iPads for Learning, Victoria, Australia

I am making two exceptions with this post. I don’t normally cover k-12 (too large an area and too different from post-secondary education), and I don’t normally steal Richard Elliott’s thunder, but this item is so good I had to comment on it.

Richard Elliott’s monthly e-Learning Watch is always chock full of links to interesting e-learning sites and his latest is no exception. In this edition he directs us to the Victoria Government’s iPads for Learning web site, which is terrific, for a number of reasons.

First it has listed some of the educational affordances of iPads, most of which would apply to post-secondary education as well as schools.

Second it has produced a very pragmatic online handbook for planning, preparing, implementing and evaluation programs using iPads

Third it has suggestions for specific uses in the classroom by teachers.

Fourth it has a one-stop shop for a whole range of educational apps for the school sector, including reviews (although this is one feature that does not transfer quite so well to post-secondary education).

Lastly, it’s an easy-to-navigate, well-designed web site. (I particularly liked the video on the Animalia iPad app – definitely on my Christmas present list for my grandkids. Some of their photos of kids using the iPad – such as the one at the head of this post – are also excellent)

Above all, it constantly focuses on what learners can do.

If you’re hesitating about using an iPad in your teaching go to this site – it will convince you. All you need is a little imagination to transfer this to a post-secondary education context.

 

1 COMMENT

  1. Thanks for sharing, Tony! I really enjoy integrating higher technologies in a classical education process. Now we use Twitter, Facebook, iPads and iPhones in our class and distantly, and it yields great results! And I do not understand orthodox teachers, who prohibit children to use social media or innovative devices in education! It’s not right, I think!

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