The Times, They Are a Changing.

Or maybe better said, times have already changed.

At the start of the 2011-2012 school year there were 85 iPads in St. Paul Public Schools.  This fall there will be 550 iPads with another 550 possible through EdMN grants.  This former math teacher is ready to declare exponential growth!!!  There will be close to 13x as many iPads next fall.  If we keep this up there could be 14,300 iPads by the fall of 2013!!!  Before I make any grand predictions,  I would be remiss if I didn't step back and ask why these devices are here and how will they impact learning?


Increased presence of devices in our schools is exciting.  It shows that the 21st Century is busting down the doors to our classrooms.  The excitement will wear off though, and these shiny machines will get lots of tiny fingerprints on them (we hope!).  And then what?  What will the students be doing with these new tools?  How will they impact learning?


The answer is not simple.  I can't just tell you "Download that app.  Give it to a kid.  Now they'll learn better."  What I can tell you is that the iPad has a myriad of uses, because after all, there is an app for that.  No matter what "that" is.  Our task as educators is to figure out what learning do we want to impact?  Are our students struggling with decoding words?  Perhaps there's an app for that.  Is Donald struggling with the concept of measurement?  Perhaps there is an app for that.  Is Lee struggling with following multi-step directions?  Perhaps there's an app for that.

As with all technology the learning needs to drive use.  It is nice to have this extremely flexible tool, the iPad, in the educational arsenal.  Now it is time to figure out when to use it and how.  Match the tool to the task.  Need a nail pounded in?  Grab the hammer, not the screwdriver, or worse, the chain saw.  You'll have a mess on your hands before you can say "App".

Watch for upcoming news about user groups, planning sessions, and good apps lists.  The welcome side effect of hitting this critical point of saturation is the potential for collaboration, and there's no app that will take the place of that.