On February 5th, the learning experience in New Providence High School was forever changed as every Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior was given an iPad. In the weeks and even months leading up to getting the iPads, everyone was wondering how they would affect the learning of the students. It seemed that most students were more excited for the many apps and games that they were going to download rather than losing their heavy books and studying almost completely on the iPads. Now that we’ve had them for a little while, we can see if they are enhancing the learning of the students or if they are just distracting them and keeping them from doing their work.
The obvious distractions that come with the iPads are games. Since the school allowed us to download any app we want, it was an inevitable problem that is extremely hard to fix. Almost every student plays games and that is obviously taking away from their learning experience. Also, it is very hard for the teachers to prevent this problem because after just a week of having the iPads, students became experts at swiping back and forth between notes and games. The only thing that can really keep most of the class from playing games is if the teacher is in the back of the room and obviously he or she can’t always be back there. It is easy to say that the students should just stay off the games when they’re not supposed to use them but a lot of kids have a hard enough time paying attention in class and this is just an added distraction. Also, the iPads make it easier for kids to share answers as well as plagiarize now that it is just a few swipes of the iPad away. Not only is it easier to do, but it is harder for teachers to catch because they can’t check the handwriting and, as long as the student rewords the text, the teachers won’t be able to tell that it’s the same as another student’s.
While the iPads do present some pretty huge problems, they do have some upsides. Since most of the work is on the iPads now, we are using less paper and helping the environment. Also, apps like Notability and Keynote have helped kids who are not usually neat to become very organized. The folders allow students to easily drop in notes and worksheets and keep them there. Without the iPads, students may lose those worksheets or notes. It also helps the teachers because now instead of writing out notes or printing out hundreds of worksheets, they can just scan them into the computer and share them with their students.
Despite these upsides I believe that overall the iPads are hurting the learning of the students more than they are helping. The games are extremely distracting and the students know that they can’t get caught so they feel that they can do it without a problem. Also, it is very distracting for students who already have trouble paying attention in class. Also, possibly the biggest problem is the cheating. All these things are easy to do and hard to stop so the students will just continue to do them. Most kids will spend more time playing games than they will taking notes or paying attention to the lesson. This will not only hurt their grade but it takes away from the general knowledge that they should have. Even if they find a way to get by in the class by cheating with the iPads, then when they build off of that knowledge in the following year, it will be very hard to catch up.
I think that the iPads are a good idea and I enjoy having them, but they are just too much of a distraction and are overall hurting the learning of the students here at NPHS.