Pollard Students Explore Benefits of iPads in Classrooms

Take a virtual trip to France, compose a blues song and explore the elements of the periodic table—these are just a few of the things Needham eighth graders have been using iPads for over the past few weeks, as they participate in a pilot program designed to see how the new technology can benefit classroom teaching.

Last year, purchased 30 iPads for a pilot program at , introducing the tablet computers into several eighth grade classrooms to see how they could offer new and different ways of learning.

Teachers were invited last spring to apply to be part of the program, suggesting ways the iPads could benefit their curriculum. The selected teachers then received iPads to work with and training over the summer. The project officially launched in November, with the devices to eventually be used in a total of nine subjects before the first pilot year ends this spring, according to Deb Gammerman, the district’s director of technology and innovation.

On Tuesday, March 20, a little over halfway through the pilot, representatives from three of the classes that have used the iPads reported back to the School Committee about how they worked with the curriculum.

Music teacher Cassie Hanudel used the iPads to teach a unit on the origin and style of blues music to her boys’ chorus class.

“I found it very challenging in previous years to give a crash course in beginner piano and GarageBand software before we could get to the object of what is a blues form and how to compose a blues form,” Hanudel said.

But with the iPads, students could play notes on a variety of virtual instruments—from bass guitar to piano to drums—with just a tap of the finger, as they accessed “Smart Chords” in the GarageBand app that could even narrow down which chords would best fit the blues style.

 “They could basically compose their accompaniment by themselves, where in previous years I ended up prerecording the music and inputting it into GarageBand,” Hanudel said.

Eighth grader Nick Davis played for the School Committee a song his group had composed called “Index Cards Blue,” about the woes of trying to find his study cards for a class. Davis said that while he already knew how to play piano, he hadn’t known how to play guitar, but the app allowed him to incorporate guitar chords easily into the composition.

Eighth grader Mike McCullum said the iPads were incredibly easy to use and that the project had helped better introduce him to the GarageBand software, which he already owned but hadn’t really understood.

“It just made everything so easy that it made it more fun,” he said of the iPad.

Foreign language teacher Eric Frere asked his students to plan a virtual two-week trip from Needham to Paris and back home using various applications available on the iPad, including the official AirFrance airline app and apps for the Eiffel Tower and Louvre. By changing settings, students had to maneuver through these sites in French and present a final plan for their trips written only in French.

Frere said the biggest challenge in planning the new curriculum was weeding through the many “bad apps” that are on the market but that once he had selected specific ones to use it was easy to introduce the project to students.

“The challenge was to get the idea, and then from there I just said, well, if I had to travel to France, what do I need to know, and then I started digging,” Frere said.

One of his students, Anna, said that while working only in French was difficult, overall she was enjoying the project, which is still ongoing.

“I really like this because it provides you with an experience. It was like it actually connected to the outside world,” she said.

Pollard science teacher Brook Hoffman asked his students to essentially recreate an app that provided detailed information about elements on the periodic table. The actual app, called “The Elements,” would have cost $14 per iPad, so instead, Hoffman had his students collect much of the same information—including images and video that helped describe their selected element—and put together a page of their own.

Hoffman also introduced students to a free app that explores the gas laws dealing with pressure, temperature and volume. By virtually changing one of the variables, students could actually see the relationship between them, something the school's current equipment doesn’t allow, Hoffman said.

Students and teachers said that overall the iPads did have limitations—saving and recalling documents and preparing presentations on the tablets were much more difficult than on a computer or laptop. But they also felt the devices added something to the classroom.

Hoffman said that the project was limited somewhat because the iPads were not available one-to-one and students couldn’t take them home to continue learning on them there.

Gammerman has requested that the pilot be expanded into a second year with the purchase of additional iPads—enough so that, when added to the existing iPads, they could be provided one to each student and teacher in a cluster—about 110 students and 10 teachers. Funding has been requested through the Finance Committee but has not yet received final approval as part of the fiscal year 2013 budget.