I was standing in front of a class at Drayton Hall Elementary in Charleston, SC. Fortunately, this wasn’t one of my nightmares where I find myself delivering a tedious talk to an ornery audience of spitball-wielding preteens. This was real, and these kids were too busy to care if I鈥檓 boring. Also, I was standing next to their teacher, Amy Winstead, who had no intention of delivering a lecture.
The fifth graders had read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis about civil rights during the Great Depression. Now they are busy designing a movie trailer to demonstrate what they learned. With a rubric, a print copy of the book, and an iPad in front of them, they drew, researched, wrote, summarized, photographed, and cued music on their iPads. There wasn鈥檛 a bored look or paper airplane in the room. One boy held up his iPad to demonstrate a slick transition he created for his credits. Another snapped a photo of the book for an art montage, while a third found a quote to illustrate a concept. Occasionally a student asked Winstead for advice, but most had something to say and knew exactly how to say it.
Digital devices in every classroom?
Across the country, school districts started purchasing tablets in hopes of creating interactive learning environments like the one in Winstead’s classroom. By early 2013, . By 2022, a survey by revealed 94 percent of public schools said they would provide laptops or tablets to their students in the upcoming school year.
Early research showed that tablets in the classroom had the potential to significantly enhance learning. U.K.-based researchers examined schools using tablets and found a range of learning benefits, including increases in student motivation, collaboration between students and teachers, and collaboration among students themselves. Another . (A nicely.)
Getting technology into students’ hands was only step one. Transforming learning required far more than buying digital devices and doling them out. According to tech experts, many educators and students didn鈥檛 immediately understand the potential — or the challenge — technology offered. A claimed some secondary students complained 鈥渨riting on a keyboard had a negative impact on their own learning.鈥� A indicated some teachers and students disliked 1:1 iPad availability, regarding it as either a distracting toy or an unwanted responsibility.
Indeed, integrating new technologies wasn鈥檛 easy. Simply giving students digital devices cannot automatically improve their learning. But using laptops, tablets, and the internet to transform the classroom into a place where students ask questions, seek answers, do research, and test hypotheses not only makes learning more fun for students, but can also helps teachers see exactly how well each child is learning and helps them customize each lesson. With worksheets and a blackboard, a differentiated classroom is difficult to accomplish. Differentiation is far easier to accomplish if the students have laptops or tablets — and a teacher who understands how to use the technology. Studies from , , the ., and multiple other nations indicate that using technology in the classroom enables teachers to guide students at their individual pace, with tasks tailored to students’ level.
Implementation pileup, LA style
Heading off without a road map didn’t always end well. In 2017, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) launched a one billion dollar program that would put iPads into the hands of 600,000 students. Not surprisingly with a project this gargantuan, mistakes were made. Some teachers complained that they could not access the Internet in the classroom via the devices. Teachers didn鈥檛 receive adequate training. Some students bypassed security measures and surfed prohibited websites. In the wake of the controversy, union representatives accused LAUSD of pandering to corporations by taking handouts in the form of free iPads for staff. , saying the money would have been better spent on repairing schools. Many called for a halt to the program.
In LAUSD鈥檚 defense, their goal was monumentally ambitious. Even the most sophisticated tech company would likely run into problems if it attempted to distribute that much gear to 600,000 teenagers. Critics charged that a change that enormous should have been rolled out slowly to small pilot groups with curricula rebuilt by experts from the ground up, and teachers supported with a massive amount of training. Others suggested that — or the cheapest. LAUSD argued that the biggest mistake was not that the project was rushed, but that it had taken so long: 鈥淎ccess to technology is not a luxury; it鈥檚 a basic necessity鈥� Because many students do not have access to technology at home, schools have a responsibility to help them get access to the knowledge and tools they need to be on the same footing as those students who do.鈥�
The effort was a worthy one. Letting students access the internet transforms a classroom, if teachers can fully harness the potential.
Making digital devices work in the classroom
In many classrooms, tablets quickly made a positive difference. Learning was calmly transformed from a place that served some students聽— leaving others bored or falling behind — into one that engaged every student at the level where they were able to learn, when they were ready.
At Drayton Hall Elementary, kindergarten teacher Kristi Meeuwse started using iPads in her class when she became a test pilot for the district鈥檚 iPad initiative. Her students used them to read (each student鈥檚 iPad was loaded with a personalized selection of books), play games that reinforced the curriculum, and created projects that demonstrated what they learned. The iPads allowed Meeuwse to personalize instruction for every child. If a student was struggling, she can let the iPad offer repetition (through games, targeted reading, or apps) and if another needed to move faster, she directed the child toward a faster-paced game or app.
Countering the popular parent complaint about in-school digital device programs — 鈥淭oo much screen time!鈥� — Meeuwse pointed out that most parents equate screen time with passively watching TV. For her students, the tablets were interactive learning tools and customized books, and they didn’t use the iPads any more than they used blocks, paper, crayons, or any other powerful learning tool.
But was she getting results? Meeuwse said she taught for 22 years before she adopted the iPad program. Immediately, it inaugurated a profound change. 鈥淭hat year was the first time in all the years I鈥檝e been teaching that 100 percent of my students went to first grade reading above grade level.鈥� The teacher didn鈥檛 change. Nor did her basic methodology. She just had better tools.
Digital tech is a 21st century teaching skill
Randy Joss, a high school math teacher at Menlo School, a private 6-12 school in Atherton, CA, also found success using digital devices as a teaching tool. 鈥淚 come out of a technology background,鈥� Joss explains. 鈥淚n that world, we like to start with the problem, then come up with a solution to solve it. Technology … can be a brilliant solution to a problem.鈥�
The problem he wanted to solve was that moment when students, thinking they understood math in class, got home and got stuck. 鈥淭hey would stop, frustrated, and give up,鈥� he explains. 鈥淭hat meant we spent a lot of class time the next day going over the homework.” He realized that if he could be available at the exact moment when his students got stuck, everything would go more smoothly. So he posted videos of himself solving the problems. Every kid in his school had an iPad, so they could watch the videos from anywhere at any time.
鈥淜ids started accessing them from home, from campus, and anywhere they were working on the homework,鈥� says Joss. 鈥淪oon all the students started showing up for class with the homework done, ready to move on.鈥� Everyone improved, got higher test scores, and moved through the material at a faster pace.
Define failure
Asked how they would react if their teacher made them shut off the internet to learn, Amy Winstead鈥檚 fifth graders expressed dismay. 鈥淚鈥檇 leave,鈥� a boy named Nick announced. 鈥淩ight out the door!鈥� He pointed to the door for emphasis.
Another boy, Ahmad, showed off an app that turned learning fractions into a game. 鈥淚 love this,” he explained. “I play it whenever I can.鈥� Next, he talked about , a cartoon-based app that teaches everything from math and science to history and grammar. For this student, learning is clearly play.
Technology can’t solve all of our education woes — a fact most educators, parents, and students experienced firsthand during the pandemic. But it is an essential tool in our modern world and we need to make sure our teachers and students know how to use it. Imagine how any major U.S. company or workplace would function if it relied on paper, a blackboard, and a few aging computers shared by 30 people. We’ve built incredible tools that can access the internet from anywhere at any time, and this has transformed every industry from bookstores to banking.
We must harness technology to raise the smartest, most inquisitive, creative, and educated population in history.
