An iPad In (Almost) Every Classroom

“What can an iPad do for my classroom and students?”

In the past three months, approximately 9,300 Teach for America corps members have claimed a free, refurbished, first-generation iPad for use in their classroom in an attempt to answer that question. The donations come courtesy of a recent partnership between Apple and Teach for America, which has provided nearly all of TFA’s current corps members with iPads.

This partnership makes the technology and educational applications on the iPad available to current Teach for America corps members and the nearly 600,000 low-incomes students they serve. How teachers use these iPads is entirely up to them, as Apple relinquishes all control when participants in the program leave the store with their iPad in hand; as far as Apple and anyone else is concerned, the iPad belongs to the individual, not the school or the organization. The iPad makes over 1,000 free educational apps and an additional 4,000 paid apps available to teachers and their students, including interactive children’s books, textbooks, math flashcards, science videos, and many more.

There are some potential drawbacks to this unique and charitable donation program. The iPad has the potential to create a rift between Teach for America corps members and the other teachers they work with in schools, who often work in under-funded classrooms with a shortage of necessary resources. As already mentioned, it’s much too early to see the impact this technology will make on student achievement. While access to computers and the internet has done a lot for learning in the past decade, such as dramatically expanding the idea of student-led research, there are still many classrooms and entire schools that don’t benefit daily from the introduction of computers into the classroom setting. While its range of educational application does give the iPad a more targeted use than a general classroom computer, its novelty works against it, as classroom teachers must discover for themselves the iPad’s classroom function, all while continuing their normal routine of full-time planning and teaching.

Apple has not been forthcoming about its decision to partner with Teach for America, but it’s worth noting that Laurene Powell, the late Steve Jobs’s wife, is a member of Teach for America’s Board of Directors. The donation program also softens Apple’s corporate image, and Apple’s partnership with Teach for America gives the company an in with a rapidly expanding cause, its supporters, and its thousands of alumni. TFA has over 33,000 alumni, including doctors, lawyers, teachers, principals, founders of charter school networks, leaders in education reform, and many other fields.

Despite the potential flaws and the uncertain motivations behind Apple’s recent move to partner with Teach for America, I know many teachers who are thrilled to have an iPad made available for use in their classroom (and, quite honestly, in their personal lives as well). Many teachers have already begun using educational apps in their classrooms to help struggling students and have helped their fellow corps members do the same.

In theory, Apple can continue this program indefinitely; the iPads come from Apple customers donating their old iPads when they purchase a new iPad 2. Like any plan, Apple’s donation program just needs a little more thought and purposefulness behind it, which I’m sure they can work out in time.

In coming weeks, I’ll post a review of some of the educational apps available for the iPad and what I think of the tablet’s general usefulness in teaching, so check back if that interests you. If you are interested in donating your iPad to Teach for America, donation information can be found on Apple’s website.