Ipads in Higher Education: Home

As soon as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) announced last May that it would be giving all 400 incoming freshmen Apple iPads, a lively debate broke out online at TUAW.com (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) between people who saw it as a marketing gimmick to attract students and others who believed it was an honest attempt to implement a new and useful educational technology.

Given the recent and rapidly growing access to a dazzling array of intellectual technologies, faculty and staff at Seton Hill, a liberal arts university focused on excellence in teaching, have seized the opportunity to experiment with and improve the learning experience. The university committed to providing iPads for all full-time faculty, student affairs and academic support service staff, and employees responsible for student recruitment, retention, and athletics. The administration believed that to fully realize the benefits from the new technologies and tools, the majority of the campus community needed to have access to them. Moreover, the entire campus would need to change approaches to and uses of technology. The program, called the Griffin Technology Advantage, had the following key objectives: (1) the creation of a teaching and learning environment that would go beyond the confines of the traditional classroom in time and space; (2) widespread use of mobile technology for instantaneous access to information; (3) deepening of critical and creative thinking through interactive teaching strategies; (4) increased student engagement in learning; and (5) decreased costs for students through the use of e-texts.

Curious about the potential of this new technology for libraries, a group of librarians at Ryerson University in Toronto seized an opportunity to investigate the emerging role of the tablet in the daily academic lives of students. The group found that the iPad, though not yet as integral to academic life as a computer, can be a powerful tool in aiding collaboration, encouraging organization, and assisting learning regardless of field or level of academic achievement.

This qualitative research study was designed to explore the how the use of a multi-modal tablet device affects the academic environment.

The author posits based on the fast-paced evolving nature of modern technologies, curriculum development requires a way to keep up to date, without producing contradictory questions about what are the most current and relevant technologies and forms of learning for young people today. Due to the intricate and fast-evolving ways that young people engage with these technologies, it may be in order to have an educational curriculum that is developed in collaboration with the young people themselves, that allows them to play an active role in discussing how they are learning.

Presentations listed in this conference discuss use and effectiveness of ipads in higher education.