“Pupils have become highly motivated, teachers are invigorated, and parents are impressed by their children’s new enthusiasm for studying. Hand held learning is here to stay at St Aidan’s.”

Principal Peter Creedon, St Aidan’s Primary School

St Aidan’s primary school: children take control of learning

St Aidan’s 7 to 11 year olds use iPod touch or iPad with every subject in their Irish primary curriculum. The children choose and find the resources they need, and share their learning with classmates. Teachers report that pupils are retaining much more information since the devices were introduced into the classroom. Motivation and behaviour is transformed.

iPod touch and iPad play a big part in ensuring differentiated student education – critical for a school situated in an area of high unemployment, with a wide range of learning abilities present in the classroom. The iPad is a particularly valuable aid for children with special needs, and is used in the school for children with General Learning Difficulties, Autism, Speech and Language Disorder, and Specific Learning Difficulties.

“We’ve seen hugely impressive results with the iPod and iPad,” says St Aidan’s Principal, Peter Creedon. “Personal control over learning is at the root. The children learn more thoroughly if they have ownership of what they are doing, and they remember what they’ve learned – the whole purpose of education.

“Some of the most exciting work now is with the iPad. Its bigger screen size gives us great flexibility to use compelling educational apps for children with different kinds of special needs. We’re collaborating with the University College Dublin to research in detail how the iPad helps our children with reading and speaking difficulties.

“Using iPod and iPad is not a one-off project for us,” he stresses. “Pupils have become highly motivated, teachers are invigorated, and parents are impressed by their children’s new enthusiasm for learning. Hand held learning is here to stay at St Aidan’s.”

Stunning impact

St Aidan’s is in Enniscorthy, in Ireland’s rural County Wexford. It is co-educational and has 870 students The school is organised with integrated all-ability lessons. Children assessed with special needs and specific learning difficulties also learn in separate groups.

Peter Creedon is a self-confessed technology enthusiast, but admits he found hand held learning a difficult concept to grasp at first. When he was invited to see how children in Burnt Oak Junior National School in England were using iPod touch, he returned to St Aidan’s “more than impressed”.

With local funding, the school bought 50 iPod touch devices for two classes of 11 year olds, to pilot over a four-month period. The two class teachers were not expert in ICT, so the test was meaningful for every teacher in the school.

One of the two teachers in the pilot was Sarah Maher, who says she was stunned by the iPod’s impact in her class.

“The iPod transformed the attitudes and behaviour of the children straight away,” she explains. “Part of it was because it was cool to use, of course, but that doesn’t explain how it changed the children’s whole approach to learning, and the way they were completely absorbed in the lessons. It was clear that the iPod represented something just for them to use and to make decisions about, not something the teacher was trying to control.”

Student led learning

This boost to student led learning was a major reason why Peter viewed the pilot as a success. “We wanted to get away from the ‘sage on the stage’ approach to teaching,” he says. “Suddenly we had a powerful way for teachers to become facilitators, and make the learning relationship truly collaborative.”

“That is something we’ve never found with other forms of technology. With interactive white boards for example – great resources though they are – the technology is still in the teacher’s hands and the children are onlookers. The iPod touch has changed the dynamics of the classroom.”

St Aidan’s secured funding for 250 more iPod touch devices, and made them available to all classes with children over the age of seven.

Children share the iPod between their year classes. Teachers find them fast and easy to manage because there is no set-up involved. St Aidan’s uses Ireland’s national school network, so internet security is guaranteed. Children are not allowed to take the iPod home, mainly because recharging would be needed every day on return, affecting each class’s ease of access.

At the start of every lesson, teacher and children discuss how they are going to approach the subject at hand. They decide in groups the kind of enquiries they want to pursue, but each child is then responsible for his or her own research on the iPod. They use Safari to access the Internet, and an ever-growing set of education apps to support every curriculum subject – including Art, English, Geography, Maths, and Science.

Products they use

iPod touch

This pocket computer is great for learning both inside and outside the classroom. Learn more about iPod touch

iPad

This is a whole new kind of device, and it’s poised to change the learning landscape. Learn more about iPad

Apps they use

St Aidan’s uses a broad and growing range of apps for every subject. Teachers suggest new apps to each other and children are encouraged to review them.