Across the US, universities and schools see the iPad as the device which will take classroom education truly into the digital era. Educators in particular, feel that tablets will change education because they dovetail with the goals and purposes of education in the digital age.
Let’s look at the features that make the iPad such a great learning device.
Touch Screen Usability
The touch screen of the iPad has extended Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in a way that mimics human gestures. The iPad touch screen enables intuitive touch to interact with computers, bypassing mouse-click and PC learning requirements, and getting straight into the action. While adults with ingrained technology habits consider the lack of keyboard a problem, digital natives have a different perspective.
Kids who haven’t learned to read or operate a remote, are picking up the iPad’s interface with remarkable speed. According to June 2010 Ad Age article “How the iPad Became Child’s Play – and Learning Tool”, after using the device, toddlers as young as 18 months try to interface with TVs and monitors as if they were touch screens too, indicating how intuitive this technology may be to the iPad generation.
Single Screen User Interface
The iPad does not provide users the ability to read information from multiple sources simultaneously on a single screen through windows. This perceived shortcoming makes the iPad prone to criticism as a productivity device. However as a learning tool, the iPad’s single-screen interface reduces elements of interruption and potentially enhances user orientation to a specific task.
An abundance of features can be a disturbance to the cognitive process and educators often prefer mobile devices without distracting features like messaging and phone calls.
The single screen user interface may help students stick to their assignments, as closing and launching other applications takes time and can be monitored in class. In fact teachers at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Kamuela feel the iPad’s flat screen also makes it harder to hide surreptitious surfing.
A Better eReader
The iPad’s Book Reader is one of its most popular features and already outpacing Amazon’s Kindle according to data released by Student Monitor, a firm that researches consumption trends among college students.
Their March 2010 survey of 1,200 students at 100 colleges, indicates that of students who reported interest in buying an e-reader, 46% said they favored the iPad, versus 38% for Kindle. That works out to around 782,000 students who might soon buy the iPad for its e-reader capabilities alone.
Convergence & Productivity
Long ago, school children only needed a slate and chalk for all learning. Similarly, today’s tablets can provide for every kind of learning requirement without external devices like a mouse or keyboard.
Modern educators are voicing the need for learning to be more contextual and engaging. Mobile phones and digital whiteboards add a level of interactivity, but not a lot of computing power, and a laptop is not always convenient.
The iPad fills this gap by enabling a host of activities such as referencing, collaborating and content creation. In an August 2010 Wired.com article, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet”, the transformation from open web browsing to specialized apps was a change driven by the Apple model of mobile computing. The iPad leverages this trend by providing personalized choice of content, a big plus for students users.
