In fall 2010, the University of Minnesota's College of Education and Human Development, in partnership with the Office of Information Technology, provided iPads to all incoming CEHD freshmen. The goals of this initiative, the largest of its kind, were to leverage college students' affinity for mobile technology to promote student engagement and learning within the college, and to provide both the impetus and resources for interested faculty members to consider new, innovative teaching methods.
In October of 2010, the iPads were distributed to the first year students as well as to faculty members teaching first-year experience classes in which those students were enrolled. The iPads were used by a few faculty members in the fall in an exploratory mode; in spring 2011 many more instructors began to employ the new devices.
For this initiative to be successful, support services were developed or updated, including services to assist students with learning and configuring their iPads, connecting to the internet, etc. Faculty development programs were implemented as well, including a faculty learning community, to provide a forum in which faculty could collaboratively investigate methods of integrating this new technology into their classes. Other services that were tapped or created include technical support, wireless networking, usability, research/evaluation, communications, student services, and systems development. Lessons learned during year one are being used to adjust services available for year two of the initiative. These lessons will be shared in this presentation.
The project brought people together from across the institution and beyond. People who were not initially part of the project volunteered to be involved, including graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, university administrators, and student advisers. K-12 schools contacted us with requests to partner. These partnerships, energized by discussions of good teaching and learning, data security, student needs, and best practices are examples of serendipitous engagement that was unintended but welcome.
This session will be tailored for an audience of information technology administrators interested in designing and implementing mobile learning programs centered on portable devices such as the iPad, and for faculty members interested in exploring ways of using such devices constructively in conjunction with their teaching. The presentation will describe:
- the goals and planning behind the iPad initiative;
- the logistical and practical challenges of ordering, configuring, and distributing approximately 450 iPads to students and to faculty members;
- support for students and faculty using the iPads, including student training and faculty development efforts;
- the integration of the iPads into teaching and learning in CEHD;
- research and evaluation conducted on the impact of the iPad on the teaching and learning experience within CEHD.
The research component of the iPad initiative consisted of a systematic investigation of student and faculty experiences using the devices. Validated survey instruments, semi-structured interviews, formal focus groups, and assessment of student learning outcomes were used to examine questions such as:
- did the iPads have an impact on student cognitive and affective engagement?
- did the iPads enrich the student learning experience?
- were the iPads more useful for consumption or for production activities?
- to what degree did the iPads serve as a learning aid for students in class, and to what degree did they function as a distraction?
- could iPads replace laptops in students' academic lives?
- were students able to save money through purchasing e-books for their iPads rather than paper textbooks?
- what were the most constructive uses of the iPads in the teaching process?
- did the iPads function as a form of objectified cultural capital in students' lives?
- were the iPads a useful tool for completing a multimedia digital storytelling assignment?
- did the iPads help students to learn math in a contextualized fashion?
