to replace them as frequently.
- Tablets allow students to connect with other students and classes world-wide, preparing them for life in a global society. Students learn digital citizenship and digital responsibilities with tablets.
- There are so many science apps available that students literally have the universe at their fingertips. The tablet will allow students to truly explore a topic through imagery, application and video.
- Students can use tablets to strengthen presentation and public-speaking skills. They can record their own voice, a full video or screen capture complete with drawings. Playing back what they have created allows them to see their strengths and weaknesses as the audience would.
- Tablets can be used for learning-based gaming. Today, there is a huge variety of educationally-based games available. Students can work independently or cooperatively depending on the desired learning outcome. Games engage student motivation and high-quality games inspire creative-thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Tablets can make writing more interesting. With a class portal hosted on a site such as MightyBell, students can peer edit and share their work, create and participate in discussion threads or post questions for additional assistance.
- A tablet is also a camera, and students can use the camera to create projects, document discoveries or build a portfolio.
- Let's face it, we are living in a technological world. Learning with tablets gives children the experience they will need to excel in the high-end, competitive job market of tomorrow.
- Collaboration: Tablets give students the power of collaboration. Whether it is collaboratively researching a global issue, creating a potential solution and putting that solution to work or creating a presentation through Prezi or timeline through Tiki-Toki.
Teaching
The tablet has a great number of features available to assist the teacher as well (although, as you can find on my blog post, the teacher needs to be careful she doesn't go all 1984 on the kids in a creepy "Big Brother is Watching You" way). There are a number of management apps available to take attendance, shoot the students quick pop-quiz questions for instant feedback, take quick notes on students, send them a quick email, shoot all tablets in the room a file or video and so on. The instant features allow for the instructor to better personalize instruction. Teachers can also utilize tablets as a means of communication among teacher, parents and students. Teachers can ramp up the impact of field trips with the use of tablets! They can have students work cooperatively in an Instagram Scavenger Hunt, collecting data and artifacts as they go. Or, they can gather information along the way to solve a mystery. Class photos can be collected off of Instagram and used to create a class scrapbook of the event, a digital version of which can be published for all to see.
Research
With tablets, students can connect to experts from around the globe to gain a deeper understanding of the topic they are researching. They can find podcasts and videos giving more in-depth information than a simple text book could ever offer. Students can also use note-taking apps such as EverNote or Catch to record and organize their findings. Students can collaborate on research projects and work cooperatively to gather information on a Web 2.0 interactive site such as Popplet.
Community Use
Using tablets, students can research and identify community needs. They can organize a plan of action and become active participants to solve authentic, real-world problems. This type of community participation, be it global or local, can boost student morale and adds a relevance to what they are learning.
Business Events
Tablets can be used by a number of businesses for a wide array of purposes. They can capture and record major events and be used to create info-graphics or email blasts to draw customer attention. Tablets can streamline communication throughout the corporation and allow video conferencing either throughout the company or with clients. Information can be created visually in a number of presentation-type apps such as Visual.ly and instantly be shared globally.
Family Use/Interactivity
The tablet has a number of family uses as well. The chef of the home can search for and store recipes on the tablet as opposed to flipping through mountains of cookbooks. Children can play games with each other, watch movies, or enjoy educational apps. The tablet can be used to create and maintain a monthly budget and organize bills and accounts. Families can collaborate to record their major events and every day happenings, create and share beautiful and lasting memories on story creators or movie makers. Virtual bookshelves can relieve some of the clutter of an over-stuffed book shelf. Programs such as Skype can allow family members to speak face-to-face from across the world.
Software/Hardware Information
All tablets are slightly different, giving the user different features and capabilities. However, there are a number of commonalities shared by most tablets. To be more than a fancy text-book or camera, tablets must have internet connectivity. Without the connectivity, their potential is greatly limited. If a teacher wishes to be able to use the tablet on a field trip or off-property adventure, the tablets would also need LTE connectivity in addition to WiFi. Schools would need to be equipped with WiFi to handle the massive data transfer of so many tablets and have ample bandwidth. With unlimited funding and bandwidth, there are few limitations to the power of the tablet in education. Because this is not a Utopian society, however, many schools are faced with great financial limitations. Truly, providing a tablet for each individual student is a massive financial undertaking, and that is not counting the costs of data transfer, repairs (certainly some will suffer tragedies from falls and dogs and little siblings!), apps and any other desired software or memberships that are not free. Some of these financial issues can be circumvented with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. If students are allowed to bring their own, it would cut back significantly on the financial responsibility of the school. Teachers fortunate enough to be working in a district that can ensure every students is armed with a tablet must be careful they always have a "Plan B" in effect. Have you ever had your cell phone on a day when some fool crashes into a tower and you have no connectivity for about 12-16 hours? Or the day you are frantically trying to download a document to print for the next class and the WiFi in the school is acting up? Technology is not fool-proof and we need to be sure we are not overly-reliant on it; kids still need to have a back up of paper and pencils and teachers need to know how to move on with a different approach. Overall, the tablet has much to offer the student of the 21st century, and the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. The only remaining question is.... which tablet to use????
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