All students received iPad minis for educational purposes this school year. Last year, the Class of 2017 received iPads before the rest of the student body to test the value of giving every student an iPad. This year, most teachers have tried to incorporate the iPads into their daily curriculum even if the use of iPads isn’t efficient. This led TKC staff to decide in a 49:19 vote that teachers feel obligated to use the new iPads even if they don’t enhance learning on the subject.

    iPads have become a part of every Pioneer’s daily routine. Whether we want them or not, they’re being used in the classroom more and more by our eager teachers. Teachers seem to think it’s their duty as Kirkwood educators to incorporate iPads into their lessons so all the money spent on iPads will be well worth it. However, The Call has noticed not many teachers are great with technology and iPads add a whole new obstacle.

In many classes teachers have started pushing the use of iPads for taking notes and introducing new programs to enhance classroom activities.  But certain programs take more classroom time to figure out than they do actually teaching us new material. Teachers aren’t the only ones trying to get around the learning curve: students are as well. Rather than struggling to find an obscure app or connect to random servers, students should at least be given the option to use traditional pen and paper for notes.

One junior spent 15 minutes of class time in her AP U.S History class trying to connect to the school’s wifi, causing her to fall behind.

There’s no doubt iPads have significant advantages when used properly. iPads open the door for online textbooks and the usage of less paper. One teacher said the staff has been encouraged by the administration to use the iPads rather than printing excessive paper copies for student handouts in a movement toward using less paper. Some teachers who have done their research and know exactly how to get the most out of the iPads are not the problem. It’s the teachers who know little to nothing about this new technology, but still feel it’s their duty to utilize them. These are the teachers who waste our 55-minute class periods having us search for specific pages when they could just as easily put them up on the Activboards for everyone to see at once. Not to mention trying to type papers in Pages on iPads is more frustrating than actually writing the paper itself.

All we suggest is teachers take the time to learn how to use the programs they think will truly benefit students learning or else stick to what they’re comfortable with. iPads have so much potential, but while the technology is still fresh students are better off using what’s familiar, while teachers improve their knowledge on the new technology before introducing it to students.

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