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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

College Prep Fuels K-12 Tablet Frenzy

As The CITE has noted before, the hot trend in K-12 education is the tablet computer. Individual schools and entire school districts across the U.S. are purchasing tablets for their classrooms, often buying enough for each pupil to have their own.
 
Some schools are jumping on the tablet bandwagon because they think colleges and universities will take it for granted that incoming students are skilled in using the devices for coursework.
 
As a preparatory-school principal in Minnesota told the St. Joseph Newsleader as the school rolled out iPads for all grade 6-12 students, “Colleges are expecting students to be able to collaborate, to think critically, to map concepts, to interact with emerging technology that’s constantly turning over, and to perform traditional operations such as notetaking, planning, writing, reading, and discussion in a dynamic way. As we see more and more top-tier colleges and universities using iPads or encouraging their use, it’s a natural fit for us and for our mission to create an experience in high school that will set our students up for success in college.”
 
Students are also buying into the idea that tablet proficiency is a must for college and they won’t be able to succeed without it.
 
At a public high school in Ohio, which was launching a $1 million iPad program of its own this fall, a 15-year-old sophomore told the Columbus Dispatch, “It’s exciting because when we go to college, technology is becoming a big part of our life. If you’re the kid who never learned how to use an iPad and no one has textbooks anymore, what professor is going to hold up the lesson to explain to one person how to use it?”