4 Advantages of Using iPads

Mountain Ridge High School has been running for 23 years in Glendale, Arizona. In the 23 years, Mountain Ridge has been using iPads for the past 3 years. Since then, Mountain Ridge students have been using their school provided iPads for doing their homework, tests, and quizzes. There are a variety of opinions about whether doing everything online is a good idea. Over the years, technology has been taking a big role in our lives. Teenagers use technology to keep in contact with their friends, to play games, or to use social media. Daily technology use can be beneficial, but can it be beneficial in school?

Benefits of iPads at Ridge

1. Save Paper

If students use iPads, a lot of paper can be saved because in Mountain Ridge there are about 2300 students and each student would have had get a worksheet, or packet in many cases, for homework or the teachers would have to print a couple of pages of notes for each student to have. Teachers would also have to keep a couple of extra worksheets for students who would lose their papers. When using iPads, the students can print the pages they really need and do the rest of their work on the iPad. All their work would be stored in the iPad which would also prevent them from losing any paper work.

2. Faster Grading

Using the iPad can also be helpful to the teacher because certain apps grades any tests or homework the student does. This way, teachers do not have to spend a lot of time grading each student’s work. The student would also immediately know what grade they got on the assignment. Doing assignments online would also help the teacher know whether the student has plagiarized. There are many apps that can check if a student plagiarized from any site but if the assignment was on paper it would become a little harder to know if the student has cheated.

3. No More Heavy Backpacks

iPads also are beneficial to students because they don’t have to carry huge, heavy backpacks and instead just need to carry an iPad which has all their work stored in one place. This would be very convenient for the students because they would not have to carry backpacks stuffed with textbooks, binders, and folders to every class. Having heavy backpacks can also weigh down the student which would cause them to walk slower to class which may lead them to be late to class. Since they use iPads, all their work would be stored in one place.

4. Parents save money on school supplies

Since students have iPads, they would do most of their work on the iPad. Mountain Ridge students have apps downloaded on their iPad which can store papers, let them type notes, or let them draw with their finger. Since they have these apps, they don’t have to buy as many school supplies a student who doesn’t use iPads at his or her school has to. This saves the parent a lot of money too. An average parent can save about 100 dollars per year if their kid doesn’t have to buy any school supplies.

4 Disadvantages of Using iPads

Despite all the advantages using iPads has, it also has its disadvantages.

1. Technology Issues

Using the iPad can take some time to set up. In Mountain Ridge, they were having some problems with an app which caused many students to have their work turned in late. It took about two weeks to get everything settled. We wasted those two weeks in trying to get everything to work but if we were not using iPads it wouldn’t have been so difficult. For example, when using the iPad the assignment can accidentally get deleted and you will not be able to get it back or technology can be very slow and it can eat up your time when you are trying to get some assignment done.

2. Physically Challenging for the Student

Doing everything on the iPad can also be physically challenging to the students. They must be able to type for a long time which could really strain their fingers and they must stare at such a small screen for a long time which could affect their eyes. Studies show that people who look at an iPad screen for a long time can get dry eyes and irritation. They will have blurry eyes and will get a headache for looking at the screen for a long time.

3. Handwritten Notes are better

Studies also show that students tend to learn better when the write down the information rather than typing it. When teachers are giving lectures and a student is typing the notes, he or she will be able to type faster so they would bluntly type down what the teacher is saying. Though, when students must write down the information he or she would have to listen to what the teacher is saying and paraphrase what the teacher said because they would not be able to write everything said. Researchers found that students who write down the notes get better grades than students who type or even take pictures of the PowerPoint for the notes. Since students have the iPad available to them they would insist on typing the notes unless the teacher requires them to take handwritten notes.

4. Battery problem

If a student forgets to charge their iPad the night before, then he or she can’t work in school because all their work would be stored in the iPad. If the iPad runs out of battery then the student can get in trouble because they wouldn’t be able to do any work in class. The student may even miss a few important class assignments or any tests or quizzes. So it is important for the student to make sure their iPad has enough charge before they go to school. Without iPads, students never had the excuse of their iPad dying. They just borrowed a pencil or another piece of paper.

In conclusion, using the iPad in school instead of paper can have its own disadvantages or advantages as listed above. Here are what some students and teachers at Mountain Ridge High School think about using the iPads at the school.