High Tech Schools: 7 Innovative Ways Teachers Are Using Tech In The Classroom

Many schools across the country have rules about tech in the classroom, but they’re not the rules you might think. Teachers instruct students to take out their smartphones, to power up their iPads, and to log in to Twitter.

Technology’s role in the classroom has been widely debated: does it simply feed an addiction to a mobile lifestyle, or does it give otherwise shy students a way to find their voices? A national survey released in April by Pearson Learning Solutions found that only “2 percent of college faculty members had used Twitter in class, and nearly half thought that doing so would negatively affect learning,” reported The New York Times. However, at the same time, a recent survey by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth found that “98 percent of higher ed institutions are on Facebook, and 84 percent are on Twitter,” said InsideHigherEd.com.

The teachers and administrators featured in the slideshow below are tapping into the potential that tech tools hold for education. They’re using smartphone apps to teach the laws of physics, iPads to practice penmanship, and Foursquare to guide students around unfamiliar college campuses. Digital whiteboards and e-clickers add an element of interactivity to tests and quizzes.

These tools are certainly innovative, but their use in the classroom is still experimental. Some institutions are specifically designed to be high-tech and futuristic -- such as Napa New Tech High in Napa, Calif. and the TechBoston Academy in Dorchester, Mass. -- but those are certainly in the minority.

Take a look at the innovative ways that schools are using technology in the classroom in our slideshow below. Then let us know what you think: does it add value to education? What good--or bad--effects of using tech in the classroom have you observed?

1 of 7

iPads

1 of 8

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Last year, a Notre Dame study revealed that iPads in the classroom were most useful for brainstorming, aggregating information and doing groupwork. After two weeks of use, the 40 Notre Dame students given iPads for the study were asked "How would you rate your skill level of using the iPad?" 50% responded "some[what skilled]", 35% said "quite extensive[ly skilled]" and 8% said "very extensive[ly skilled]", according to Forbes.com. Perhaps those results inspired teachers like Beau Barrett, who uses iPads in his fifth grade class to engage students in reading and practicing penmanship. In some cases, schools are shelling out big bucks for the sleek device that starts at $499. Crestview Elementary in West Des Moines, Iowa, where Barrett works, has more than 34 iPads, one per classroom. At the Morristown-Beard School, a private school in Morris County, New Jersey, administrators purchased 60 iPads for students to use instead of books and notepads last fall. But perhaps iPads' true value in the classroom is evidenced by its versatile nature: one class composed and performed a 24-piece iPad concert using only apps such as GarageBand.

New York Standardized Testing Protest

Teacher Spending On Students

Controversial Curriculum Changes Affecting Schools In 2012-13

Weird Things Banned At Schools

Nikita Makes It Home

Controversial school-related documents from around the country

Last year, a Notre Dame study revealed that iPads in the classroom were most useful for brainstorming, aggregating information and doing groupwork. After two weeks of use, the 40 Notre Dame students given iPads for the study were asked "How would you rate your skill level of using the iPad?" 50% responded "some[what skilled]", 35% said "quite extensive[ly skilled]" and 8% said "very extensive[ly skilled]", according to Forbes.com.

Perhaps those results inspired teachers like Beau Barrett, who uses iPads in his fifth grade class to engage students in reading and practicing penmanship. In some cases, schools are shelling out big bucks for the sleek device that starts at $499. Crestview Elementary in West Des Moines, Iowa, where Barrett works, has more than 34 iPads, one per classroom. At the Morristown-Beard School, a private school in Morris County, New Jersey, administrators purchased 60 iPads for students to use instead of books and notepads last fall. But perhaps iPads' true value in the classroom is evidenced by its versatile nature: one class composed and performed a 24-piece iPad concert using only apps such as GarageBand.

comments(21)

Total comments: 21 | Post a Comment

1 of 8

This Tech

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Nothing special Very creative

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Current Top 5 Slides

loading...

Choose your Top 5 Slides

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[vic divecha]

12:40 PM on 08/31/2011

no, Angry Birds is not really a poster child of Educational Mobile Apps :)

[ic789]

12:57 PM on 08/24/2011

what did those kids learn about music or about technology or about MIDI or anything? can't tell anything from the girl's comment at the end. in the music classroom vid there's a full rhythm section (keyboard, drums, guitar, bass) brought in by apple, a voice modulator, and ipads being touched for click sounds (and perhaps a bit of tonality using a limited keyboard). this is not kids making music. for the amount of money spent on this they could learn to read music, play either acoustic or electronic instruments, and get a start on improvising so that they could really express themselves. minus 50 for that commercial.

[lensman3]

04:14 PM on 08/23/2011

This only works if you are economically advantaged (that is afford the hardware). If you don't have the money, technology will pass you by. The school will have to provide the hardware, like they now provide books.

[davidwees]

02:25 PM on 08/23/2011

You know what would be neat? If any of these stories on technology on education referenced the work of Seymour Papert and other innovative educators, who have been using technology effectively in the classroom for DECADES. It's time we stop thinking that the real innovation in technology lies in the apps, it doesn't. It lies in the idea that education should be much more about creation than digesting knowledge, and that technology can be a useful tool to do this.

Our understanding of how learning works in the brain suggests that we build connections between existing knowledge and new knowledge. We need knowledge in context, and we need practice using that knowledge. Some of these applications are just flashy in my mind, and could be done much more effectively without using the technology, but they would take longer, and in the "we must cram as much as we can into these kids" mindset, time is a killer.

I support and train teachers to use technology in ways which are effective pedagogy, and if you are going to write stories about the use of technology in schools, you MUST ground the use in pedagogy, and take the time to explain how it improves student learning, or you do nothing to promote the effective use of technology in schools.

[Insanity rules]

10:37 AM on 08/23/2011

Technology is wonderful, controlling is a nightmare for the educators in charge of controlling. The problem is we are not changing our basic philosophy of when or where students can learn. The IPad can extend education outside of the walls of the current school system but how do you control that? Right now students who want to take computer mediated courses have to attend SCHOOL in order to take the course. We wouldn't have to add new classrooms, over crowd the classrooms, we could give more time to students who need the help and let other students who "get" learning move through at their pace in online courses. The biggest problem is a new system like this can't be controlled by the Activities Association, is a killer for the sports/activites programs if you let 16-17 to a community college and it's not your 8-4 warehousing of students.

[stuartcharles]

03:22 AM on 08/23/2011

PEOPLE! Hold on tight to the past before it disappears! If we try hard enough, we can prevent history from even occurring and we can stop time dead in it's tracks! If we try even harder we might even be able to will the typewriter and fountain pen back from the dead!

[umbrarchist]

12:09 AM on 08/23/2011

iPads are von Neumann machine.

Smartphones are von Neumann machine.

What matters is what the software on the von Neumann machine does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dg96tefnEU

That video can be watched on an iPad or a smartphone. What difference does it make?

The iPad just has a bigger screen than the Sensation 4G. I would rather have a Sensation.

Here is stuff you can read on either one.

Star Surgeon by Alan E. Nourse
http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/book/star-surgeon-by-alan-edward-nourse

Cost of Living by Sheckley Robert
http://www.onread.com/book/Cost-of-Living-20266/

Subversive by Reynolds Mack
http://www.onread.com/book/Subversive-13972/

The Ethical Engineer by Harry Harrison
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4583/the-ethical-engineer

[Pat Cowdin]

10:03 PM on 08/22/2011

Intelligent, individualized "virtual teachers" will change everything. We aren't there yet, but it's coming.

[Jack Kieffer]

04:40 PM on 08/22/2011

iPads & iPhones also be of help to special needs children. Here's one example of a teen introducing an autistic boy to an iPhone loaded with Autism Apps: http://www.autismpluggedin.com/2011/08/kevin-meets-the-iphone-session-1.html

[Visionary Excellence]

12:14 PM on 08/22/2011

Schools should use IT to eliminate all paperwork. It could free up teachers to teach, instead of taking attendance and etc.

[JosephTX]

07:14 PM on 08/22/2011

Facial recognition cameras! Let's oppress the little brats a bit before they're old enough to vote

[Visionary Excellence]

08:25 PM on 08/22/2011

Its going to happen. But to elaborate further. the price of data storage and sensors is falling to pennies. So the classroom will be recorded in 3d and stored. Data mining software will look for patterns that suggest special needs, so kids can get special lesson adjustments that reflect their cognitive abilities. Each text book will be digital, so the sensor nets will be fed into the data feed - updating and adjusting the kids individual lesson. I would also have to assume that chatbots will be an important part of this. So there will be at least one AI teaching assistant for each kid.

SOunds expensive except that you can buy a USB camcorder for $20 at the drug store. Computer prices are continuing to fall.

Sounds dystopian - but just another dystopia compared to a 40 to 1 student/teacher ratio and old shared mass produced textbooks bottlenecked through texas.

[jgeurian21]

11:49 AM on 08/22/2011

A local school here gave out iPads to their students. Everything works great except the fact that they didn't give out keyboards or pre-load the iPads with actual apps to do things like iWork. Most were complaining that they had to pay $70+ for a keyboard and then $10 per app for iWork just so the kids could work on it. Then they discovered that the iPads didn't work with their online exams because it was built in Flash and none of the iPads can access it. Then kids started to jailbreak them and install unapproved Apple software which of course caused a ton of problems for the system admin. I remember at the school board meeting the board said "if people just do what Apple tells them everything would be fine" and a parent stood up and said "How is this better than a $200 netbook at Wal-Mart?" I got a chuckle out of that. Sometimes high tech is not not good tech.

[SmartladyDem]

04:23 PM on 08/22/2011

I know a school that made a similar system work-but, it did take a few years to work out the bugs. The kids and parents had to sign an agreement to follow the guidelines. Anyway, it turned out to be a real boon for those students that ended up ahead of their peers in tech training.

[umbrarchist]

12:21 AM on 08/23/2011

Hundreds of school systems should have selected a netbook and installed some version of Linux on them and pooled their money to hire some Linux experts to support the schools. Freeze the operating system. What do grade school and high school kids need to be upgrading operating systems every few years for? Windows is being upgraded so Microsoft can make money.

The question is which netbooks have high reliability. Which ones are rugged enough for kids? Like we couldn't have one of our colleges design a machine and then have a bunch of companies build to the same standard. Screw Free Enterprise. That is just free to hide information from the customer.

Or how about this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHg_9rUT1as

A USB keyboard could plug in. They are less than $30.

[JosephTX]

11:49 AM on 08/22/2011

I still would have preferred a laptop over all these when I was in high school. Who doesn't type notes faster than they could write them?

[SmartladyDem]

04:24 PM on 08/22/2011

I think it is a real advantage-they also learn tech skills, typing, etc-on top of improved speed.

[Charles Keledjian]

11:26 AM on 08/22/2011

This is so infomercial that I won't even bother... How is it playing a keyboard on a touch screen better than playing the real instrument? You can buy a Casio keyboard for 50 bucks. Have kids learn the real thing!

[Insanity rules]

10:31 AM on 08/23/2011

Besides the fact the Ipad can also be used in an infinite amount of situations other than just producing music?