Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3009969/classroom-ipad-use-how-it-helps-students-results-and-how-schools
Lifestyle/ Gadgets

Classroom iPad use: how it helps students’ results, and how schools cap screen time to avoid internet addiction

  • Teachers share their experiences of using iPads to help pupils learn, and of how to avoid children having excessive screen time, in part by involving parents
  • Children are spending more time on electronic devices, a recent Hong Kong government survey found
Teacher and students from Baptist (Sha Tin Wai) Lui Ming Choi Primary School at the Apple Education Summit. Photo: Michelle Wong

On a recent weekday afternoon, a Primary Six student in a Hong Kong school gave a crisp and confident presentation on a robot that could double up as a smoke detector. With the help of an iPad, she explained the creative process that went into her invention that could sense any object that comes within its vicinity before setting off an alarm with flashing red lights.

Welcome to the Apple Education Summit. Her school is one of a few in Hong Kong that have enrolled in the global “1:1 iPad” programme that gives students their own digital tablet solely for the purpose of learning. It also helps raise awareness among parents that their children might be spending too much time staring at screens.

Helen Kelly, the principal of Canadian International School, which began bringing the iPad into classrooms in 2009, says it is always challenging to bring parents on board, as many work with computers themselves and are mindful about their children’s screen time.

The time that pupils spend on electronic devices is on the rise in the city. A report by the Department of Health that surveyed 1,300 preschool children, primary school pupils and their parents in 2017 showed that 13.1 per cent of primary school pupils spent more than three hours a day surfing the internet – five times more than in 2014’, when the proportion who did so was 2.6 per cent.

Children are spending more time on the internet than ever. Photo: Jonathan Wong
Children are spending more time on the internet than ever. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Some 32 per cent of the children believed they slept less because of the internet, 39 per cent said the habit had affected their academic performance, and 51 per cent said there were more family quarrels as a result.

Leaders of the largest technology companies in the world have been limiting their own children’s use of certain technologies at a young age.

A Primary Six student from Baptist (Sha Tin Wai) Lui Ming Choi Primary School with her robot at the Apple Education Summit. Photo: Michelle Wong
A Primary Six student from Baptist (Sha Tin Wai) Lui Ming Choi Primary School with her robot at the Apple Education Summit. Photo: Michelle Wong

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in 2007 he did not allow his kids to get a mobile phone until they turned 14, and former Apple chief executive Steve Jobs told The New York Times in 2010 that he banned his kids from the newly released iPad and limited how much technology they used at home.

But today Apple is trying to convince schools that, if used properly, iPad can be beneficial to children’s learning. The recent two-day summit in Hong Kong brought together educators around Asia to share success stories about using iPads in schools.

Apple says handing out tablet computers will not solve all the problems in education, but that, at the same time, it is not the source of all educational ills either.

Helen Kelly is the principal of Canadian International School, where students started using iPads in school in 2009
Helen Kelly is the principal of Canadian International School, where students started using iPads in school in 2009

The company also provides support to teachers on integrating technology in education in a smart way and according to schools’ needs.

Kelly says parenting issues are at the root of digital addiction among youngsters.

An iPad is a powerful tool. But without a good teacher, an iPad is just an iPad Sylvia Chan

“In school, a child in grade one would only be on the iPad for maximum one hour per day, whereas they might go home, and because their parents want a quiet life, they may let their kids sit in front of the iPad all evening,” she says.

“It’s about students too. What we want is for them to be making the right decision, because when they become [older], teenagers, and adults, there won’t be someone telling them what to do. They need to know for themselves how much screen time is right and too much.”

Sylvia Chan, the principal of Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School, says teachers are the key to the successful integration of technology in schools. Photo: Michelle Wong
Sylvia Chan, the principal of Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School, says teachers are the key to the successful integration of technology in schools. Photo: Michelle Wong

Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School has been using iPads in English, maths, IT and science lessons since 2016.

School principal Sylvia Chan agrees about the importance of educating parents and students to use the iPad correctly. Her school, for instance, remotely locks students’ devices at night and requires students who appear too keen on using the device to leave theirs behind at school after class.

Chan recalls how a shy and quiet student who refused to speak in front of their class had made an impressive presentation through video and voice recording.

Teachers in her school have found students who use iPads in class achieve better results. Chan emphasises that such success depends on how skilfully teachers use technology in class.

“An iPad is a powerful tool. But without a good teacher, an iPad is just an iPad,” she says.