Seems like elementary school books and sheets would soon be extinct to give a way to tablets! And this is not a far-fetched technological prediction, rather an instance of current trend of teaching in elementary schools to promote further literacy. And you will believe when you will find Rhianah Laundry, a kindergartener of the Washburn Elementary School of Auburn at Maine, work on a borrowed Apple iPad tablet PC. Haven’t I told you so? The child was working on an Apple iPad 2 with a literacy instructor Mauri Dufour for pronouncing and writing alphabets. The child’s mother, Natasha Laundry was excited that the Auburn School Committee is giving kindergarteners tablet computers for facilitating the learning process. She advocates the use of Apple iPad 2 in elementary level education as these computers would aid teachers in attaining one to one with students. This means better teacher-student interaction and fewer teachers can attend to more students thus reducing the cost for the school committee to hire more teachers.
Though the school committee had a 5% hike and the cost raised to $200,000 for buying 285 units of Apple iPad 2 tablets, each Apple iPad 2 would do the work of four teachers. Thus, this will suffice one teacher for one computer. However, not all parents see getting iPad 2 to kindergartener positively. One of the parents, Nicole Fortin could not find anything prospective and call this ‘crazy’ as the “school system loses money every year to certain things. This is a lot to put in the hands of 5-year old”. Against all odds, the Holly Couturier, School Principal of Washburn Elementary of Maine has been very ecstatic about iPad 2s being used in elementary schools. He has been very optimistic about how kindergarten students are going to make gains in future as they have already made gains within a short period of time as compared to teaching kids using books and sheets.
Superintendent Tom Morril is enthusiastic about buying iPads through donations or grants and if that fails, then “will money in the budget be used.” The iPad 2 costs $479 each. There is another way of funding the purchase of Apple iPad 2 and that is forming an Auburn Educational Fund, a non-profit organization to support this educational initiative.
iPad 2 features are quite good enough. If the iPad 3 does not have that much difference with the iPad 2 then, you are wasting your time waiting for the iPad3. The A5 chip and the 10 hours battery life i guess is good engouh.
It’s all great for adults who have fihesnid their basic education, but I do not agree with? parents using technology like this to teach reading. Reading involves mentally translating symbols into images, ideas, and feelings, whereas technology like TV and computers do that for you (images/sounds), reducing your ability to do the reverse (images/feelings into words). Many kids can’t express themselves in correct- colorful ways,and must cultivate good reading habits before the excitement of iPad