Freed-Hardeman University has launched an experimental iPad pilot program that will allow a handful of preselected instructors and their students to experience the iPad in the classroom environment and beyond. Students began using the iPads last week as part of a summer general chemistry class.
According to Freed-Hardeman’s Associate Vice President and Director of Instructional Technology, Mark Scott, the study will gauge whether or not the iPad will make a viable addition to the university’s iKnow Initiative that began in the fall of 2008. At the time, the iKnow Initiative was one of very few of its kind, and today, Freed-Hardeman is leading the pack again with 2010 iPad pilot.
“We are testing a couple of questions,” said FHU Instructional Technologist, A. B. White. “Will students prefer the iPad over other devices for performing certain tasks, and what new doors will the iPad open for education?”
Participating students and professors, while using the devices as if they were their own, will also take part in the research for pilot study. Jim Barr, an instructor of chemistry at Freed-Hardeman will test the iPad’s textbook, note-taking and communication capabilities this summer in his general chemistry class. He has already integrated use of the iPad in his classroom since its release to students less than a week ago.
Monte Tatom, Freed-Hardeman’s director of quality enhancement programs will be the lead researcher on the iPad pilot study. Using a series of surveys and focus groups, Dr. Tatom will compile, analyze and interpret information regarding the iPad’s success inside and outside the classroom.
Cliff Thompson, a participating theatre instructor, said, “I think what matters is to make sure that the iPad experience is different from the students’ MacBook or iPhone experience—or at least to ask the question, ‘Are they different.’ It will be interesting to see how their craft changes because they can look up something on the Internet right there with the iPad and then flip back to the instructions they were working from.”
By the end of the 2010-2011 school year, the baseline research involved with FHU’s iPad pilot study will have been used to inform the school’s decision about this potential touchscreen counterpart. Apple has sold over two million iPads since its release on April 3, 2010. Since that time, specialists in educational technology have been seriously considering the iPad’s role in higher education.