Published: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 9:30 AM
By Monica Scott
www.mlive.com/news
ZEELAND, MI – While issuing 1,800 iPads to students at Zeeland East and West eliminated the classic excuse that the dog ate my homework, some students faced some new challenges.
Having a 9.7-inch touchscreen makes the device susceptible to damage when dropped. The school district began the year offering two options: $53 insurance plan to cover damage or charging $250 for repairs.
Approximately 40 percent purchased insurance. But instead of the agreed on damage fee, the district decided to work with a local company and charge students the amount of the repair. A cracked screen was most common, which cost $140.
While staff predicted 10 to 15 percent of the iPads would need repairs, approximately 15 to 25 percent of the tablet computers were damaged. The total number of students that had to pay for repairs and amount wasn't available yet.
Austin Bollinger was a graduate who was unhappy with a $140 bill. He thought the district should have invested in a more durable device such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and had a more reasonable fee structure.
Bollinger, who started an online petition to get rid of the iPads at the school, said the district didn’t have a good educational plan in place for utilizing the iPads.
“I didn’t feel as challenged as I should have been,” said Bollinger. “My intention was to get the attention of school leaders, so they would stop the expansion and make improvements.”
While teachers and administrators admit they are growing with the new technology, they think a solid curriculum was in place that challenged students overall. Other students also said they felt they were being pushed academically and creatively. Administrators say improvements are ongoing with the iPad project, including the planned addition of a technology coach for teachers.
While the iPad's apps, web browser and video camera has multiple uses in the classroom, there have been some students who caused distractions including using the iPads to play games and social networking such as Facebook.
“We really need to help kids learn how to use technology appropriately and know when to use it ... That’s one of our focuses next school year. Digital citizenship is more than just etiquette.”
"It can be a distraction and it needs to be closely monitored," said junior Sharayah Macombe, who said trying to get to the next level of a game wasn't the intended purpose of iPads in the classroom.
Rather than lock down all the iPads, Stephen Braunius, Zeeland’s director of technology, said restrictions were put on iPads after students were caught misusing the devices in the classroom. He said parents were also able to restrict use.
“We really need to help kids learn how to use technology appropriately and know when to use it,” said Braunius about the district's plans to be more intentional in that area. “That’s one of our focuses next school year. Digital citizenship is more than just etiquette.”
Assisting in ensuring the iPads are being used appropriately will be one of the jobs of the new technology coach.
In addition to the teaching and learning, these are some other issues school districts looking at becoming digital have to plan for. Zeeland didn't have another district to look to that was implementing technology on the same scale.
“An initiative of this scale and scope is intense,” said Braunius, who said schools across the country and internationally have contacted the school about the changeover. “This is an opportunity for us to learn and share with other districts. We’ve been listening to students, parents and staff this entire year and making changes.”
One of the first things the district changed was that the timeline for expansion because it felt too fast and they wanted to make sure they were learning as they moved forward. Initially, middle school students were going to receive iPads during the past school year. Another 1,300 iPads are now scheduled to be used this fall in the middle school and 10 elementary classrooms in grades three through five.
Braunius said the district will also do a better job of engaging elementary and middle school parents about the technology and what to expect.
Bruce Umpstead, director of the state office of Education Technology and Data Coordination, said schools in the state are "all over the map' regarding the adoption and integration technology for students. He said Zeeland gets high marks for making the investment in a two-year-old technology to put in the hands of every child.
“The technology decision shouldn’t be based on price but meaningful, instructional use,” said Umpstead, who said it is often the case. “Teachers need to be given support on how to use and integrate it into the curriculum. They have to be comfortable with the technology.'
He said the research jury is still out on whether the technology being introduced in schools across the country is impacting achievement.
Zeeland is analyzing students Measures of Academic Progress test scores from last winter to this spring to get a sense of the iPads impact.
“It’s a two-step process. Scores don’t go up because students are given iPads, netbooks and laptops. But excite them, engage them and test scores will improve,”
Umpstead said. “That happens when students start associating learning with being interesting and cool.
Email: mscott2@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/GRPScotty.com