iPads in the Classroom: Which Comes First, the Horse or the Cart?

Abstract

The learning environment is becoming digitized with the use of smart phones, laptops, and tablets. This project deals with learning in a device driven environment. A learning community of Introduction to Psychology students was given iPads as part of a program through the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence. The students are traditional freshmen and every freshman had an opportunity to enroll in a learning community. The control group consisted of students with the same professor and curriculum, but was not given iPads. Having information be ubiquitous with the use of iPads and other tools, presents the opportunity for alternative ways of learning. We are examining whether using iPads will change student engagement. Successful projects in education that uses the phrase “engagement” are often implementations from cognition theories that predict how the brain works. We are investigating the adopting of new technologies. We are also looking at issues such as technology acceptance, technology value, actual use of technology. With everyone having access to the Internet, as well as each other during class, we are exploring ways that will allow the students to learn together. Collaboratively they should be stronger. One collaboration tool we are using is hashtags in twitter. The students can share if they find the topic interesting or confusing, and they can share something that is related to the topic on hand through a shared document. When students use the hashtags, they are collected into a RSS feed. The class will have a shared environment of the web, built by the students, focused on topics that the students find the most confusing or the most interesting. The experimental group (N=20) and the control group (N=30) have already been given the five pre-test surveys, which consisted of demographics, computer anxiety (Heinssen, Glass, and Knight, 2002), personality traits via the Big Five Inventory (Srivastava, 2011), engagement (some questions taken from Angst and Malinowski, 2010 & Chester and Hoover, 2010), and a survey on twitter use. The post-test will be administered in November. After the post-test we will compare the data to see whether the use of iPads effects engagement differently than a traditional semester in college. We are comparing the two classes on demographics and technology issues to determine whether the student perceptions of technology value, use, and acceptance change after having a semester with iPads. We are also comparing the two classes to see whether engagement changes and if the use of Twitter increases collaboration. Faculty Adviser: Chuck Robertson.