iDo or iDon't ‐ Using Tablets in the Classroom - Course Technology Computing Conference Presenter: Lucy Parker, California State University, Northridge myCSUNtablet Initiative is a partnership of California State University, Northridge and Apple, Inc. that seeks to reduce the cost and increase the quality of learning materials for students. Participating students will use iPads and gain immediate access to e-books and related e-learning materials in a suite of courses in select majors. Participating faculty will receive an iPad and help from professional course designers who understand the relation among effective teaching, creative use of authoring tools, and accessible design. Why CSUN? The academic plans and IT Vision@2015 have anticipated a widening deployment of portable devices and cloud technology for teaching and learning. Faculty already are using such strategies to engage students with different styles and paces for learning. CSUN students are urban commuters, tech-savvy, and on tight budgets. Portability, cost control, and media-enriched content that can be personalized are their common expectations. Why Apple? Many companies make tablets; several produce and solicit applications but few have thought as holistically as Apple. They are sensitive to users’ preferences and have created a system that integrates devices, applications, authoring tools, repositories, and consultation. We at CSUN can benefit from progressive, coherent thinking as we re-think course design and delivery. Why now? At CSUN, the largest college has issued iPads to the faculty, as have departments in other colleges. The device has become the industry standard in nearby K-12 and helping professions, with whom we place interns and graduates. And the governor signaled in the budget an interest in supporting technological solutions for persistent problems in access, cost, and completion in higher education. Finally, the surge in hybrid courses and e-books that our faculty author indicates that CSUN has reached a tipping point for strategic change. An iPad-centric curriculum also offers some exciting possibilities to transform information delivery as well as student participation. Like all pedagogy, it can be a positive and even progressive form of education. Or not, depending on how the actual curriculum is designed and implemented. Professors need to change their archaic views on attention spans and realize that students and society in general are integrating the digital world into the real world. For better or worse, it’s inevitable and professors need to play along. This lecture will discuss TOP (10-20) iPad uses in the classrooms but also discusses concerns on standards of teaching and learning and if low-cost faculty-generated etextbooks are a real match to top quality publisher generated traditional books/ebooks.

1. iDo or iDon’t - myCSUNtablet Initiative
Lucy Parker
COMP 100 Lecturer/Coordinator
Lucy@csun.edu

2. Overview
• Process
• Goals
• Programs
• Apps
• Accessibility
• Progress to date
• Technology challenges and resulting actions
• Assessment
• Faculty and student data
• Conclusion & Next Steps

3. Why CSUN?
• Anticipating a widening deployment of portable devices and
Cloud Technology
• Faculty already using strategies to engage students
• Students are urban commuters, tech-savvy, on tight
budgets, expecting:
– Low Cost
– Portability
– Personalized Media-enriched Content

4. Why Apple? Why Tablet?
Few have thought as
holistically as Apple
Integrates
devices, Apps, Accessi
bility, Authoring
tools, Repositories, Co
nsultation
Convenient
ALWAYS ON Access
Anytime -Anywhere
Multi-Functional

5. Celebrities

6. iPad user Profile
iPad owners are six times more likely to be
wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-
achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic
30-50 year olds!

7. Why now?
• Largest colleges issued iPads to the faculty
• iPad is industry standard in nearby K-12
• Governor signaled in the budget an interest in
technological solutions for access, cost problems
• Surge in hybrid courses and e-books that faculty author
• CSUN has reached a tipping point for strategic change

8. 1.Reduce COSTS for students
2.Enhance LEARNING experience
3.Greater student ENGAGEMENT
4.Increase quality of TEACHING materials
Goals

9. Process
• Meeting at Apple in December 2012
• Faculty retreat January 2013, led to faculty
volunteers
• Focus on three semester sequence launched Fall
2013
• Offer iPad and non-iPad sections

10. Programs
• 7 Majors
Biology
Journalism
Liberal Studies
Health Sciences
Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP)
Kinesiology
Engineering & Computer Science
In Fall 2014
Psychology
Special Education

11. Stats Overview70 faculty volunteered
44 Faculty in F2013 + S2014
Fall 2013 = 1,121 students
Spring 2014 enrollment = 1700
60 Advisors
got iPads for mobility and
convenience
Professional development
workshops
30 iPads for the Matador
Achievement Center (MAC)
distance tutoring/mentoring

12. Getting Started
• Purchase iPads
• mini or Retina, 32GB, iOS6
• Encouraged to purchase at Bookstore
– Option A: Full payment
– Option B: 2-3 semester installment plan
• No Rent – Yes Loan
• Free AppleCare for first 500 students
• Eligible for Financial Aid coverage

13. Logistics to Support Students
• IT Help Center
 Learning Commons
 Call X 1400
 Chat
• Online guides and tutorials

14. Information on the Web •Getting the Word Out

15. Schedule of Classes
- iPad and non-iPad options

16. Faculty Support

17. Intensive Workshop Lineup

18. Faculty Kickoff

19. Moodle for myCSUNtablet

20. Accessibility
• ADA accessibility core to
initiative
• iPad makes testing for
accessibility relatively
easy
• All apps tested for
accessibility
• App liaisons identified
for each program

21. 6 Steps

22. Changes to the Technology Infrastructure
• Classroom Readiness
• Untethered Teaching
– H/W - Clearpass
– S/W - Aruba Airgroup and AirServer
– Preventing excess load “chatter” on the network
which would compromise performance
• myCSUNbox

23. Core Apps

24. Other Apps
• Adobe
• Blackboard Collaborator
• Calculator Pro
• Dictionary.com
• Dragon Dictation
• DropBox
• EasyBib
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Explain Everything
• Free Books
• Flipboard
• iBooks
• Keynote
• Numbers
• Pages
• Scan
• Skype
• Bloomberg
• Frankenstein:Biblion
• Garbology
• GoodReader
• Idea Sketch
• Kindle
• Mendeley
• NeuNotes
• NeuDraw
• Wikipanion
• World’s Fair: Biblion
Funded by Campus Quality Fee

25. Tools for the Collaborative Classroom
Nearpod
Learning Catalytics
Socrative

26. eTexts
• Can be Adopted, assembled or created
• 19 Faculty - converting print text into digital format
• 7 Faculty - creating eTexts from scratch
• Electronic versions are lower cost from publishers
• Creations are free or low cost
• Interactive, modular, multimedia

27. eTexts
• Three Tools used :
–iBooks Author
–Softchalk
–PDFs
• FTC work with Library to help faculty with
Copyright issues
• Some profs wish to make their work public for no
charge

28. Distribution of Apps
In Spring 2014, CSUN plans to test the newly
released Apple program whereby Apps can
be purchased by departments and
“loaned”, making it possible to take
advantage of volume purchasing.

29. Classroom & Technology Issues
Problems accessing the
wireless network
myCSUNbox
Integration
Learning how to teach
untethered
Learning Examsoft
paperless testing
Learning & using the
collaborative Apps
• Nearpod
• Socrative
• Learning Catalytics
combination of
pushing materials out
to students and
collecting student
responses via wi-fi

30. Assessment: The Four Plans
Direct Impact
on student
learning
outcomes
Indirect
impact on
student &
faculty
attitudes &
behaviors
Indirect
impact on
pedagogy
Ethnographic
analysis of
classroom
practices

31. Direct Assessment:
Impact on student learning outcomes
Conducted by identifying “Signature Assignments”
Assignments carefully designed to identify the unique contribution of
iPads to student learning outcomes
Three courses were studied
Two in Biology and One in Journalism
•BIOL 106 - 97 students
•BIOL 106 - 112 students

32. Biology 106

33. Biology 107

34. The Journalism Experience

35. Mobile Reporting
How important is it for a
journalist to know how to
use a tablet as a reporting
tool?
1 = Not important 5 = Very important

36. Mobile Video

37. There’s An App for That
App Category Examples
Collaborative newsroom Google Drive, Box
Audio and note taking WavePad, AudioNote,
Notability, Soundcloud
Social media Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, Storify
Writing and story ideas Pages, Inspiration Lite
Video/photo Snapseed, iMovie, YouTube
Capture, Video Transfer
Plus, UStream, flickr

38. Journalism
TRADITIONAL
Students study examples of good
and bad paragraphs, then practice
writing and turn them in
iPad
Faculty used Nearpod App to push
out exemplary paragraphs;
students were then asked to
practice writing and editing
paragraphs on their iPads
Results:
Inconsistent and Insignificant
The quality of writing did not improve
systematically!
The Instructor noted a benefit of being
able to commandeer student’s attention

39. Indirect Assessment:
Faculty and Student Surveys
221 Students (25%) - 15 Professors (50%)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Bookstore Outside CSUN Already Own Borrowed
Obtaining iPads

40. Use of iPads
Accessing the internet 94%
Take a quiz 92%
Visit a course in Moodle 90%
Use apps 84%
Process email 76%
Take pictures 76%
Take notes 75%
Take an exam 75%
Annotate slides 68%
Read an eText 66%
Watch a video 62%
Draw pictures 60%

41. Student attitudes towards iPads:
Instructor relied enough on the iPad in teaching the course to
make it worthwhile
75%
Apps Cost reasonable 75%
Happy with the way iPads were used in the course 61%
iPads should be adopted in teaching more broadly at CSUN 60%
iPad Help me save money in the long run 51%

42. Specific benefits of iPads
Use less paper 85%
Access course material more effectively 78%
Study “on the go” more 72%
Engage more with course material 65%
Learn the material better 63%
Improve my grades 58%

43. Variation by Instructors:
Instructors who used the iPad
extensively and for a variety of activities
received significantly
higher evaluations
from students than those
who used iPads for
one or two activities

44. Conclusions
&
Next Steps

45. iPads can increase student engagement
120 students responding to poll question

46. Studying Digitally

47. Paperless Exams
iPads have the potential to improve the quality
of teaching

48. Personalized Learning in the Classroom
Real-time understanding

49. Marking Up Slides
with Explain Everything
iPads can improve student scores through
active learning

50. Three devices per student

51. Achieving cost neutrality will be difficult

52. Next Steps
1. Faculty to design more signature assignments
2. Faculty discovery of existing digital materials via Open Education
Resources
3. Faculty-authored eTexts
4. Faculty to Increase professional development
5. Faculty be allowed time to Redesign their courses & be up to speed
quickly
6. Holistic adoption of tablets, consider going DEVICE NEUTRAL
7. Funding for significant wireless enhancements
8. Untethered solution to all myCSUNtablet classrooms

53. Elimination of
hardbound
books?
Evolution of
the online
world?
PUBLISHERS
ROLE?

54. iPads have the potential to improve learning in
certain but not all teaching situations.

55. Questions