Introducing iPads into Senior Secondary School Teaching Teachers' Use of iPads as Tools in Teaching

摘要

Contemporary education is changing with portable devices coming to schools. The borders between formal and informal learning are diminishing. The use of tablet-computers in teaching provides teachers and students with tools that can facilitate teaching and learning in and out of formal learning environments. Our paper is based on a pilot study launched in a teacher training school at senior secondary level where a group of teachers were given iPads to introduce in their teaching. This study reports the findings on how the teachers utilized the iPads as tools during their first year of use. We aimed to find out how the teachers were using the iPads and which apps and network (learning) environments they used in their teaching. The data collection was based on: 1) informal discussions with the teachers, 2) teachers' reflection tasks, and 3) interviews. The first step was used as a foundation for the second step, which was used as a foundation for the third. The data described in this paper are based on the interviews and their analyses.