Five Ways the iPad Will Improve Teaching

By Steve Goldenberg (Interfolio) – Apr 22, 2010

As an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business and the CEO of Interfolio, I know that there’s nothing worse than teaching a class or presenting an initiative than looking out to see not one set of eyes looking back at you; everyone is staring blankly at their laptop screen. As if this wasn't annoying enough, Apple recently introduced a new product that is destined to end up in the hands of many students: the iPad.

If you're afraid that this new product is going to make a bad situation even worse, I'd like to offer some comfort. I believe it will be a boon to student learning and engagement and it will even help us all teach better. Here are five ways that the iPad is going to improve teaching:

It's active, not passive. Unlike a laptop, where you passively scroll through content, the iPad forces you into an active modality that feels much more engaging. For example, when browsing a web page, most people scroll with a mouse wheel to move down the page – a simple, single-finger movement. With the iPad, you "pinch", "flick", and "tap" your way to consume the information and connect more interactively with the content. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

It's a lot like paper. The new technology of the iPad was designed with an old technology in mind; paper. The screen has a ratio of 4:3, almost exactly like regular paper (US Letter size, anyway). This means that the content looks very much like it's on the printed page.

It's full of sensors. The iPad is filled with wonderful electronic sensors that will power some fascinating learning tools as developers build them. The tilt sensor would let a student "pour" chemicals in a chemistry class, for example. Some developes re-created Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland for the iPad in a way that truly underlines the value of the device for younger learners as well. It really is breathtaking and this video shows why.

It's single minded. On the iPad, any application you run takes over the full screen. So, when you launch your note-taking app for class it's the ONLY thing you see. It improves focus and makes it more difficult for our easily-distractable students and employees to browse away to Facebook.

The angle is better. Because of its design, the best way to use an iPad is flat on a table or tilted up at a slight angle, similarly to how you might prop up a book. This eliminates the physical and visual barrier that most laptops create between the students and teacher.

So, once your classroom or conference room is full of iPads, you will have a new challenge to overcome – eyes staring blankly at you instead of at the screen. Regardless of what we manage to come up with, I believe the iPad will provide an exciting new way to learn.