How effective are IPads in elementary schools?

How effective are using IPads or other types of tablets with elementary school classrooms? Do they distract the students at all or have you found that the students are learning better from the interaction?

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Permalink Reply by Mary Koch on November 11, 2012 at 9:48am

I don't actually know of any elementary schools that have iPads for their students. I do believe that if iPads were integrated into the elementary classrooms guidelines would need to be in place and rules would need to be enforced to prevent distractions.

When I was an aide years ago for a third grade class, I took a small group of students to work on an interactive computer learning program and the students enjoyed every minute. They were not distracted by the technology at all; though I only took groups of five students at a time so it was impossible for them to get off task. I feel students excel when technology is involved because its more visual, interactive, and enjoyable than putting pencil to paper.

I know my six year old niece loves her tablet. She plays educational games on it all the time. She was introduce to technology at the age of three, after three years of experience she knows how download apps, remove apps, change settings, and more. The students just need to be taught how to use the iPads then I feel they can be highly effective.