Tuesday 8 March 2011

iPad Apps for Mathematics

The Victorian education department has commenced a trial of iPads in the classroom. As part of this, they have created a list of recommended iPad apps for Mathematics. http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au/education-apps/5-mathematics.

There has been much argument that iPads are not useful in education and that their only benefit if to replace a stack of books, but that this is not a worthy goal. If the only thing that they did was replace all textbooks with PDF versions in iBooks, I think this would be a fantastic outcome for children's backs (given the weight of their schoolbags).

Apple is currently pursuing the education market with their iPads and have made reference to it at their recent iPad 2 launch.

Implications for Teaching

Unless the whole class is using iPads, it can be difficult to see their application. However, Students can be recommended to use specific apps at home on their iPad (if they own one). Alternatively, apps like WolframAlpha are also available on the internet.

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