Tag Archives: iPad

Growing Technology at the Middle School by Kaynaz S.

Technology is growing at the Middle School. Students, and teachers, are using iPads. A lot of people like the idea of using technology to learn or create. Some people disagree, because they think it’s a distraction and causes students not to learn as much. The iPads are very productive for many things, like, homework, reading, dictionary, blogging, reminders, the internet, google (and other google apps), plus for keeping track of what the homework is by looking at their shared notebooks in Evernote.

On the other hand, some people think that the iPads are a distraction in class. With iPads the students might lose focus and disrupt the learning of other students as well as their own. Kids might be tempted to email their friends during class or go on Skitch to draw something and miss the opportunity to learn new things by listening to their teacher. I believe that this does expand the learning of students. Lastly, if students have the privilege to use this kind of technology, such as the iPad, they must be careful what they do, so they don’t disrupt the learning of the class and other students.

Although some people may not feel that this has changed the learning of students, I feel that these iPads have been very useful in the learning of DA Middle School students.

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Talking About Using iPads in the Middle School by Elliot E.

The Useful iPad.

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     This year (2012-2013) my school Durham Academy Middle School gave every 5th-8th grader an iPad. Over the past five weeks we have been using them in all of our classes like LA, History, Math, Spanish/French, PE, Science, and even our Fine Arts (Movement, Band, Chorus, Art, Tech, and Drama)! I love having the iPad for writing my homework down using an called ‘Reminders’. I like how it lets me set a time and a sound will go off telling me I have to get that subject done. We use Evernote in some of our classes. Evernote makes staying organized a lot easier. The only thing I don’t like is that in some classes we still have binders. I wish that we wouldn’t have to use binders and that everything would be digital. Thanks for reading my blog!

 

iPads at School by Matthew H-M

The Best Thing Ever, The iPad

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     I love the iPad and it is a great new way to help us learn. Some people dislike it because of the responsibility of keeping up with such an expensive machine and sometimes it’s distracting, but personally, I disagree. I don’t think the machine is distracting if you use it correctly and you close it when you’re not using it. Some reasons that I like it are that I’ve never been this organized before, and unlike some of classmates, I really like Evernote and how it works. I also think that more of the teachers should use it. For instance, Sr. Glass and Mrs. Williams use it all the time and I barely need my binder. But, I think some of my teachers should use it a lot more. In some classes we only use it to write down our homework with the iPad and then we never take it out again. In those classes, we have a ton of worksheets and class work that we could be using our iPads for, but instead we are still using paper. I understand how the math teachers don’t use it that much because we have to write down our computations. Hopefully, we will find some great Math apps though! All in all, I love the iPad and I think we should use it a lot more.

 

iPads: A Tool or A Distraction by Joseph W.

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At times, iPads can be useful, but they can also be a distraction. Here at Durham Academy Middle School, all of the students received iPads we can use for educational purposes and fun purposes. Using the iPad to write our homework down, finish worksheets, et cetera can be useful but who says the kids are following what their teachers say? Going from class to class, I will often see how kids use the iPad as a distraction. Sometimes, I see kids play PocketDrums with their iPads muted. Other times I will see them surfing the web for new shoes that almost every kid in school has.

Some teachers let the kids do whatever they want on the iPad, almost not noticing that the kids are doing stuff they shouldn’t be. There is one technique one of my teachers uses to show her students they should not be on the iPad at certain times. If that teacher notices that a kid is on an iPad when she is teaching, she makes them flip their iPad around so it is facing her so she can see what they were doing. Then she takes away their iPad if their screen shows an activity that is not school related.

From my experience, I like using the iPad much better then using a pencil and a sheet of paper. It helps me to stay organized and it saves all of the things I want it to save. No longer are loose sheets of papers jammed between two binders in my locker. They are in Evernote in a nice folder organized by date. I appreciate that Durham Academy Middle School put the effort into buying about 363 iPads this year. For me, the iPad is a educational tool, not a distraction.

iPads in Class by Sarah K.

 

 

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I think having available for each student iPads is a great learning experience. They have helped me a lot. It’s helpful for keeping track of homework, getting handouts, online textbooks, etc. It reminds me to do my homework and I can take notes on it. It keeps me so much more organized. It saves paper too, although sometimes paper might be more effective. Some teachers use the iPads a lot and some almost never use them, but we all manage to find a way the iPads can help us in class. For example, in language arts, we use the iPads to do almost everything, including writing stories, reading books, and completing handouts. In Science we use it to take pictures of circuits and light bulbs. The iPads are very useful but sometimes they can be distracting too. When you are trying to pay attention in class and an email pops up, you are very tempted to check it. Overall, the iPad is a very helpful learning device and I’m getting a lot of work done with it.

How the iPad has changed my life by Henry R.

 

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During the 2012- 2013 school year, Durham Academy bought an iPad for every student in attendance at the Middle school. In fact I am writing this blog entry on my iPad write now. The iPad opens a new world for learning. Now we store most of our homework and class work on our iPad. We also write down our homework and take notes on the iPad. The iPad also keeps me more organized and is easier to keep up with, rather than to always have to keep up with binders and spiral notebooks. The iPad makes binders and spirals look like old ways to lose stuff. The iPad does need to be charged and you can break it easily if you don’t keep it in a secure cover. The iPads do have a short battery and some apps have a glitch that when you use them they suddenly close. These problems can fixed. But if you take care of it and keep up with your iPad, it’s a great device to learn with. The iPad has changed my life a lot, and it has turned out to be great!

iPads the good and the bad

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At Durham Academy Middle School, each student has an iPad. Many of the kids have mixed reactions like, “Finally, I get a iPad,” or “I don’t really want one.” At first my reaction was “This is bad. This is very bad. I break a lot of my things and computers and electronics are no exception.” So I was worried that I was going to break this delicate machine. This would go in the group of another thing I broke. But I’m here to tell you that after 7 weeks of school, I have not broken my iPad. I love the iPad. Some people complain about games and how they wish they could download non-school related apps, but me, I’m just happy that mine is still working. I hope that I can continue to keep it working so I won’t have to buy a new one. The people in charge thought to put these very protective cases on them called Otter Boxes. Evidently you can drop them on cement with these covers on them and they won’t break. These iPads are a good way to learn. Having an iPad as a tool helps me and a lot of other people do better in school. I can keep everything in one place instead of in ten different places! I hope we can continue to use them at school and hopefully one day, they will let us download games.

 

IPads, helpful tools? Or distracting technology? by Spencer S.



 


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At my school in North Carolina we have gotten the privilege of getting iPads for each of the students. I say they are helpful tools that expand the ability to learn, but some people think differently. People say that instead of the iPads helping us, they distract some students while trying to learn. I admit that they can be distracting, but that is a small price to pay. With the iPads, we have been able to manage our school work in a digital environment, which is great because students don’t have to carry around as many of those big text books and binders. We also get to use all kinds of educational apps that are not only fun but teach us something too.

iPads can be a nuisance though, so students have to be responsible to make sure that no one steals their iPad. Also, these are expensive pieces of technology! If one was to break or be misplaced, a new one could cost up to $600.

So teachers who are reading this,consider the iPads, not as a distracting piece of metal, but as a tool that expands the ability to learn. Thanks to iPads we have learned more efficiently.


 











Changing the Way We Learn by Madison K.
 




 


iPads have changed the way we learned. They have made our backpacks much lighter. Personally the iPads have kept me more organized. The iPad also helps with spelling errors and I can even direct the iPad to read to me! It is still a pain to have to carry all the binders and text books. They should start putting all are text books on the iPad. In some cases they iPads are annoying like when it deletes your homework by accident and you have start all over. That has happened to me before. If the point of getting the iPad is to use it, we should use them all the time not half of the time. Some teachers use them and others do not. One frustrating part of the iPad is that is is not flash based so you can’t access many things on the iPad. It’s a learning proses for every one. I think for every individual student it’s a personal choice if they like the iPad or not. Its your choice!




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What I think about iPads
 




1. HOW I USED THE IPAD FOR LEARNING.

I used my iPad for most of my homework and it was a lot easier to keep track of one iPad than seven different binders. I think I had better grades in the classes that I could use my iPad in than in classes that I couldn’t.2. WHAT I WOULD WANT MY TEACHERS TO KNOW ABOUT STUDENTS USING AN IPAD.


I think students are going to be careful with iPads and not losing them because they know that iPads cost a lot of money… a lot more than papers and pencils. I don’t think that teachers should control what goes on our iPads, I think we should be able to download the things we want to and just not be able to play with them at school. It makes iPads more useful when you have what you want on them. During the pilot program it was really annoying that I couldn’t put what I wanted on it. I also think that we should get our own iPads and not just ‘rent’ them from DA.