Carrie Thornthwaite - Not a Toy, but a Tool: An Educators Guide for Understanding and Using iPads

Further Praise for Not a Toy, but a Tool

Note at Toy, but a Tool provides educators with a wide variety of available resources to enhance their classroom instruction when using iPads. Carrie Thornthwaite has broken the book into sections that help teachers easily access apps that are appropriate and specific to their instructional needs. As a reading specialist, I am always looking for high-quality apps that can be used to help students reach their highest reading potential. The organization of the book allows me to easily find the apps that I need for my students. The research that has already been done by the author will help me manage my time when using iPads in the classroom. Ive been using iPads for a couple years, but now, with this information, I can integrate iPads more effectively into my classroom instruction.

Laurie Love , reading specialist at Columbia Academy, Columbia, TN

As a high school history teacher, I find this an extremely valuable book. As a geography and history teacher, I particularly liked the apps in chapter 5. Some of the apps provide primary sources, which is important in implementing Common Core. The other apps have given me innumerable ideas for lessons that I can use in my classes. I highly recommend this book for use by any classroom teacher.

Amanda Elmore , Hendersonville High School, Sumner County, TN

Talk about iPads, this book itself is a learning tool that can be accessed by students, parents, and teachers alike. Students can be encouraged to reinforce their classroom learning simply by using the apps that are discussed here. Teachers will be released from hours of searching for appropriate learning tools to enrich or remediate their lessons. Parents will be able to choose apps that correlate with their childs academic curriculum. Students will gladly reinforce their studies because using the iPad does not seem like work. As a former teacher and a current mentor of novice and pre-service teachers, I applaud Dr. Thornthwaites research.

Bonnie S. Barker , M.Ed., Tennessee Academic Specialist, adjunct professor and former high school mathematics and English teacher

Thornthwaite is obviously very educated and knowledgeable about iPads. As a kindergarten teacher, I found many of the apps in the elementary sections to be very helpful. I downloaded some and my kids love them. I have been using iPads in my classroom daily to assist me with enforcing and mastering skills that we are learning every day. It is great to have this book as a resource for broadening the activities that Ive been using. The apps allow me to adapt my instruction to the many different learning needs of my students. With the help of this book, I have been able to teach and reach students that otherwise were having difficulty grasping and understanding new skills. With many of the apps, Ive been able to break the skills down in a fun game type way of learning.

Shelley Hatfield Cash , kindergarten teacher, Robbins Elementary School, Scott County, Robbins, TN

Not a Toy, but a Tool

Not a Toy, but a Tool

An Educators Guide for Understanding and Using iPads

Carrie Thornthwaite

Rowman & Littlefield

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Published by Rowman & Littlefield

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom

Copyright 2014 by Carrie Thornthwaite

All rights reserved . No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thornthwaite, Carrie.

Not a toy, but a tool : an educators guide for understanding and using iPads / Carrie Thornthwaite.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4758-0939-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4758-0940-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4758-0941-1 (electronic : alk. paper) 1. Computer-assisted instruction. 2. iPad (Computer) 3. Tablet computers. I. Title.

LB1028.5.T515 2014

371.33'4dc23

2013046509

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Preface

iPads are powerful tools for engaging students, encouraging creativity, stimulating critical thinking, and making significant strides in learning. I have come to that conclusion after three years of working with iPads in a variety of academic settings. Yet research shows that even among educators, there exists a misunderstanding about the potential that iPads can offer, especially for teaching and learning. For example, in my travels, I visited one school where the teachers informed me that three carts of iPads were available for their use. One person at the school had been designated as the caretaker of those iPads, so I asked if I could talk with her.

When I met the caretaker, I introduced myself and then asked her what apps the teachers were using. I was stunned when she answered, None. Immediately, I asked, Why? Her reply came quickly, They cost too much. Of course, I assured her that there are vast numbers of free apps. She then replied, You dont understand. Our students want Microsoft Word and it doesnt have that.

When I tried to explain that iPads were designed to function entirely differently from computers, she interrupted, I know. Thats why our students dont like them. Another teacher at the school told me that students use the iPads only to look up stuff on the Internet. I left their school that day unconvinced that the students did not like iPads. The problem was that the woman who took care of the iPads viewed them as merely highly ineffective computers. Some educators retain a total lack of understanding about the incredible potential of this device. How tragic!

This book and a companion book have been written so that principals, media specialists, teachers, and parents can understand the tremendous value provided by iPads in the field of education. The information in both books covers all subject areas and grade levels in order to share the reasons for my convictions and to recommend a large collection of apps that are perfect for enhancing teaching and learning in todays classrooms. This book also addresses the issue of what exactly an iPad is. In addition, both books provide information for users of other tablets. That is explained further in the introduction of this book.

My passion for the effectiveness of iPads comes after thirty years of serving the profession as an educator. I have been teaching at the university level for sixteen years, and, previously, I taught physics and mathematics at the high school level. The situation today of some educators resisting the use of iPads reminds me of the skepticism that many teachers held, a few decades back, concerning the use of the Internet.

Back in 1991, I was the first teacher at the urban high school where I taught to have Internet access through a phone line to one of my classroom computers. After lunch, I remember hearing a rare sound of the students running down the hall to try to be the first to reach my classroom. The students ran to get there in order to read the responses sent from students in other schools from around the world about the quality of water in their various areas.