MANITOU SPRINGS — Earlier this year, Manitou Springs Middle School found itself with an odd problem: The building had plenty of Internet capacity for the computers it offered students. Yet, the online pipes were clogged beyond full every day.
It turned out that the hand-held mobile devices carried by half the student body had overloaded the system — and sparked the realization that the kids were more connected than anybody thought.
The district's resultant conversation about the best way for students to learn led to the purchase of Apple iPads — the popular, compact tablet that provides online access plus myriad applications — for every student next year in grades five through eight. Plans call for distributing them to every high schooler the following year.
"We found that as a school, we were really ready," says technology teacher Lisette Casey. "Teachers were begging for technology, students were already connected — so it was just a matter of how we capitalized on that."
The move in the relatively small Manitou Springs School District 14 reflects how more and more educators have bought into the tantalizing potential of a $500 retail device that has been on the market for barely more than a year and has no real academic track record.
Lured by the intuitive ease of its touchscreen, a growing array of interactive applications and the excitement it generates among students, many schools are making significant investments in both training and hardware.
Some are easing into the product, but others have placed hefty bets that the device will profoundly improve the way teachers deliver curriculum.
"The engagement piece that the iPad provides is amazing," says Casey. "I've been teaching 20 years, and I'd never before heard students say they can't wait for school to start."
$100 in iTunes credits
Teachers in Manitou Springs have been given $100 in iTunes credit to shop
The district ordered 600 iPads — actually, the second-generation iPad 2 — with the rationale that they're cheaper than laptops and far more versatile, with potential cost savings down the road.
"My guess is that in five to 10 years, the concept of buying textbooks anymore will seem odd," says Tim Miller, the district's assistant superintendent. "We decided to get in front a bit."
Educators' zeal has been fed by wide-ranging applications: from reading apps that gauge a student's fluency and e-mail the results to the teacher, to full texts of many books, to virtual dissections of frogs, to the creative possibilities made possible by the on-board video camera.
But some experts temper their enthusiasm for the new technology.
Several years ago, similar buzz accompanied the introduction in Great Britain of the SMART Board, an interactive white board that educators hurried to install in virtually every school.
After a decade of research, they concluded that its effectiveness simply depends on what you do with it, says Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in cognitive approaches to education.
"It's similar to (the iPad) because here's this incredible new technology, where you can think of lots of cool things that might work," he says. "But that doesn't mean classroom application is going to be straightforward. If you're just giving them to students and teachers and expecting good things to happen, you're probably going to be disappointed."
There's also the possibility that the technology itself can become a distraction from learning. Willingham notes that teachers have come up with some effective uses for other emerging technologies such as Twitter and Facebook — but also some trivial uses.
"The key is whether the good stuff makes its way to the classroom," he says. "If it does, then there's a real likelihood (the iPad) will stick around. If not, it may end up being the flavor of the month."
At Escuela Bilingue Pioneer, a bilingual pre-K-5 school in Lafayette, teacher and technology contact Sara Nelson went to the PTA with the idea of doing a jogathon fundraiser to buy iPads.
They ended up raising nearly $15,000 and plan to buy 19 of the devices. But first, Nelson researched what other districts around the country had done with them — and found that, particularly for a bilingual school seeking to close the technology gap for low-income kids, the iPad fit the bill.
Interactive books in both English and Spanish cost less than the hardbound editions. And the ability of students to collaborate on projects such as podcasts presented many new possibilities. But most of all, teachers at the school were drawn by the ease of use.
"If they have one in the classroom or even a class set, however they decide to use those, they know kids will be able to use them successfully," Nelson says.
"Definitely some unknowns"
In the 2012-13 school year, the school can refresh its technology with dedicated funds from a Boulder Valley Schools bond issue. If the iPad experiment works, Pioneer could buy more.
"There are definitely some unknowns," Nelson says. "Whatever we do in the fall, we'll revisit in January to see what did or didn't go well."
Distilled to basic concepts, the iPad remains a tool that helps students receive information and then use basic skills to shape it, says Karen Ortiz, president of Technology in Education Colorado, a teachers group.
"I think people see the potential of it," she says. "It's not like software manufacturers are creating what they think end-users need. It's the end-users doing some of the creations themselves."
But while the introduction of iPads and other mobile devices moves through schools, Ortiz cautions that it comes with the proviso that the focus must remain on learning — not the technological flash.
"I think it's exciting because people see the potential," she says. "But within that potential you always want to think about what our purpose is."
That sentiment rang particularly true for the Legacy Academy K-8 charter school in Elizabeth, where a back-to-basics Core Knowledge curriculum has been a key selling point.
In March, the school voted to reconfigure the school's technology to increase Internet bandwidth, install a new sound system and digital whiteboard, and provide an iPad 2 to each of the more than 450 students.
At first, says business manager Starla Cordova, parents were apprehensive that the school was veering away from its mission.
"We're more on the conservative side and very big into Core Knowledge," Cordova says. "Parents were feeling that we'd throw all that out, and their child was going to learn off an app — which is definitely not true. We're going to stay true to Core Knowledge virtues and values, but enhance them with iPads."
Teachers, she added, felt excited over the revamping of the school's technology but also nervous and overwhelmed by the device they hope will individualize instruction. To ease the transition, they'll undergo a 20-day intensive training period in July.
"We're all in, definitely all in," says Cordova, noting that the school has sold all its current computers and switched to Apple products. "We feel this will open the doors and open the kids' minds and engage them. Outside of school, students are so stimulated, but then they come to school and power down. That's where we're wanting to change."
Grant Beacon Middle School was one of three in the Denver Public Schools that used Classroom Technology Innovation Grants to purchase significant numbers of iPads.
Principal Alex Magana notes that 85 percent of his students are on the free or reduced lunch program and most of those have no access to technology at home. He's aiming to fill that void in several ways, but most recently by purchasing 150 iPads for eighth-graders to use in class.
Originally, he was going to invest solely in netbooks, the small laptops with Internet access. But then he and his technology team sat in on an Apple training session and were impressed by the iPad's flexibility.
Grant proposal rewritten
The school is still buying some netbooks for younger kids, so students will eventually have experience with multiple platforms. But Magana and his teachers were so excited by the potential of the iPads that they rewrote their grant proposal.
Magana distributed iPads to every staff member who works with kids so they could experiment with them and explore various applications over the summer. One already found an application that promises to cut student reading assessment time in half, giving teachers more time to react to the data.
"It all comes down to the teacher," says Magana. "How comfortable is the teacher with technology? If they're not comfortable, it goes to waste."
Kipp Bentley, director of education technologies for DPS, notes that the iPad has been considered a game-changer in the wider consumer market and educators aren't immune to the buzz over what he describes as an "intermediary between smartphone and laptop."
"For Denver," he says, "we're dipping our toes into it. There are a lot of decent-to-good free applications out there that are intriguing, especially when budgets are so limited."
But answers to questions of durability in the hands of students and, most important, educational effectiveness remain far from resolved for the iPad.
"We know they're engaging," Bentley says. "But they have to be more than that."
