Thursday 25 April 2013

iPad one modded for teaching

Case Examples

I've created a simple digital teaching augmenting device. Simply put, it's an old iPad which has a series of rare earth magnets on the back to connect it to the ubiquitous whiteboard located in all of the classrooms at my cram school in Yuanlin Taiwan.

I've used it in many scenarios of teaching different types of student, ages and levels. One of the first things which does grab students attentions is the basic fact that it is an iPad... it is technology... it is stuck on the board. I have used it with video, in small groups. Simple gif animations for flash cards... but the main use I've gotten out of it is the simple cue card creation on the fly. Using my finger on the touchscreen instead of wasting dry erase markers scribbling on paper.

Visibility is the only issue in terms of using the iPad in this way, one modification I have made is putting a non glare textured screen protector on the device. But all in all the maximum brightness lcd panel is very visible, possibly more so than pen and paper.

I'm sure there have been countless more technically in depth creations using the iPad in simple educational settings, using collaboration, active student involvement, hands-on configuration of interactive media. But, this is just my down and dirty prototype. As older tablets become commoditized to the extreme, then we can take advantage of this by using them in more adventurous situations where the device can be flung around, and interacted with.

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