Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Five Year-olds Get iPads: Hurrah? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Five Year-olds Get iPads: Hurrah? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Five Year-olds Get iPads: Hurrah?

The image of kindergartners touching iPad screens for letters of the alphabet makes concrete the promise of five year-olds reading soon. Another technological miracle.

“It’s a revolution in education,” says Auburn, Maine superintendent Tom Morrill. Auburn schools, he predicts, can reach its goal of 90 percent of third grade students meeting the state standard in reading by 2013–”and this is the tool to do it.”

Watch the five year-olds with iPads and listen to the superintendent and kindergarten teacher talk about the “phenomenal” device that is “truly redefining how we’re going to teach and learn.”

That a Maine district with 3600 students (less than 300 in kindergarten) could capture national attention (on April