Elementary Schools in Clover, South Carolina are praising the iPad for classroom use, reports WCNC, claiming that the iPads help their students learn, and motivate them to be more involved in their education.
The schools use educational apps to help their students learn math, gain an appreciation for books and reading, and helping students be more creative by drawing, mapping out story lines, and more.
Fifth grade Larne Elementary math teacher Jennifer Johnson uses an classroom set of iPads and an app that reinforces the lessons she’s been teaching. The result is that the students are learning more, and learning faster because the iPad makes the material more enjoyable to learn.
We’re golden. I mean look at them. They’re engaged. They are ready to go. They will practice math all day long.
Another teacher in the same school, Megan Charles, uses the iPad to teach reading skills, and to encourage students to become involved with books and stories, and to develop an enjoyment for reading. The students use the iPad out the story line, as well as draw an illustration.
Students are enjoying the experience as well, reporting that the apps, which many of the students consider to be “games” work better for them because they show and explain things visually. One student, Jude, even said “We get more oomph into it other than just paper and pencil.”
Rather than just using the iPads as a reward or incentive tool, these South Carolina teachers are finding that using the iPad directly as a teaching aid adds value to students’ education, and helps students learn on a more enjoyable and more effective way.
Larne Elementary has a total of 90 iPads, and 75 of those are for student use. I’m always glad to hear stories about technology making a difference, changing the way people work, and even changing the way students learn, not just in the elementary level, but even throughout high school and college.
To read more about how these three South Carolina elementary schools are benefitting from the iPad, check out the full report over at WCNC. Also, check out the below video to see a television interview discussing the matter in more detail:
