Faculty iPads at Nichols and Fairfield: Comparing Two Projects to Transform Teaching & Learning

iPads at Fairfield University: Six Years and Counting...

Apple introduced the first iPad in January of 2010...

...and Fairfield distributed its first set of iPads in the summer of 2010.

By Fall 2010, more than 15 faculty members were part of a Learning Community experimenting with how these new devices might be useful in teaching & learning.

First presentation: May 2010 at Fairfield's Innovative Pedagogy & Course Redesign Conference

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2011...

2012...

2013...

More workshops, learning communities, and faculty exploration.

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Two converging events:

Increasing capabilities of iPads, as well as on-campus word of mouth, lead to increased requests from faculty to get their own devices

Administration agrees to fund comprehensive plan to upgrade outdated technology in all classrooms

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Summer 2014

Begin upgrading 90 general-use classrooms with simplified technology based on the idea of "pushing everything to the device."

At the same time...a carefully chosen set of faculty, from across all schools, were given new iPads with the understanding that they would work together on using them in teaching, and end the academic year with a campus-wide showcase of what they'd done...

...held in our newly opened Innovative Classroom.

Spring 2015: The event was an amazing success.

The result was what we'd hoped for: LOTS of faculty saw the possibilities and asked if they, too, could get an iPad for teaching.

So over the summer of 2015, we initiated the iPads for Faculty program, to launch at the beginning of the Fall semester.

Full-time faculty all get a new iPad Air 2.

Part-time faculty can borrow an iPad for the length of the semester.

Provost's office pays for apps to be used for teaching.

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Fall 2015 also sees the opening of our new Steelcase Active Learning Classroom, funded by a competitive grant from Steelcase:

The result: Lots of iPad Workshops...

  • An iPad Intro: Why You Have One, How it Works, and How to Keep it Secure
  • Presenting with the iPad: PowerPoint, Keynote, and Virtual Whiteboarding
  • Managing Your iPad's Storage
  • Evaluating Student Learning: Bb Grader, Blackboard Mobile, iAnnotate, and More
  • Engaging Students and Their Devices: Exploring Polling and Collaboration Apps
  • Explain Everything: Creating Narrated Lectures and Whiteboard Lessons With the Push of a Button

A third active learning classroom built in January 2016...

And an exhausted staff.

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So what's next???

Spring 2016: Complete tech upgrades of all 90 classrooms, including Apple TV in every one

Spring/Summer 2016: Introduce Zoom for all faculty & students to facilitate screen sharing and collaboration in and out of the classroom

Fall 2016: Distribute AirParrots 2 to all students with Windows laptops so everyone can use wireless projection

And ongoing...More workshops, more efforts to allow/encourage student use of their mobile devices, and more engaged student instruction!

Jay Rozgonyi, Director of Academic Computing

Debbie Whalley, Manager of Academic Computing Support

Created By
Jay Rozgonyi
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