University Business - January 2011 - (Page 50)

Take II Tablets command-line capabilities that can be tweaked and modified to your liking. The iPad’s closed environment device doesn’t invite tinkering. It uses a flash drive, rather than a conventional hard drive; combined with new, lighter battery technology, that brings the weight down to about 1.5 pounds. A touch-screen interface eliminates the need for a stylus, and if you need a keyboard, a near full-sized virtual keyboard appears at the touch of an icon. And at just a half-inch At Seton Hill, virtually all students and faculty were issued iPads. Michael Arnzen, associate thick, it is easy to carry anywhere. professor of English, has his graduate students using their devices in the study of fiction writing. “Our office of information technology surveys students regularly and has found that while 90 percent of students own laptops, they don’t often bring Gawelek says. “Students coming in now have learned in a signifithem to class,” says Ernst. “They generally don’t want to lug them cantly different way than students did a generation earlier. What we around. The iPads seem to fit a whole different niche. There are can attribute that to most is the availability of immediate informahuge advantages in weight, ease of use, and instant access. Just push tion and connectivity. They are used to texting each other and having access to information on the internet with such ease. What the the home button and it’s instantly on.” Here’s one more thing to consider: In that 2003 story, one in- iPad—and other devices, like smartphones—allows you to do is to dustry analyst offered a market prediction. Tablets will struggle in garner the capabilities those devices provide to be useful in education the market, he said, selling perhaps as few as 1.9 million units over rather than being a distraction. This represents a paradigm shift in the next few years. By contrast, the iPad, with a starting price of terms of how we pedagogically approach things in the classroom.” Mary Spataro, director of the Center for Innovative Teaching at $499, has already sold an estimated 8.25 million units, according Seton Hill, says mobile devices like the iPad may help redefine how to Fortune magazine. So now, in 2011, we ask the question again: Are tablets the future of higher education? Portable Potential ‘The iPad is really a different device from anything that has come along before.’ Seton Hill and the U of M are just two among a num—David Ernst, University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development ber of institutions taking a close look at the iPad’s potential in the classroom. Add to the list Reed College (Ore.), the University of Maryland, Duke University (N.C.), North teaching and learning happen in coming years. “A big challenge is not to focus so much on the technology, but to focus on how you Carolina State, and, most recently, Buena Vista University (Iowa). Buena Vista has committed to an iPad pilot program to begin can use it to enhance the classroom experience,” she says. “If it’s a tool this spring. “We feel at this time the iPad represents a shift in tech- that can help us encourage interactive engagement and activities with nology and information delivery which we cannot ignore,” says our students, then that’s all the better for us.” At the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Matt Morton, director of information services. An ongoing program at Seton Hill has nearly all students and Development, another research project has the school providing faculty members using the devices. In August 2010, the school is- iPads for the entire freshman class. The cost of less than $216,000 is sued 1,870 iPads to students, faculty, and adjuncts as part of its being funded entirely by private donations and will have no bearing Griffin Technology Advantage program (named for the school’s on tuition, according to the university. “We handed out the iPads during the fall semester,” says Ernst. mascot, and not related to the company that, coincidentally, makes “We now have a faculty learning community dedicated to finding iPad accessories). “We were very lucky,” says Mary Ann Gawelek, provost and dean ways to integrate these into the curriculum.” The plethora of cheap of faculty. “We were in the middle of a big federal grant project that applications or “apps” that are available for the devices are finding allowed us to send all our faculty to a year-long training program their way into the classroom. “There are lots of things to play with to figure out how to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance the learning ex- and see what works. The students are discovering appropriate apps perience. Later, we made the decision to distribute both iPads and and alerting their professors. We’ve also had a number of faculty that MacBooks to students, and that has allowed us to really think about use apps that work as student response systems,” he adds. “Our writing instructors have figured out how to use applications how we do high touch with students in the classroom.” Higher education faces a challenge it has never had before, on the iPad that increase creativity and critical thinking,” Gawelek 48 | January 2011 universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - January 2011

University Business - January 2011
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Guide to Financial Services
Human Resources
Community Colleges
Take Ii Tablets
Pilots Taking Off
Today’s Admission Office Budget
What’s New
End Note

University Business - January 2011