pdf of slideshow I presented at the ECIS leadership Conference in seville, Spain on April 25 2014 titled "The iPad Effect: what the research is telling us".

1. The iPad Effect
What the research is telling us
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
This is a summary in PDF of the slideshow I presented at the ECIS Leadership Conference in
Seville, Spain in April 2014.

2. http://padlet.com/rgh1066/b0cy85odh0z2
©
Richard
Harrold
2014

3. Have iPads in your school
Have other tablets in your school
Have a 1:1 model somewhere in your school
Operate a take-home model
Show of Hands
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
I began by asking my audience to indicate what degree of iPads implementation was present
in the schools they represented.

4. ©
Richard
Harrold
2014
It was at the ECIS Leadership Conference in Malta in 2010 that Apple’s Vice President,
Education, John Couch demonstrated the iPad for the first time in Europe. He told us “We’ve
invented this thing. Now it’s up to you to tell us what it is”. He was only half-joking. The
iPad’s potential was unknown to educators at that time.

5. The iPad in Education
(2013-14 school year)
94% tablets US Education are iPad
80% Worldwide marketshare in Education
UK Education business doubled last year
iPads are in 47% of schools in the UK
Average install base of 50 units
Largest install base of 2,500 units
Four years on the situation has changed radically. These figures were shared at the Apple 1:1
Summit at ACS Hillingdon in England in November 2013. They point to a significant take up
of iPads in classrooms in the US and the UK. Other countries have reported similar growth.

6. ©
Richard
Harrold
2014
The cost of iPads and the associated needs of training, app purchases, licensing and
insurance etc. that accompany any decision to introduce iPads in a school obliges a school
leader to address a board or governing body’s request for a rationale with something more
coherent and better thought through than “Trust me, I know what I’m doing”...

7. How important is engagement?
Effective at what?
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
The heartening news is that some quality data is beginning to emerge that supports some of
the claims made for iPads. The connection schools are making between how students
acquire skills and knowledge in their recreational activities and how they engage with formal
academic learning is generating new approaches to pedagogy that are proving both engaging
and effective. Two questions that extend from this observation are How important is
engagement? and what exactly are these new pedagogies effective at producing?

8. Cedars School of Excellence
First School in the World to roll out 1:1 iPads
In exploring these questions it makes sense to look at schools with a longer track record of
using iPads in the classroom. One groundbreaking study by Marks et al. (2011), looked at
three categories of student engagement in Cedars School of Excellence in Scotland - the first
school in the world to introduce 1:1 iPads for all its students.

9. Essa Academy, Bolton
Technological Phoenix from
the Ashes of a Failing School
Another school, Essa Academy in northern England, reported some transformational results
following the school’s recasting as an academy with technology at its heart. The iPod Touch,
and later the iPad, were the main tools used to effect this transformation under the
leadership of headteacher Showk Badat (shown above)

10. Hurstpierpoint
College
1:1 Pioneer School
and home of the
“Digital Pencil Case”
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
At Hurstpierpoint College in southern England iPads are viewed as the “digital pencil case”
containing many of the tools students need and use to complete their school work. Vickie
Bacon’s leadership of this programme has resulted in some impressive improvements in both
student achievement and teacher pedagogy.

11. Longfield Academy, Dartford
Part of Leigh Academies Trust - a
group of linked schools sharing an
academic and vocational vision of the
future guided by mobile learning
Leaders at Longfield Academy in Kent, England have steered a large-scale adoption of iPads
in the past two years. Currently, Longfield hosts the largest 1:1 iPads initiative in the UK.

12. ACS Cobham
Action Research on iPads
within the Framework of the
Centre for Inspiring Minds
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
ACS Cobham International School was another early adopter of iPads, beginning our 1:1 roll-
out in January 2011. Unlike most schools covered here, ACS Cobham began issuing iPads to
first and second grade students - and then grew the programme along a “trickle up” model.
Currently, ACS Cobham has one of the largest 1:1 iPad programmes in Europe.

13. -­‐iPads
still
too
new
-­‐Measuring
the
wrong
constructs
What
are
the
dependent
variables
one
is
most
interested
in?
Student
engagement?
Marks
et
al.
(2011)
Affective
domain?
Harrold
(2012)
Academic
achievement?
Broadribb
(in
progress)
Special
areas
of
interest?
Bebell
et
al.
Pepperdine
University
(2012)
Open?
Burden
et
al.
(2012),
Alberta
Ministry
of
Education
(2011)
-­‐What
problems
do
iPads
solve
for
us?
ISP
Case
Study
Practical
management
of
ICT
classes
Instant
on
and
battery
life
Collaboration,
responsibility,
engagement
often
a
benevolent
by-­‐product
Problems Facing Researchers
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
iPads remain relatively new teaching and learning instruments, and the formal research body
has not had time to acquire many studies that draw data from mature school-based iPad
initiatives. Those few that have been published in peer-reviewed journals have often focused
on highly specific areas of the curriculum or have addressed highly specific constructs.

14. -­‐Philosophical
context
What
is
the
purpose
of
ICT
lessons?
What
is
the
homeroom
teachers’
role
in
such
lessons?
What
is
the
ICT
teacher’s
role?
What
expectations
should
administrators
articulate
in
terms
of
co-­‐planning,
co-­‐teaching
and
co-­‐evaluation?
Who
should
be
responsible
for
teaching
eSafety?
Problems Facing Researchers
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
There is also a confounding variable associated with research in school settings in the form
of the philosophical context framing ICT teaching. This has recently emerged as a major
theoretical discussion in the sociological and philosophical literature on human interaction
with technology.

15. Draper (2013) - Technology leadership
Cline (2013) - Technology leadership
Pye (2013) - School principals as enablers
Sincar (2013) - Technology leadership
Sublette (2013) - Developing teacher leadership
Foiles Kiel (2013) - Technology as change agent
Types of Studies
Technological change
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
The background to the study my two fellow researchers and I have been most recently
engaged in is informed by studies in technological change (here are listed merely a few
recent studies in this field)...

16. Murray (2010) - iPod Touch
Marks et al. (2011) iPads
Alberta Ministry of Education (2011) - iPads
Huber (2012) - iPads
Kearney et al. (2012) - Mobile learning
Burden et al. (2012) - iPads
DeMallie (2013) - Smartphones and tablets
Jefferies (2014) - iPads
Broadribb et al. (in progress) - iPads
Types of Studies
Mobile devices in the classroom
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
... and by studies of mobile devices in the classroom (of which a small sample is described
above). The latter set of studies has emerged as a specialised branch of education
technology, but it differs in some important ways from studies of older technologies such as
language labs, video, desktop computers and so forth.

17. Murray (2010) - iPod Touch
Marks et al. (2011) iPads
Alberta Ministry of Education (2011) - iPads
Huber (2012) - iPads
Kearney et al. (2012) - Mobile learning
Burden et al. (2012) - iPads
DeMallie (2013) - Smartphones and tablets
Jefferies (2014) - iPads
Broadribb et al. (in progress) - iPads
Types of Studies
Mobile devices in the classroom
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
Highlighted here in orange are five studies I thought worthy of further discussion in my
Seville presentation, but all are worth reading. Broadribb et al. is not yet complete. She and
her fellow researchers are examining the influence of iPads use on academic achievement - a
notoriously elusive and challenging association to prove.

18. a)
iPads
had
had
a
positive
effect
on
student
learning,
allowing
a
wider
range
of
classroom
activities
to
occur
than
had
previously
been
the
case.
b)
The
most
conspicuous
success
could
be
observed
in
schools
that
had
introduced
ownership
models
in
which
students
took
the
iPads
home
with
them
and
treated
them
as
personal
property,
rather
than
school
resources.
c)
A
key
Einding
was
that
teachers
learned
to
use
the
devices
not
through
the
introduction
of
formal
professional
development
workshops
but
experientially
and
through
collaboration
with
both
peers
and
students.
Types of Studies
Mobile devices in the classroom
Burden et al. (2012) - iPads
©
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
The conclusions of Burden et al. are worth reading. Burden’s team (from Hull University)
studied the use of iPads in eight primary schools in Scotland. They reached three major
conclusions as a result of their study which are summarised above.

19. Research Design
Qualitative Study
Exploratory Design
Theoretical framework
- human interaction with technology
- change leadership
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
My presentation in Seville included three video clips which I have omitted in this pdf representation of the
presentation. They showed interviews with school leaders and teachers who shared their impressions of using
iPads in the classroom. Their thoughts are not easily summarised here, but our published study will describe
aggregated findings informed by their contributions and those of other leaders and teachers in over a dozen
schools across Great Britain. This slide describes the research design of the study.

20. So, what is the research telling us?
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
After describing both my own research and research conducted jointly with my two fellow researchers,
Latifa Hassanali and Vickie Bacon, I presented at Seville some preliminary findings in the form of what
over three dozen school leaders who are experienced in using iPads in the classroom have described
as successful practice. These are summarised on the next nine slides.

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Richard
Harrold
2014

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Harrold
2014

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Harrold
2014

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Harrold
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Harrold
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Harrold
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Harrold
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Harrold
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Richard
Harrold
2014

30. I tried not to make assumptions about my audience’s familiarity with apps such as Nearpod, Edmodo, Socrative and Showbie
even though these (and a few others) are fast becoming the “must-have” tools for classroom teachers who use iPads regularly.
Here, real students’ names have been blanked out but this is an authentic page from Showbie on which the teacher can
communicate with students and through which students can interact with the class and one another - either in a flipped
classroom or a traditional setting and in either synchronous or asynchronous timeframes.

31. Edmodo is designed to resemble a popular social networking platform and which thereby
acquires a cool factor and an instant familiarity. It happens also to be a highly effective tool
and is rapidly acquiring an admiring following among teachers.

32. Socrative allows teachers to organise tasks and activities such as quizzes, polls and exercises
for completion inside or away from the class. The teacher sets up a virtual room and invites
the students to enter it and engage with the activities.

33. Nearpod is a classroom management tool that allows a high degree of functionality within the
iPad’s shared network. It is another example of how teachers are harnessing the interactive
nature of teaching with iPads.

34. ©
Richard
Harrold
2014
Padlet, iBrainstorm and other similar apps allow students (or, as in the case shown above,
teachers meeting for professional dialogue) to flick contributions across cyberspace to a
publicly viewable area (either projected on a screen or viewable on the web). This slide shows
padlet and the next slide shows iBrainstorm.

35. ©
Richard
Harrold
2014

36. The Future?
Coding and app development?
New directions for
content creation?
©
Richard
Harrold
2014
The future is, as always, hard to predict, but I offered thoughts on a few trends that look like having long term implications for
our consideration of using iPads. one is the ability to create code on iPads using apps such as Hopscotch. Other app developers
are surely set to follow - albeit Scratch remains a conspicuous absentee from the iPad-based coding party. The other is new
forums for content creation. Microsoft’s recent acceptance of the inevitable and licensing of its Office suite for iPad may be a
significant development in this regard - but there are some who say they have left it too late and the iPad community has
adapted to other tools.

37. ©
Richard
Harrold
2014
My own view is that iPads will prove to be an enduring legacy. I predict we will still be using tablet devices in the
classrooms of the twenty-first century’s third decade, and I see no reason to suppose that the tablet of choice will
not be the iPad. We must keep an eye on what the research continues to tell us, and I humbly submit that my own
study and the study I am conducting with Vickie and Latifa will be important contributions to that body of
research.

38. Thank You
Richard Harrold, ACS International Schools
rharrold@acs-schools.com
@RichardHarrold
Latifa Hassanali, Centre for Inspiring Minds
lhassanali@acs-schools.com
@Latifa1001
Vickie Bacon, Hurstpierpoint College
Vickie.Bacon@hppc.co.uk
@vickiebacondpc