Should pupils be using tablet computers in school?

As parents of three young children and regular users of the M25, my wife and I know how effective tablet devices are at preventing family meltdowns in traffic jams.

A spell on the iPad is normally enough to stave off sibling scrapes in the car, as well as cries of “Are we nearly there yet?” We are always grateful for a little “iPeace” when we face another delay around junctions nine and 10.

But as we hand the gadget over, we have mixed feelings. There is mild guilt: shouldn’t we be engaging our children in stimulating conversation or playing an inventive game to stretch their imagination?

And there is apprehension, too: at some stage, the contraption will need to be wrenched back from them. The addictiveness of some games and software is such that this can be like stealing a banana from a starving monkey.

I have had an iPad for a year and confess that in-car entertainment for the kids has been its principal function so far.

This purpose could hardly be further removed from the one advocated by more and more schools around the country: namely, that rather than being a tool for simply pacifying children, iPads and other hand-held devices can – and should – be used in classrooms to unlock pupils’ potential, release creativity, sustain interest and provide intellectual challenge.

One of the UK’s principal champions of digital learning has been Sir Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College in Berkshire.

In 2012, he replaced the school’s traditional library with one that combines “ultra-modern facilities with an old-fashioned reverence for learning”; interactive screens, iPads and slates are used more than printed material for reading, research and learning.

“Digitalisation allows learning to be personalised and far more vivid, active and challenging for young people,” says Seldon. “Shakespeare would certainly have used a screen if he’d had the chance. In the hands of talented teachers, technology can be profoundly transformative.”

Around 500 schools across Britain have now provided pupils with iPads. Worldwide, over 10 million devices have been purchased by educational institutions – an astonishing fact given that the first iPad was launched less than five years ago.

Printed textbooks are rapidly being replaced by e-books, which harness the interactive capabilities of hand-held devices and take pupils beyond the static page with a simple swipe and tap of the finger. More than 25,000 such electronic texts, covering a wealth of subjects, are now available.

“The rush to adopt this new technology has led to confused launches in some schools,” says Simon Armitage, a senior teacher at the Stephen Perse Foundation School in Cambridge, where iPads were introduced to all pupils two years ago.

“Teachers need time to feel confident in the basic technology and its purpose in the learning process. They need to realise that an iPad offers much more than simply a connection to the Internet and a word processor.”

That is why my colleagues and I were all given an iPad and trained to use it one year before we issued them to pupils. We have had to re-examine the style, content and outcomes of our lessons, too.

The school where I teach – Caterham School, in Surrey – will be issuing iPads to pupils from the start of next term. I have been struck by the positive response within the staff room to the training we have received over the past year.

“I’m a bit nervous about using iPads in class for the first time,” says a colleague from the maths department. “But the interactive technology should make learning more memorable and engaging.”

One teacher of modern languages enthused: “My pupils will be able to use audio and video recorders very easily, and this will enhance the way they learn. I am sure that it will make their homework tasks more valuable and fun.”

“The iPads should encourage collaborative learning, which has to be good,” says a teacher of politics. “The ease of communication means that classes can share ideas and resources easily. They will even be able to participate in live e-debates for homework.”

However, there are reservations, too. Pupils will forget to bring their devices to school. They will lose them. They will break them. They will try to share inappropriate material. They will pick the wrong one up at the end of a class. Batteries will run out in the middle of lessons.

“Educational” apps will be exposed as mere gimmicks. The technology will be another potential source of distraction. And however many filters, passwords and restrictions are imposed centrally, just how secure will the system be?

A central concern is that the gadgets have the potential to diminish the role of the teacher in the classroom setting. In Thailand, the government has issued every schoolchild with an iPad with the stated aim of reducing the number of teachers.

Some teacher training now uses the term “learning enabler” rather than “teacher”, suggesting that the teacher’s knowledge is no longer central to pupils’ learning.

And like many schools, Caterham promotes academic excellence, an active involvement in all aspects of school life, and a love of the outdoors – goals which, arguably, sit uncomfortably alongside the notion of more time in front of a digital screen.

“There are many unknowns,” says John McKeown, an educational psychologist based in Brighton. “But this is no reason to abandon technology. The biro replaced the fountain pen. The electronic whiteboard replaced the blackboard. Modern textbooks and the Internet are vast improvements over their stolid predecessors.

“This latest development is no big deal for children; using electronic devices is second nature to them and, increasingly, they expect to have access to them at school. In a few years’ time, most pupils will use digital technology in examinations. It is a natural and necessary next step for teachers to embrace the technology.”

As a teacher of English, I will have this opportunity next week, when I will meet my new class of Year 7 pupils – each one of them armed with a shiny new tablet. I will put my experiences on the M25 behind me, and I look forward to reporting back on how we get on in my lessons.

Apps in the classroom

There are thousands of educational apps vying for the attention of teachers and pupils. Here are just some examples that are proving popular with iPad users in the classroom:

The Poetry App
Listen to poems by Eliot, Larkin, Frost, Plath and a dozen others read by well known performers. Also allows pupils to write, record and share their own poems.

Digimap
A seamless and fully searchable digital Ordnance Survey (OS) map of Great Britain. Historical OS maps can also be viewed, enabling pupils to see how landscapes have changed over the past 120 years.

The Elements: A Visual Exploration
A “living” version of the periodic table. Pupils can view more than 500 rotatable 3D images of the elements, together with a huge amount of detailed information. Described by Stephen Fry as, “Alone worth the price of an iPad!”

Showbie
Allows teachers to assign, collect and review pupils’ work, then provide detailed feedback, either individually or collectively, using annotations, text notes and voice notes directly on to pupils’ documents.

Matthew Godfrey is deputy head of Caterham School in Surrey
@mgodfreyteach