I’ve had a wonderful time learning with my iPad. Now that I can easily blog from it I might just return to the glory days of blogging once a week.

Blogging began as an educational experiment. I like to try all the tools and techniques I think will help students learn. The iPad began in a similar way and now I wonder how I could possibly get by without it.

At school I have a small but dedicated team of students committed to the ‘IPad Challenge’, another experiment to challenge students’ personal learning skills. As part of the challenge they must recommend the best apps for learning. The usual suspects have emerged: iMovie, Pages, Keynote and Numbers. However, I’ve also been impressed with the discernment shown by students in their search for cheap or free high quality apps such as Evernote, GoDocs, Geared, istudiez and dropbox. For most these represent true value.

The best part of our ‘iPad Challenge’is that the technology has opened learning doors and become the start of something quite exciting in these students lives…they have taken control of their learning.

Since the challenge started they have asked permission to start a radio station and a newspaper and happily volunteered to mentor younger students.
It seems the most powerful aspect of the iPad as a learning tool is the starting point it provides, and where it positions learners to begin their learning journey. That is one very powerful gadget!