1:1 iPad Adoption – Preparing Middle School Teachers to Teach Math
Timothy W. Pelton
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Victoria
Canada
tpelton@uvic.ca
Leslee Francis Pelton
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Victoria
Canada
lfrancis@uvic.ca
Abstract: Reflecting on a rapid transition to 1:1 iPad use in a teacher education program – from
the perspective of a math teacher-educator teaching a mathematics methods course to a middle
school cohort of pre-service teachers. This paper examines the experience had by one instructor
within a pilot program – prior to examining the program as part of a group/cohort evaluation. The
focus is on practical questions that arise in conversation and their answers from the perspective of
an individual instructor. What motivated the introduction of iPads? What were the goals and
expectations? What successes were observed and what challenges cropped up? What
recommendations might be made for the adoption of iPad like technologies in future mathematics
methods courses?
Introduction
As each new technology (e.g., books, slates, radio, film, comics, television, computers, etc.) has been
examined for its potential to support learning, the research findings have often been predictable (Cuban, 1986):
 Initial promise for a new technology is that it will provide better access to authentic content, more efficient
presentation, more engaging, more individualized learning, etc. (Goodwin, 2012)
 Initial studies demonstrate that generally the new technology is at least as effective as traditional methods.
 Educators complain about the impracticality of incorporating the technology, the limitations of material
presented and the curricular misalignment. (Potter & Rockinson-Szapkiw, 2012; Tondeur et al., 2012)
 The technologies introduced to the classroom are underused (Martinovic & Zhang, 2012).
However, there are successes – when technologies are at least moderately easy to master, and are easy to use and
effective, they can, and will, be adopted and used effectively (Dooley, 1999; Pelton & Pelton, 2008). The iPad (a
type of tablet computer) appears to have many desirable features to support our existing educational practice and
seems to be the most refined and practical for use in the classroom at the moment.
This paper examines the experiences of one instructor working within a pilot program to introduce 1:1 iPad
use in a teacher education program. This is an individual reflection prior to examining the program as part of a
group/cohort evaluation. The focus is on practical questions that might arise in conversation with colleagues along
with answers from the perspective of an individual instructor. The questions explored include:
 What motivated the introduction of iPads?
 What were the goals and expectations?
 What successes were observed and what challenges cropped up?
 What recommendations might be made for the adoption of iPad like technologies in future mathematics
methods courses?
What Motivated the Introduction of iPads?
On examining iPad technology, it appears that it has a good potential to be a useful tool in the classroom.
Specifically:
 The touch interface is appealing and intuitive, supporting student engagement and activity.
 The iOS operating system and apps running on it are low threshold and low friction - meaning that they are
easy for students and instructors to master and adopt (Pelton & Pelton, 2008) reducing the overhead costs
associated with introducing them.
 The iOS is sandboxed - meaning if some app failed, everything else still worked.
 iOS devices are ubiquitous - meaning that many instructors and students were already familiar with the tool
in other contexts.
 There are hundreds of thousands of apps available - meaning that there are plenty of potentially useful apps
spanning all instructional domains (i.e., even though only a very small percentage of the apps available for
download might be judged to be of educational value, a small percentage of a large number is still
worthwhile).
 Apps and course resources could be easily distributed via a website, blog, class Moodle or email (i.e., links
to apps on the iTunes store, links to course related content, documents with class notes, resource files for
classroom activities, links to exemplar artifacts, etc.).
 The costs associated with purchasing an iPad could be at least partially mitigated by adopting course texts
that were free or low cost.
In addition to the motivation to investigate the potential of 1:1 iPads because of their potential educational
utility, local schools appeared to be leapfrogging over the interactive whiteboard technology (SmartBoards) and
investing in class sets of iPads to support classroom learning. As instructors in a teacher education program, we
regularly look to the local educational system to see what is happening, and this move made a lot of sense.
Although SmartBoards were beginning to be adopted by some of the faculty for use in their courses, the uptake had
been slow because of the limited perceived potential (and limited positive research). If schools were transitioning to
iPads, we needed to begin preparing our students to use these tools when they were ready to teach.
Finally, when the dean of our faculty was approached, he too saw the potential value of this technology in
the classroom and recognized the need to adopt such tools in a timely fashion. To support a rapid introduction of
this technology, he suggested that we start with a single cohort, and offered to a) purchase a collection of iPads to
loan to individuals to ensure that everyone involved in the cohort could have access to one regardless of
circumstance and b) provide a partial subsidy to encourage instructors and students involved in the cohort purchase
their own iPad (note: this subsidy was very effective in supporting adoption – almost everyone involved appears to
have purchased an iPad)
What Were the Goals and Expectations?
In a recent meta-analysis of studies examining the integration of technology in teacher education many of
the issues that we were considering were well elaborated (Tondeur et al., 2012). We use them here to examine our
goals and expectations:
 Align theory and practice. Pre-service teachers were most engaged when they could see the connection
between the theory and tools they were being taught and the practical application. As instructors of
mathematics methods, we hoped that iPads would support greater integration of constructivist activities –
including: freedom to search for resources to support current discussions, explorations using teacher
created/selected interactive widgets to discover mathematical ideas, opportunities to examine apps that
might support consolidation and the creation of learning artifacts to expand and enhance understanding
through representation and communication and to motivate and excite through the sharing of their work
completed at a higher level of fit and finish.
 Teacher educators should be role models. Pre-service teachers need to experience the appropriate use of
technology in the classes they are attending in order to build their confidence in the utility of the technology
and to increase their potential and inclination to adopt or implement it their classrooms.
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Attitudes depend upon opportunities to reflect on and discuss the educational utility of the new
technologies. In order to fairly evaluate new technologies, pre-service teachers need to experience the
technology, discuss and reflect on their experiences and consider how to further integrate theory and
practice.
Learn technology by design. Although tools/technologies should not generally be the focus of the lessons,
we need to attend to how they might be used most effectively to support learning. Pre-service teachers
need some exposure to instructional design principles to guide this process.
Collaborate with peers. Encouraging pre-service teachers to work collaboratively in creating and
presenting resources, lessons and reflections, allows them to work through struggles, uncertainties, teaching
strategies and communication difficulties in a challenging but still relatively low stress environment.
Scaffolding authentic technology experiences. Real opportunities for pre-service teachers to plan and use
the tools appropriately to accomplish learning goals are essential to building confidence.
Systemic change. We need to immerse faculty and students in a new paradigm where the learning tools are
consistently available to support the learning process and integrated projects are the norm. When access is
limited to roll-in carts, the threshold and friction associated with using these resources is increased
substantially. We need to explore what we can do with the resources in the classroom, and what resources
we want to have in our classrooms.
Technology planning and leadership. Change should be a cooperative exercise that includes all
stakeholders. Having a shared vision is key. Again, we need to have discussions with our students in our
classes as to why we might want to adopt a new technology, how we might facilitate that adoption, and
how we can be leaders in our educational communities by developing expertise.
Faculty development. By their nature new technologies are new to those who are teaching them too.
Although as mathematics methods educators our first goal is to help lift our students to the point that they
are well prepared to begin on their journey of teaching mathematics, we are also chronic early adopters of
promising new technologies. We have already been involved in the creation of learning apps (Pelton &
Francis Pelton, 2010), and as such we were more than ready to explore the other potentials of this new
technology.
What Successes Were Observed and What Challenges Cropped Up?
In teaching a mathematics methods for middle school class, one of the authors adjusted his practice to
incorporate the use of iPads whenever possible. The goal was to provide multiple opportunities and situations for
students to see and use iPads in authentic ways to support the educational process. The hope was that by having the
opportunity to see successes and failures, that the students would become confident adopters of this technology
whenever the potential use seemed appropriate.
It was easy to switch over to a paperless classroom. In previous years, we have used paper notes and
handouts extensively, and have spent many hours photocopying and distributing these paper resources. With every
student owning an iPad, we simply use our class Moodle page to distribute electronic versions of these resources.
Most often these are used in electronic form to support classroom lessons and explorations – and as an extra benefit,
the electronic versions are not ‘used up’ meaning that the students are provided with these resources to use in future
classes. Students have ready access to all content online at home or in class, or indeed anywhere they might find
themselves – this constant availability can be transformative to their learning process. Only a very few students
printed out hard copies of some of the resources – resulting in a reduction in paper use and waste. Finally it should
be noted that because of the simplicity of providing access, and the zero cost, we chose to make and use many more
resources (e.g., Curriculum documents, exemplar lesson and unit plans, websites, etc. ) in class.
It took some time to adjust the quality and nature of our class notes. As previously we were copying and
distributing them, we kept them brief and dense to minimize the cost (time and resources). Indeed it wasn’t until we
started on the process of reflecting on the efficacy of using iPads in our course, that we recognized the anachronistic
nature of this practice and this prompted us to revise our authoring process for class notes in current classes. Now
we typically create 6-8 pages of class notes for each lesson.
The ready availability of a viewing device (the iPads) meant that we could assign exemplar videos for
students to review before class and expect a greater level of participation – again this was observed after completion
of the first course, and has changed our subsequent practice. In addition, the video viewing capability of the iPads
reduced the threshold and friction associated with viewing video content in class. Just as PVRs have changed our
home TV viewing experience, iPads are making it easier to avoid learned helplessness – it takes almost no effort to
stop and review or scrub through a video, there is no reduction in flow when we choose to back up and review (to
make sense of the content) as we are watching.
In class, when discussing some concept or process, we can present exemplars in a more natural context.
Typically lesson notes are opened in an app called iAnnotate – which allows us to highlight and annotate directly on
the resource. It is easy to pinch to zoom in on and focus on a particular element to minimize distractions associated
with unrelated content. Because they are in electronic format (i.e., not printed on a monochrome photocopier), the
representations can be made more colorful to further support communication. Students are also able to annotate
their copies of the resources – working out examples on their own, and then capturing examples of others.
The availability of a camera, allows the instructor and the students to share discoveries, processes, and
other observations with the class and as part of their assignments. In some classes, board activities were captured
with the camera for future reference. Using the iPad as a document camera reduces the number of devices that the
teacher must manage in the classroom, and encourages the teacher and the students to bring in visual exemplars
from outside the classroom. In one student led presentation – they challenged their peers to explore the classroom
and beyond to find examples of angles - increasing the authenticity of the lesson.
Although we were anticipating the use of wireless connections to the projector (using Airplay and an Apple
TV device – or laptop emulating such, and a local wireless intranet), we found that the process was cumbersome and
dropped it. We expect to reevaluate this as projectors and wireless systems are installed to support wireless sharing
of content from iOS and other devices. Using a cable to connect the iPad to the VGA cable available for laptops
seems to work well enough – although it occasionally limits our ability to take the iPad with us as we are working
around the classroom. In a related issue, this hard-wired solution limited the number of times that we invited our
students to share their own examples that they had created with the class.
It is much more natural to use a wide variation of resources in a lesson. The iOS system allows us to
quickly and naturally switch between applications (double tap on the home key or swipe up with 4 fingers) –
reducing the friction (and time) associated with resource changes.
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The apps (software) that we used were very robust and reliable. The most frequently used apps included:
iAnnotate
YouTube
Safari
Paper
Explain Everything
iBooks
Many concept specific exploration and consolidating apps (e.g. MathTappers: Find Sums, MathTappers
Estimate Fractions, etc.)
Among the apps we used, Explain Everything is perhaps the best example of a new process supporting
learning. This app supports the generation and manipulation of interactive activities, and the generation and
publishing of video content to share examples of mathematical concepts by both the teacher (as examples and
exemplars) and the students – (challenged to generate an example as a demonstration of their learning, or to generate
a learning resource). Apps like this support easy publishing of YouTube videos.
Challenges were less obvious. While the students seemed to master the iPad and related apps relatively
quickly, we believe that were not always efficient in presenting the best view of them – and this may have added
some stress to a course that is already stressful for many students. The difficulties observed arose primarily because
we were still discovering the capabilities, potential uses of the devices during our first term after adoption. In our
second term, we feel more prepared and even more enthusiastic.
Reflections and Recommendations
The reflections and recommendations contained in this paper are derived from our experience with a
mathematics methods course, but we believe that they are applicable to most other domains of study.
Without extensive practical experience in using appropriate technological resources it is difficult for
teachers to integrate them into their lessons. Although our pre-service teachers are digital natives and have extensive
experiences using technologies outside of the classroom, they have had few experiences with regards to the effective
use of ICT generally or iPads specifically to support learning in the classroom. To be effective, our teacher
education program must attend to the new possibilities associated with these new technologies. We must assess and
evaluate their potentials and then adopt appropriate technologies in a seamless fashion.
Occasional assignments that might use technology, trips to an ICT lab or occasional visits of a mobile cart
will not adequately prepare our students to be teachers in the 21st century. Our students need to see the potentials and
benefits of appropriate technology integration within the context of content and pedagogy classes in order for their
schemata with respect to technology integration in the classroom (and beyond) to evolve.
Conclusions
We chose to jump into this pilot process with both feet – to meet the impending demand for teachers who
are prepared to make use of 1:1 iPads in our schools. This rapid prototype approach to this transition is supported
by our previous experience in the exploration, practice and evaluation of previous educational technologies. Our
initial observations and reflections are almost all positive and encouraging, with practical implications for further
adoption of 1:1 iPad programs in mathematics methods specifically and teacher education generally.
We plan to work with the other instructors in the cohort to formally evaluate the efficacy of introducing 1:1
iPads in our teacher education program. Specifically, we plan to use a mixed method approach – collecting
instructor reflections, attitude and self-efficacy surveys, along with observational, interview and focus group data.
Because this pilot project was undertaken in a very accelerated fashion, we intend to review our initial questions and
supplement them with additional research questions and data collection/analysis plans as the team identifies
additional emerging issues.
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