Learning and Leading - August 2012

them later. Unfortunately, they were paid apps, which limited our accessibility.

Cost. Although we understood the need for Apple’s volume purchasing plan, it increased the cost of our project. We received U.S. stimulus funding, which allowed our district to shift money to its capital fund for iPad purchases.

Variable data. Even though we tried our best to make authentic comparisons in our data, there were variables. The 2009–10 and 2010–11 class sizes were not identical. In 2009–10, Group 5 had 12 students, and in 2010–11 it had 16. In 2009, Group 6 had nine students, while in 2010–11 it had 11.

All of us were veteran teachers, but
neither of the groups had the same
teacher for the two consecutive years
of data collection. Because of this
variable, there was one data point col-
lected only for Group 6, as Group 5
was without a previous comparison.

Lessons Learned

Our students continue to help each other in the classroom. Movement from one leveled reading group to another occurs often to ensure students’ proper placement based on their abilities. In fact, Group 5 and Group 6 sustained extensive amounts of movement— 20 changes per group throughout the year! Whenever a new student would join our group, most often during iPad activities, our support was not necessary. Students would instinctively help each other, creating a wonderfully collaborative environment.

From start to finish, this project has
convinced us that using iPads with at-
risk learners creates an environment
that meshes nicely with the learning
styles of our youngest digital natives.
iPads truly make a difference in sight
word recognition, fluency, compre-
hension, and vocabulary recognition
and meaning.

Bring robotics to your school!

In a class, a club, or a FIRST LEGO League team, robotics offers a hands-on, multidisciplinary, authentic learning opportunity. You don’t have to know programming or engineering, and you don’t even need a large budget.