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Auburn Schools, Pioneers in Use of iPads for Youngest Students, Switch Back to Laptops

It’s been more than a dozen years since the state launched the Maine Learning Technology Initiative — a program to put a laptop in the hands of every 7th and 8th grader across the state. The program has since expanded to high schoolers. And in 2013, it moved beyond laptops to touch-screen iPads. But now, some school districts say the iPad approach has led to software glitches, frustrated teachers and distracted students. As a result, some schools are switching back to laptops.

Six years ago, the Auburn School Department was the first in the country to hand out iPads to all of its kindergarteners. Then for the next three years, it kept handing out iPads — to first, second and third graders, too.

“And we had a lot of success with that. We really saw some gains, some real benefits to a device that doesn’t have a mouse and a keyboard, says Peter Robinson, the Auburn School Department’s technology director.

He says there were boosts in literacy and word recognition. And the district was so pleased, that it decided to get rid of MacBooks and instead provide iPads to every middle and high-schooler. It was done through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, or MLTI, which pays for tablets and laptops for entire grades for only a few hundred dollars each. Two hundred other schools followed suit.

“We came at that thinking wow, we had this spectacularly successful experience in K through 3” he says. “And it really just seems to work really well. And we firmly believed three years that it was absolutely the right choice and it would provide the tools students needed at any level to be successful.”

But Robinson says very quickly the school realized the switch may have been a mistake. Complaints poured in from students and teachers. The on-screen keyboard was frustrating, they said. Science teachers couldn’t use certain electronic probes and instruments. And worst of all, Robinson says, both students and teachers found iPads distracting. He heard it in complaint after complaint.

“iPads are a distraction,” he says. “I only use my iPad for gaming. iPads suck, was one comment from a student, very clearly, obviously not wanting to continue on with iPads. I mean there was one student who said, It seems to me it’s pretty obvious that we should go to laptops. Don’t mess it up, was the comment.”

So last week that’s what they did: got rid of iPads for middle and high-school students and turned back to MacBooks for the next school year. Normally, this wouldn’t be an option. Schools sign multi-year contracts with the state for these devices. But earlier this year, the MLTI launched a “refresh” program to allow districts to trade in their old Apple devices for new and updated ones.

“We underestimated how big a shift it is for teachers to go from laptops to iPads,” says Mike Muir, director of the MLTI.

He says the state didn’t realize just how difficult the transition to iPads would be for teachers without prior training.

“The responsibility is that if we were tuned into that more, we would have approached the professional development differently,” he says.

However, teacher training has only been one problem with iPads. Another continuing issue is software — specifically the software to run standardized tests. Jeremy Bousquet, the principal of Penquis Valley Schools in Milo, says his district and many others struggled with tests that weren’t designed for touch-screen devices.

“I think really showed in our test scores,” Bousquet says. “Because with kids, especially with technology, they expect it to work all the time. And when it doesn’t, their threshold for adversity isn’t the greatest.”

Muir says the Department of Education is trying to be stricter with the companies creating these assessments, telling them they must deliver reliable, working software. But even with these challenges, Muir says many schools are flourishing with iPads. Shawn Carlson, the assistant superintendent of the Rocky Channels School System, says he’s seen students easily create movies and slideshows on iPads. And as for distractions, he says the device shouldn’t be blamed.

“Whether you have a laptop or an iPad, the opportunity to game, the opportunity to chat, the opportunity to be on social networks, they’re equivalent,” he says. “So the issue there I think is less the device, and more, how are we going to structure the instruction to minimize the opportunity? Or engage kids a little better?”

These are questions that schools across Maine are still figuring out. But Muir with the state Department of Education says the new devices and updated software should lead to better answers — and better learning — in the next few years.