St. Mary School issues iPads to all students in grades 5-8
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St. Mary School eighth-graders Madi Garvin, left, and Cole Sciezinski work on math problems on iPads during class.
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Teacher James Martin helps student Kennedy Rude with a math exercise on her iPad during class. All St. Mary School students in grades 5-8 have been furnished iPads for schoolwork.
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When both the students and teachers at St. Mary School use computers for class work, the students can follow along with exactly the same materials the teachers use. The technology allows the students to "write" into blank spaces on the iPads.
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Students in grades 5-8 at St. Mary School in Janesville have all been given an iPad to help move their education into a paperless mode.
JANESVILLE — Jan Bier burst into James Martin's algebra class last week.
"I just wanted you to know we're using our iPads," Bier said excitedly.
Bier, who is close to retirement, has been learning from the younger teacher about the tablet technology.
"We're learning as we go, and it seems like the younger they are, the quicker they catch on to it," Bier said later.
Students at St. Mary Catholic School seem to be embracing it wholeheartedly. The devices are not new, but St. Mary is the first school in Janesville to issue an iPad to every student in grades 5-8.
The change is not without its hiccups, but it has solved some age-old problems.
Consider the frustrations of homework lost because it was stuffed into a forgotten backpack pocket.
Students now complete their work and send it to their teachers electronically. Teachers can reply with grades and corrections, also electronically.
"So there's no paper copies being sent back and forth or papers getting lost in the backpacks. It's there," Principal Julie Garvin said.
Garvin knows about papers getting lost. Her daughter is a St. Mary eighth-grader.
"I lose things a lot," Madi Garvin admitted. "So this helps me keep track of them because they're always in there. They're always on my iPad."
That's right, iPads have created a situation in which a mother and her middle-school daughter can agree.
Garvin also knows about how students treat textbooks. She's seen them drop the heavy things on the floor in front of their lockers. They don't do that to the iPads, she said.
"My math book's somewhere in my locker. I haven't touched it since we got our iPads," Madi said.
Garvin said iPads also are helping kids who have trouble organizing their work.
There are few if any classes or activities that an iPad can't enhance, it appears. Students have loaded the rehearsal recording for their upcoming musical, "Seussical Jr.," onto their iPads, said eighth-grader Gabe Hanna.
Students observed in classes seem to be handling the tablets with few problems.
"Our kids are so in tune with it that for us not to gravitate towards that, I think, would be a huge disservice to the kids," Garvin said of the technology.
Principal Judi Dillon at nearby St. John Vianney Catholic School is more cautious. Her school has 30 iPads that teachers share—enthusiastically.
"They're a step ahead of us, that's for sure," Dillon said of St. Mary.
But Dillon wonders if it might be beneficial to wait and see what the next digital hardware innovation might bring.
Half the money for the iPads came from not buying new textbooks this year, Garvin said. The rest came from the parents group, the Home & School Association.
When you consider the cost of textbooks and the fact that they're outdated the day you put them in students' hands, updatable, digital textbooks are the way to go, Garvin said.
The school isn't completely paperless, but St. Mary has laid the groundwork for eliminating paper.
Math is nearly all on the iPad now, Garvin said. Science and language arts are next.
Kids, while enthusiastic about the technology, have a few gripes. They say their keyboards are quite sensitive, so they have to adjust how hard they punch the keys. And taking notes with a finger or a stylus on a screen isn't as fast as with a pencil or pen, Madi said.
"But once you get used to it, it balances out," Gabe said.
And one part of the file-sharing software needs a fix. Martin said a feature that allows the teacher to embed notes in an assignment works just fine on the teachers' laptops, but the notes don't show up when students access the assignment on their iPads. Martin was confident a solution would be found.
Gabe and Madi said their biggest concern is next year when they attend public high school.
Students who have gotten used to taking notes and writing papers on iPads will be back to paper and pencil, they said.
The Janesville School District would allow them to bring an iPad or a laptop to school, but Gabe and Madi said they'd worry about theft and damage in a big high school.
"We all have names on it, and everybody's looking out for each other," Madi said.
St. Mary students also have an economic incentive to protect their tablets. A student must cough up $10 if he loses his iPad and someone finds it. An extended care plan the school bought means a cost of $50 the first two times the iPad is damaged. The third time, it's $699.
Students take notes on their iPads. They do homework on their iPads. They write research papers on their iPads, which come with small keyboards and plastic covers.
The iPad also serves as a graphic calculator, a must-have in some math classes, and a dictionary, Gabe noted.
Apps abound. Garvin told of a microscopic dissection of a flower that went awry because the plants had dried out. The teacher switched students to an app that allowed virtual dissection.
In class, students can go straight to the Internet for answers. Madi told of playing the game "Oregon Trail" in social studies. The game posed the question of what to do when bitten by a rattlesnake. A quick jaunt on the Internet provided an answer.
"It's a lot faster because it's right on your iPad," Gabe said.
"You don't have to go to the computer lab to look something up anymore," Madi added.
Mar 14, 2013 at 7:18 p.m.
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Tablets are NOT toys that is an absolute falsehood you are WRONG. This is not a matter of opinion.
Mar 14, 2013 at 4:20 p.m.
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Chellandlou,
Great point on funding, private schools are funded and operated with only a fraction of what public schools receive. Locally Janesville public schools receive around 10K per child per class-not sure what the tuition is at St marys but my guess is that it is not 10,000 per year.
Mar 14, 2013 at 3:51 p.m.
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These students are fortunate they get to learn on "today" technology, I'm sure the staff at St. Mary's wont let their penmanship skills go down the drain, they are being groomed for a future that is Technologically way over my head and, Like Billy Bob Thorton said in "Eagle Eye", the older my eyes get the smaller the screens get. or something like that.
Mar 14, 2013 at 9:38 a.m.
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We will agree to disagree Joker.
Mar 14, 2013 at 8:49 a.m.
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I went to a private school also and I can say that we wrote a ton of papers and essays. Private education is vastly superior to public education. After I moved into public schools after 5th grade I'd say about 80% of everything learned up until my senior year was a refresher.
Mar 14, 2013 at 8:47 a.m.
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Handbook Harry I'm not talking about ipads. I'm talking about tablets in general. They are not productivity devices. They are toys.
Mar 14, 2013 at 8:37 a.m.
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St. Mary's is also a private school, big difference between public v. private schools when it comes to funding.
Mar 14, 2013 at 6:45 a.m.
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Fear.
It's ok....I guess that's what is wrong with us....we have to find something we agree on. Too many differences.
Mar 13, 2013 at 9:02 p.m.
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Dont like agreeing with HBH feel dirty
Mar 13, 2013 at 8:38 p.m.
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Laptops are great but we are talking about middle school here nt HS, not College. To sa Ipads are toys ia a VERY misguided POV
Mar 13, 2013 at 8:37 p.m.
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http://isenet.ning.com/forum/topics/ipad...
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/29735...
Mar 13, 2013 at 8:27 p.m.
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Anyone who believes that Ipads are not GREAT educational tools, are tools themselves:
http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au/...
Joker Laptops are for paper writing and storage. Ipads are for intearactive software applications.
How many papers did you write in 5th through 8th grade? # OWNED
Mar 13, 2013 at 8:17 p.m.
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12 Sources & Tools for iPad
1.iPads in Education Daily
2.iPads For Education
3.iPads in Primary Education
4.iPad4Schools
5.Mark Anderson’s blog
6.A Day in the Life of the iPad Classroom
7.The Debate Over iPads in Education
8.ShowMe: presentation software and instructional resources
9.Chromatik: learn, practice, record, share music
10.ClassDojo: classroom management
11.MasteryConnect: formative assessment
12.Edmodo: social learning platform
Mar 13, 2013 at 8:17 p.m.
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Joker is incorrect and I hate to say it but HBH is correct. I work in IT and can tell you the differences. A laptop essentially has larger storage, and yes is built for word processing. Ipads , however are hardly "toys". Tablets are contructed to run software applications. Have you taken a look at some of the education based Ipad apps on the market? Anb Ipad is one of the best tools in technology for educating kids:
50 Of The Best Resources On iPads In Education
1.39 sites for using iPads in classrooms
2.10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have
3.10 Must Have iPad Apps for Students and Teachers
4.10 Ways to Use iPads in Your Classroom
5.40 iPad Apps Librarians Love
6.40 Most Awesome iPad Apps for Science Students
7.50+ iPad Apps By a Geography Teacher
8.62 Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom
9.100 Incredibly Useful and Free iPad Apps
10.Best Academic Reference Apps for the iPad
11.Five Ways Readers Are Using iPads in the Classroom
12.How to Access Over 30,000 Free Books For the iPad
13.How to Set Up Class iPads and iPods
14.iPad Apps
15.iPad Apps for Kids in the Classroom
16.iPad Apps for Physical Education
17.iPad Apps for Social Studies
18.iPad Resources I Can Use
19.iPads in the Classroom
20.iPads in School
21.iPads in Schools LiveBinder
22.iPads in Science
23.Math That Moves: Embracing the iPad in the Classroom
24.Mobile Learning 4 Special Needs
25.Pros and Cons of iPads in the Classroom
26.Quick List of iPad Resources For the Classroom
27.ScreenChomp
28.Snag Films iPad App
29.Top 20 iPad Apps for Teachers
30.The Ultimate Guide to Using iPads in the Classroom
31.The Ultimate Guide to Using iPads in the Classroom
32.Using My iPad in the Classroom This Year
33.18 Ways iPads Are Being Used In Classrooms Right Now
34.5 Brilliant Poetry Apps for Students
35.30 of the Best Educational iPad Games: Kid’s Edition
36.Tim Bedley’s 80+ iPad Apps
Mar 13, 2013 at 7:52 p.m.
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This is not a right or wrong. It's your opinion about IPADS. Lets leave it at that.
I have a Mac and an IPAD. I use them for different purposes. To say an IPAD is not a tool for learning is misguided.
Mar 13, 2013 at 7:38 p.m.
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When you said "not tools for learning" it's apparent you must work at a cosmetology college.
Mar 13, 2013 at 7:31 p.m.
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When I read "Laptops just hold more big files". I realized he doesn't have a clue about technology.
Mar 13, 2013 at 7:29 p.m.
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HandbookHarry is getting owned!
Mar 13, 2013 at 6:57 p.m.
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simon, read the article..."Half the money for the iPads came from not buying new textbooks this year, Garvin said. The rest came from the parents group, the Home & School Association."
Mar 13, 2013 at 6:42 p.m.
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Why don't you ask fearandrhetoric he seems to know everything about education.
Mar 13, 2013 at 6:37 p.m.
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Realist
If you only knew how close I am to education.
Mar 13, 2013 at 6:02 p.m.
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Harry,
Please don't make inferences that suggest you know anything about what goes on in the classroom. I have read your other posts.
Mar 13, 2013 at 5:57 p.m.
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Isn't that the school where all the rich kids go?
Mar 13, 2013 at 5:25 p.m.
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No. I'm not wrong. Ever try typing anything at length on a tablet? Good luck.
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:34 p.m.
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Will be interesting to follow up on these students several years down the road.. I can't help wondering what their penmanship on future job applications, forms, etc. will be like.
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:26 p.m.
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Obviously you have not been exposed to the right applications for utilizing IPADS in the classroom.
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:22 p.m.
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Laptops just hold more big files....its how you use the Ipad not what it can hold..who wants to lug a clumsy laptop around
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:16 p.m.
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wrong Joker
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:08 p.m.
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I work at a college and we have experimented with implementing tablets. So far we've found that things are more tedious to accomplish with devices with touch only input. We've even tried out tablets running Windows 8 pro on them. Pretty much everyone unanimously agrees in the IT department that these devices are just toys. I'd take a laptop over a tablet any day.
Mar 13, 2013 at 4:04 p.m.
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At least it's a private school. These devices are toys not tools for learning.
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