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Students using iPads as glorified textbooks in class

technologyEdward Kiledjian
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The iPad has captured most of the Canadian education market (some have pegged it's market share at 90%). The Canadian Research Chain in Technologies in Education recently undertook an interesting study of 6000 iPad totting Quebec students.

The study found that for every 60 minute chunk of class, 88.5% of students used their device for at least 30minutes. What did they do you ask? Most used them as expected to read textbooks or take notes. It was surprising to see that students typically used these devices as teaching support aids (exactly as the educators intended)and not entertainment devices. While in class, they did not browse social media sites or consume multimedia content.

Outside of class, it seems over 75% of the devices use was for social media, multimedia content consumption and general amusement. 

I guess we'll have to wait and see if educational think tanks will be able to create unique educational strategies for these new classroom aids.

The iPad in education report (link)