Since the iPad Summit last fall in Boston, I’ve been working on this concept of iPads And… vs iPads Or… It just feels like there’s this concept struggle between: should it be a paper book or an iBook, a paper drawing or a digital one, blocks or iPad? Well, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it should just be BOTH.
A few years ago, I wrote Go Buy Your Kid Some Blocks! It seemed as though even parents were forcing technology onto young children. So while A Platform for Good had agreed to publish iPads And… Combining the Physical and Digital in Elementary Classrooms originally on July 18th, I asked if they could bump up the date in response to Friday’s post on The Globe and Mail: Toddlers with tablets will force a change in education.
Frankly, it isn’t iPad (or blocks) that revolutionizes teaching and learning. It’s the experience. Tablets should force a change in education. The printing press did….
On a semi-related note, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading Grant Lichtman’s The Falconer before the end of summer. It has provided great clarity for me in thinking about these things.