Visitation to Oceanside High School

I was very excited to visit a school that was using iPads in the classroom on a day-to-day basis. After visiting Oceanside High School, I witnessed technology integration with the iPad mainly through the form of assessment. Specifically, Bell Work and quizzes. The first class I observed used iPads as a Bell Work activity. Students were asked to complete multiple questions before being allowed to move on to their experiments. I really liked that the teacher was able to create a bank of questions so that every student may get a different question or the same question with different variables. I liked that this form of Bell Work allowed students to work collaboratively in solving the questions. It fueled group work, collaboration, and the ability to problem solve. However, I wanted to see more resources available on the iPad so that the student had a resource they could refer to prior to asking a peer for help. The students were not really held accountable for their critical thinking abilities because many of them would immediately ask a peer instead of looking at the question critically and dissecting it. I also saw a very unique problem emerge. Because students were able to take the assessments at home, there were quite a few students "killing time" until it was time to do the experiment. I liked that a student could complete or retake an assessment at home but I did not like that there were individuals that took advantage of this fantastic alternative and sat in their seats wasting class time, but I really liked that the assessment randomized the questions and was able to provide the teacher with instant feedback while fueling collaborative learning and problem solving. The second class I observed used the iPad as a form of assessment having students take their science test directly on the iPad. Again, the teacher created a bank of questions that were randomly distributed to each student. After observing both classes, I was able to speak to both teachers and they informed me that they have yet to fully outline all the benefits and resources the iPad has to offer and that this was just the beginning. With this in mind, I think these teachers are beginning to make progressive steps towards technology usage in the classroom. Nonetheless, I still wanted to see more use out of the iPad not just through assessments. For example, all the iPads had a periodic table app but upon opening the app all that was displayed was the periodic table of the elements. It looked identical to the one pinned on the wall. This made me think. The iPad is an interactive interface that teaches through interaction and games. Why can't I combine elements to see what happens? Why can't I watch a video where I witness how these two elements would or could be combined? Why can't I interact with the periodic table of elements? These were the questions that continued through my mind as the teachers spoke. Yet again, I realize that this is just the tip of technological iceberg but I am just too anxious to see what will come next and wanted to see more. I look forward to the future of technology integration in the classroom.