10 Reasons Why 1:1 Advances Learning

Recently I got an email from my elementary division head. Our school is piloting a 1:1 netbook program this year, and our administration is interested in how the program is going and the different ways the netbooks are being incorporated into our curriculum. I started putting together a list, and even surprised myself at how much the availability of wifi-ready technology engages my students and supports instruction during the course of a regular school day.

1. Keyboarding – Each morning students grab a netbook and practice keyboarding skills. With daily practice, they are improving quickly. Reluctant writers are frequently students who just despise the physical act of writing. They write as little as possible, because they don’t want to have to actually “write” it. Once they can type, they are much more willing to craft longer pieces. Programs like BBC’sDance Mat Typing make it fun to develop keyboard skills.

2. Internet Research – Because it is so convenient to “look it up” online (and fun, too), students will quickly offer to look up the answer to a question using the kid-friendly search engines we have identified and bookmarked on our class Diigo page. Research is also fun when you are trying to solve a mystery! My fourth graders look up clues given by classes in other schools who join us forMystery Skype calls and try to figure out where their new friends are from!

3. Global Awareness – Why use a paper map when you can use Google Earth? We’ve used animated models to help us learn about the earth’s rotation, revolution, and the changing of the seasons. We were also able to easily see the earth’s hemispheres and find locations on earth by latitude and longitude.

4. Extra practice – Proofreading or practicing multiplication facts is dull and boring on worksheets. But when students can practice using interactive games, I’m finding that they spend much more time and effort to get the answers right.

5. Blogging – When a piece of writing is going to be turned in for only the teacher to see, a student is more likely to put forth minimal effort. But tell that student that their piece will have a world-wide audience, and they begin to imagine who might read their post, and what they might ask about it. Soon they’re writing with their audience in mind, and use their author’s voice to ask questions and encourage reader comments. As a result (and with a little help from their teacher’s twitter network), they get a variety of feedback and encouragement from all over the world. It’s quite the motivator!

6. Digital Storytelling – Using sites like Storybird, Storyjumper, Zooburst and Little Bird Tales, storytelling comes to life. Would you rather write a story on notebook paper, or create your own pop-up book or self-drawn and narrated tale?

7. Collaborative Learning – Group work just got fun. With collaborative documents like wikis and Google docs, students can be part of something bigger. They can merge individual work into a comprehensive piece, or collaborate to create a presentation or write a story.

8. Connected Learning – Through the Global Read Aloud Project, we’ve enjoyed a shared literature experience with over 3,000 other students across the globe using Edmodo. Students were attentive and engaged, knowing that they would be able to use their netbooks to get on the group Edmodo page and respond to questions, take polls, and make predictions about the story.

9. Eager Readers – With the netbooks available anytime, students can grab one as soon as they finish a book and take an Accelerated Reader quiz. Knowing that they are required to take a quiz, they read more carefully. Most of them are excited to push themselves to higher-level books and see measurable progress in their reading/comprehension ability.

10. Passion-Based Learning – Above all, the convenience of 1:1 netbooks provide students with the opportunity to learn about anything! By allowing time for students to construct their own learning, we teach them that they have the freedom and the power to learn about whatever interests them. This encourages our students to pursue their passions, and become life-long learners.

Count me a believer. Our 1:1 netbooks are providing a great return on investment. Technology isn’t everything – but when it is easily accessed and used to support learning, it motivates students and encourages collaboration, innovation, and creativity. I applaud our administration for taking this initiative, and look forward to many more days of learning ahead.

Photo: Patti Grayson

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/CWHcE

E-learning 'to help tackle drug use in 2012 Olympics'

Bringing thousands of people from all over the world to England's capital city, the London 2012 Olympic Games will become a learning archive through online resources.

E-learning modules for the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been announced which will provide packages educating users on the benefits of sport and fitness, PJ Online reports.

In collaboration with the Games, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) Clinical Pharmacy Services Group has implemented the use of a new revolutionary system which will help those operating on site and allow them to get information on the go.

The three polyclinic pharmacies at the athlete villages in Stratford, Eton Dorney and Weymouth are designed and well under construction. Furthermore, the package entitled 'The use of drugs in sport: a healthcare professional's perspective', are fully completed and ready for use as all pharmacy policies and procedures have been written.

According to the latest update for Pharmacy London 2012, David Mottram, who is involved in encouraging people to use the virtual learning materials, summarised the development of the e-learning package on fitness and lifestyle.

The package comprises three programmes including doping and anti-doping in sport, pharmacy services and support in sport and fitness, and medical services at international sporting events.

Aimed at the pharmacists operating as part of the Games, Mr Mottram suggested that the package is important to make sure they are fully aware of the issues surrounding drug and supplement use in sport and how to implement cautions and disciplinary action if incidents regarding misuse arise.

The pharmacists also have a role to advise members of the public who participate in sports and exercise about the risks of performance-enhancing drugs.

Online learning resources could help to raise awareness in conjunction with the experts.

Categories of drugs banned from sporting events such as the Olympics include anabolic steroids, peptide hormones, strong analgesic painkillers, stimulants and duiretics which can all have performance-enhancing effects which are deemed as cheating.

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/D7uep

U.S. Government Opens A Learning Registry That Lists Online Education Resources

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="238" caption="via Flickr under The Library of Congress"][/caption]

After over a year in beta, the U.S. Departments of Defense and Education opened the Learning Registry prototype to the public – a comprehensive database of online learning resources for the entire nation. Not only will it help users find online learning content in one place, it will also provide content ratings. This initiative is a solution for organizing scattered learning content including tools for building lesson plans in different subjects. The registry is searchable in a number of ways – content can be found by subject or topic or grade level. Educators will be able to communicate with each other across the globe. Users can elect to be anonymous when commenting on educational content. This has its pros and cons.  While confidentiality may encourage participation, it may compromise the quality of information. Where an opinion comes from matters.  The registry is a work in progress. In the K-12 sphere, how it will shape curriculum and education standards across the U.S. will remain to be seen but it’s a big step forward.

Users:

• Educators


• Students


• Parents


• Producers of Educational Content


• Consumers of online/distance learning such as people in the military and their families


• Anyone interested in online learning

Here’s a slideshow on how it works


For more information visit:

http://ping.fm/VlVld

www.learningregistry.org


Recent Coverage (used for this post):

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HTML5 for eLearning: Worth The Effort?

If you’re in the Learning and Development field, have you been able to go through a workday without hearing or reading about HTML5? Reference to its application in eLearning especially to mobile learning (mLearning) comes up at just about every conference and training seminar. No wonder, everywhere I turn, someone’s using an iPad, iPhone, or iPod. We could ask the same question for those with Android, Blackberry or Windows phone OS, but they support Flash so we’ll forgo that group in this post.

Outside of the technical question, three big rarely mentioned questions exist for me which regard usage, retention and security:

1. Are people likely to do work-related activities beyond checking email and keeping up with news on the mobile gadgets? Think about how difficult it is to get people to learn even while in the office.


2. Will the learner be able to focus on the learning and retain the knowledge, given that they may be easily distracted while on-the-go? Think about what happens when a call comes in, if they’re on the road driving, if they’re packed in a hot train, etc.


3. Do you really want them to be learning about proprietary information in a public space? Think about how many times you’ve tried to see what someone else is looking at and vice versa.

If you don’t have to worry about any of the above questions and don’t want to implement HTML5, there are ways to get around HTML5 on non-Flash supported devices; check out these tips from Tom Kuhlmann.

Having said all this, I’m not shooting down the importance of HTML5 for authoring eLearning and interactive training modules. Having options and using the most appropriate solution based on budget, time and workforce resources is key to most successful programs. If it seems like many organizations don’t want to fall behind the curve with mLearning, well . . . we learning development companies are shaking in our boots. Okay that’s a bit of an exaggeration as we’re still developing exclusively in Flash, but we are building HTML5 prototypes for internal testing.

So did I answer the question? Probably not. Maybe it’s worth the effort if we get a client that wants to be a vanguard which requires patience and budget that often accompanies being an early adopter. With some big rapid authoring software vendors e.g. Articulate andTrivantis developing HTML5 capabilities, the barriers will get lower. However, as we’re referencing HTML5 in terms of mLearning development, don’t forget about the other big piece which is implementing SCORM so the modules would work with an LMS; again, as more authoring software become available, the integration with the LMS will become less daunting. All in all, it’s not that it’s impossible and there are organizations that are forging ahead.

Below is a quick prototype that we’ve built using SlideGo; it’s not perfect e.g. seeing a number of bugs when embedded in blog, but there’s potential for those looking towards a free tool (click here for larger view).

The Case for ?e-Supplements? for Improving Instructional Health: Do they make a difference?

Fifty MBA graduate students (two sections) in a very traditional research methods course had the option to use hyperlinks, PDF files, Doc files, YouTube videos and other topical resources to supplement and augment their classroom experience. The purpose of the study was to determine if the use of electronic media and digital media, otherwise referred to as e-supplements, with traditional classroom sessions affected final exam grades and course grades.

The  states:

Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and online content. Most new media are in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analog or digital format.

Why Use Theory

McCombs and Vakili encourage using a theoretical framework with practical applications in an eLearning environment [1]. By such use of theoretical frameworks, hypotheses can be developed that can be tested with future research and common principles might emerge that can serve as guidelines for learners and instructors. Mayer calls for multimedia methods that are based upon empirical evidence [2, 3]. So there is a bridge to be crossed; one side is the theoretical (imaginary, conceptual) and the other the empirical (real-data-observations). The presence of the theoretical world is inferred from measurements and observations from this empirical or real world. The real world depends upon first hand direct experience-it is material, factual, perceivable [4].

There are two types of knowledge: declarative knowledge of facts ("what to") and the procedural knowledge of "how to" do various cognitive tasks. One of ACT-R theory's most important outcomes is that knowledge can be decomposed (into "chunks"). You can take a very complex domain of knowledge and analyze it into chunks using rule like units called productions to achieve tasks, goals, and sub goals [5, 6].

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is more than 25 years old and simply states the easier the technology is to use, the more useful it is perceived to be, the more positive one's attitude and intention to use the technology [7]. The TAM is previously supported by Fishbein's and Ajzen's reasoned action model, which states intent to produce a behavior depends upon two basic factors: attitude toward the behavior and subjective norms [8]. Lederer, Maupin, Sena, and Zhuang reviewed more than 15 published studies using the TAM on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude toward use, and usage of information technology [9]. Their results support the use of the TAM as an explanatory or predictive model with different technologies. Furthermore, King's and He's meta-analysis of 88 published studies on the TAM confirm the model can be used in a wide variety of contexts and perceived usefulness affects ease of use and intent to use the technology, and i.e., the model is fairly "robust" [10].

Engagement Theory states learning activities should: (1) occur in a group context (e.g. collaborative teams); (2) are project based; and (3) have an outside focus (authentic) [11]. The theory goes on to state students are intrinsically motivated due to the meaningful nature of the learning environment and activities through interaction with others on worthwhile tasks.

When working with instructional technology, especially software that has multimedia capabilities, we need to structure learning experiences and activities that maximize learning. Cognitive Load theory states working memory limits the processing and selection of sensory data [12, 13]. By having flashy and unimportant graphics, icons, etc., "bells and whistles," the learner may get overloaded in working memory before they get to the important concepts, skills, information, and/or knowledge. Mayer stated words and pictures should be used in the presentation of material [3]. Mayer and Moreno state in their "Theory of Multimedia Learning" that both narration and graphical images produce visual and verbal mental representations, which link and integrate prior knowledge and then construct new knowledge [14]. Mayer and Moreno basically say that deep learning (using multimedia) must work both visual and auditory working memory [14, 15, 16]. Visual graphics and some type of informal voice narration might be the best general methods while not overloading either. In many ways this is the old fashioned method of "show and tell," used for decades by elementary school teachers, but here you are using the technology as a tool to do the same. McCombs states "learner centeredness—it is a complex interaction of qualities of the teacher in combination with the instructional practices—as perceived by the learners" [17]. Given the aforementioned theoretical positions, the following hypotheses were developed.

Hypotheses:
H1: There is no significant difference between high and low student users of electronic media to supplement and augment face to face course with respect to final exam grades.
H2: There is no significant difference between high and low student users of electronic media supplement and augment face to face course with respect to course grade.

Method

Subjects/Participants. Participants for this study were MBA graduate students (N = 50) in a large, southern New England university. These students were enrolled in a graduate research course over a term of 11 weeks. The majority of the students were international (where English is a second language) and between the ages of 22 and 35 years of age. One class met on a Wednesday evening (n =25) and the other met on a Thursday evening (n= 25).

Apparatus. A computer connected to the Internet is necessary. Any course management software would be appropriate, e.g., Blackboard. In our case McGraw-Hill Publishing Company's PageOut was used. Also, many Smartphones, Blackberries, iPhones, iPods, iPads could be used as well as long as there is access to the Internet and the course management software. Electronic media and digital media refer to any document, text, and/or video which were selected to relate to a major course topic as indicated in the course syllabus.

Design. The overall research design is a quasi-experimental method as each class was not randomly assigned to a group. The dependent variables were the final exam grade and the course grade. The independent variable was the frequency of use of the electronic media. Note here that a valid student session must have been five minutes or more. The instructor could control the posting of the electronic and digital media, the content, and the appearance (as much as the course management software would allow). PageOut has a function entitled "Web Links" where you can post and/or provide links for your digital and electronic media. The course in question was broken into 10 "chunks" that became modules for the entire course.

Procedure. To supplement and augment the educational objectives of the graduate research methods course, all students were required to register as a student into PageOut. They were instructed they could opt to use the technology as much or as little as they wanted as it was not a requirement. During the previous summer the instructor selected, reviewed, and tested relevant topical electronic media keeping in mind the theoretical positions previously mentioned. Then course objectives and course assignments, using Bloom's revised taxonomy [18], were cross-referenced with individual electronic and digital media. In the first class session the instructor showed the students how to register and how to access the electronic and digital media. Students were given the option to print a hard copy of the course lecture notes found on two document (.doc) files under "electronic media." This was the primer assignment to get them to the electronic media area.

During this process it was determined that no more than six electronic media would be used for any one topic, so the total number of electronic media was 60. All video clips on YouTube could not be longer than 10 minutes. The other materials were PowerPoint presentations, Portable Document Files (.pdf), Word documents (.doc), and actual websites specific to the task (topic) under study. As the course progressed the instructor would remind students of relevant electronic media in class (shown in real time), which were relevant to the topic at hand. The instructor also had the ability to move the electronic media (reorder) to the top of the list as the current topic under study dictated, moving already used links lower on the list (still available). The electronic and digital media were also selected to supplement and augment necessary task accomplishments to produce course assignments. For example one assignment was to read, review, and critique a research journal article. The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy target categories were: analyzing-breaking information into parts to explore the understandings and relationships; evaluating-justifying a decision or course of action; and creating-generating new ideas, products, and/or ways or methods of viewing things. So the subjective judgment was made as to what electronic and digital media (video, text, Power Points, etc.) would supplement and augment the desired topics/assignments. This procedure was done for each course objective and course assignment so that all were supplemented and augmented in some fashion.

Results

For the 50 students the average frequency (of five minutes or more) of use of the e-supplements was M = 9.56, SD=6.74. Minimum e-supplement use was two sessions with a high of 33 sessions. The median of the group was eight sessions. The median value of eight was used to break the 50 into two subgroups, high users >= 8 sessions (n = 22) and low users < 8 sessions (n = 28). When examining each subgroup, the high users' average online sessions were 14.95 whereas the low users were only 5.32 (high users almost triple the low users).

Hypotheses I is rejected. The high user group (M = 83.2, SD = 10.2) out performed the lower user group (M = 75.1, SD = 11.0), p= .011 and the effect size d = .76 (moderately large). There is a significant difference between high user group and low user group with respect to their final exam grade. Hypothesis two is also rejected. The high user group (M= 90.3, SD =3.9) out performed the low user group (M = 87.3, SD = 3.4), p = .005, d = .82 (large). Therefore there is a significant difference between the high user group and low user group with respect to their course grade.

The students were also asked if the e-supplements: support what they needed to accomplish (M=3.47, SD=1.19); are easy to use (M=3.36, SD=1.13); and are useful (M=3.69, SD=.99). These were on the five point Likert scale.

Discussion

The results of this study seem to support the use of electronic and digital media to support instruction (e-supplements). Anderson's model of learning with technology seems to be supported after placing the course requirements into chunks or modules [5]. Please note that individual students had the option to control their use of the e-supplements. So "choice" seems to be a factor whether or not students want to use the technology supplementing or augmenting their personal learning style. The technology acceptance model or TAM is also supported in this research where the students found ease-of-use and usefulness of the technology high or rated it high on a five-point scale. By applying theoretical models course design seems to make a difference in valued course outcomes, e.g., final exam and course grade. The limitation of this research is the lack of true controls. It is quite possible moderating variables, such as attention and distraction, might also influence the results. So at best the results are tentative, but promising. Further research should be conducted on "choice and need" (regarding hardware and software decisions) on various instructional tasks on which students are asks to perform.

About the Author

Dr. Martin Sivula is the director of research at Johnson & Wales University, Providence Campus. He is a former Director of Academic Computing and is a Certified Data Educator (CDE). In the early 1990s he served as a quantitative researcher and data analyst for the Public Education Fund study of the Providence (Rhode Island) Public Schools, which produced the Providence Report on Blueprint for Education (PROBE) Study (1991-1995). From 1994 through 2000 he served as a researcher and grant administrator for the Health Education Leadership for Providence (HELP), an organization to implement technology applications into the Providence Public Schools. Since 1999 he has served as a PT3 grant evaluator for Wheelock College's (Boston, MA) technology implementation and capacity building efforts. Recent research includes: Sivula, M. W., Hybrid graduate education: Assessing student comfort with technology interventions, Ubiquitous Learning An International Journal3, 1 (2011), 35-42.

References

McCombs, B. and Vakili, D. A learner-centered framework for e-learning. Teacher College Record 107, 8 (2005), 1582-1600.

Mayer, R.E. Research-based principles for the design of instructional messages: The case for multimedia explanations. Document Design 1,1 (1999), 7-20.

Mayer, R.E. Multi-media Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Aneshensel, C. S. Theory-based Data Analysis for the Social Sciences. CA: Sage Publications, 2002.

Anderson, J.R. Rules of the Mind. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993.

Anderson J.R. and Schunn, C.D. Implications of ACT-R learning theory: No magic bullets. InAdvances in instructional technology: Educational design and cognitive science (Vol. 5), ed. R. Glaser. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000, 1-34.

Davis, F.D. Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly 13,3 (1989), 319-340.

Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1975.

Lederer, A. L., Maupin, D.J., Sena, M.P. and Zhuang, Y. The technology acceptance model and the World Wide Web. Decision Support Systems 29,3 (2000), 269-282.

King, W.R. and He, J. A meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model. Information & Management 43,6 (2006), 740-755.

Kearsley, G. and Schneiderman, B. Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based learning and teaching. 1999. Originally at 

Sweller, J. Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science12,2 (1988), 257-285.

Sweller, J. Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction 4,4 (1994), 295-312.

Mayer, R. E. and Moreno, R. Aids to computer-based multimedia learning. Learning and Instruction 12,1 (2002), 107-119.

Mayer, R. E. and Moreno, R. A split-attention effect in multimedia learning: Evidence for dual processing systems in working memory. Journal of Educational Psychology 90,2 (1998), 312-320.

Mayer, R. E., and Moreno, R. Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning.Educational Psychologist 38,1 (2003), 43-52.

McCombs, B. Assessing the role of educational technology in the teaching and learning process: A learner-centered perspective. The Secretary's Conference on Educational Technology, United States Department of Education, 2000.

Anderson, L. W. and Krathwohl, D. R., et al. eds. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2001.

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Idaho Board Approves First Ever Online Class Requirement

Education officials on Thursday gave final approval to a plan that makes Idaho the first state in the nation to require high school students to take at least two credits online to graduate, despite heavy criticism of the plan at public hearings this summer.

The measure is part of a sweeping education overhaul that introduces teacher merit pay and phases in laptops for every high school teacher and student.

Proponents say the virtual classes will help the state save money and better prepare students for college. But opponents claim they'll replace teachers with computers and shift state taxpayer money to the out-of-state companies that will be tapped to provide the online curriculum and laptops.

The rule will apply to students entering the 9th grade in fall 2012. It goes before Idaho lawmakers for review in the 2012 session, which starts in January.

The education board gave the online graduation requirement its initial approval in September after heavy opposition was voiced this summer at public hearings across Idaho. Trustees collected more feedback during a 21-day public comment period last month.

"A majority of the comments felt there should not be an online learning requirement," said board member Don Soltman during the meeting.

Schools nationwide offer virtual classes, but just three states -- Alabama, Florida and Michigan -- have adopted rules since 2006 to require online learning, according to the International Association of K-12 Online Learning. The online rules vary from state to state, but Idaho would be the first to require two credits online.

The Idaho Education Association blasted the decision in a statement Thursday, saying the board "overruled the wishes of a majority of Idahoans and disregarded parental choice" by mandating the online credits.

To online learning advocates, the requirement seems reasonable. They say children need to be prepared for the world that awaits them after high school.

"There is still a live teacher. It may be at a distance, but that teacher is still instructing and interacting with the student," said Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a Washington-based nonprofit.

Kendra Wisenbaker, 28, is among those questioning the Idaho plan.

"The poor kids are guinea pigs," said Wisenbaker, an elementary school teacher in Meridian, the state's largest school district.

Like many of her students, Wisenbaker is on Facebook, and she spends several hours a day online. But when it comes to requiring her tech-savvy kids to learn in a virtual classroom once they enter high school, Wisenbaker is among Idaho teachers who aren't so sure.

"I am a little conflicted, I am. It won't work for every kid, and I think requiring it is a horrible idea," said Wisenbaker, who also reasons that some students may thrive learning online. "But it shouldn't be an option for saving money," she said during an interview with The Associated Press.

In Idaho, members of the state Board of Education have said most of the opposition is directed at new education laws as a whole -- not just the online requirements.

Nationwide, state legislatures tackled education policy this year and triggered protests from teachers over proposed changes to their collective bargaining rights, and how they are evaluated and paid. But Idaho has made some of the most sweeping changes, according to education experts.
The state is introducing teacher merit pay, limiting union bargaining rights and shifting money from salaries toward changes such as more classroom technology, as part of the changes backed by public schools chief Tom Luna and the governor.

The overhaul has drawn heavy criticism, including from educators. But to others, Luna is changing a system that was badly broken and they have commended him for restructuring how Idaho's scarce education dollars are spent.

A group seeking to recall Luna over the education changes failed to collect enough voter signatures earlier this year, but parents and teachers who want to overturn the new laws did meet a June deadline to put three repeal measures on the November 2012 ballot.

Read more: http://ping.fm/v3MtT

iPads Used for Special Needs Students in California [California County Uses iPads to Help Teach Special Students]

Apple has always campaigned for the iPad to be and education device as much as it is a media device. Since its inception, schools and other education institutions have purchased the tablet for its students and educators alike. And more and more educations apps have come out as time went by. Now, a county in California revealed that it’s been using the iPad to help special needs students learn better.

Some special needs students have difficulties talking, for example, and the iPad is used so they can communication. The schools are able to afford the slates thanks to grants from the Dedication to Special Education organization. But even if the iPads are quite pricey, the special needs educators are actually saving by opting to use it — Dynavox, a technology used for special students, cost $8,000, whereas the iPad is around $500 only.

The organization will purchase and distribute as much as 80 iPads to special schools this year, in hopes of helping more students who need it.

This article was originally posted at  http://nexus404.com