Title:
A School System in Maine Gives iPads to
Kindergartners
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
Nine years ago, Maine became the first American
state to provide laptop computers to all seventh and
eighth graders in public schools. The northeastern
state has since expanded that program to about half
of its high schools. Now, one school system in Maine
has launched a project to provide tablet computers
-- the Apple iPad -- to all kindergarteners.Some
people have criticized the project as a waste of
money. But school officials expect it to increase
learning. Laurie Gerard teaches five- and
six-year-olds at Sherwood Heights Elementary School
in Auburn, Maine. Before the students collect their
iPad, they say a rhyme to remind them how to be
careful with it: "Fingers on the bottom, thumbs on
top, that way my iPad won't drop." Ms. Gerard plans
to use different applications to help her create a
learning plan for each student. The iPads have been
in her classroom since the school year began in
September. The principal of the school, Laura Shaw,
says the iPads quickly let children know if they
answer questions correctly. "When you have eighteen
kids in the classroom and you see ten kids, hands
raised up, the teacher does her best to get around.
But sometimes, with the iPads and certain apps, the
kids get immediate feedback."Almost three hundred
kindergarteners in Auburn are using iPads this year.
Project coordinator Mike Muir says he believes the
computers can help students improve in reading and
math. Less than two-thirds of the third graders in
the school system are at what are known as benchmark
levels. Mr. Muir says: "One of our literacy
interventionists was working with several of her
students, and, having a hard time with helping them
be successful, she finally pulled out her own
personal iPad and had them work on some apps for
letter recognition and letter formation, and they
met the benchmark very quickly."School districts in
other states including South Carolina, Tennessee and
Illinois are also using iPads. The project in Maine
costs two hundred thousand dollars. Most of that
money is from the state and the federal government.
Not everyone supports the project. Elliot Soloway is
a computer science professor at the University of
Michigan. "It's ridiculous!" he says, and not
because of the iPads but because of the amount of
money. Is the iPad an effective learning tool?
Educators in Maine plan to give a report at the end
of the school year. For VOA Special English, I'm
Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
