Sacred Heart Primary Mt Druitt

Our use of the ipads has been with small groups of special needs children. They have demonstrated a very good knowledge and application of the ipad because of their familiarity with iphones. Some of our children have ipads at home. They find the games easy to play and access. However, we have not challenged them yet with things like voice over in stories. Once they are comfortable with the ipad the harder applications can be attempted.
The application in lessons is limited, as one of our two ipads has had great difficulty accessing wireless for internet connection. We will monitor this closely- but it does intermittently drop out from the network.
The teaching perspective of the program has found that most of the applications available are not Australian. Phonics and some stories are all American. Another potential problem is that the ipad needs to be used at school restricting teachers from home preparation if they do not have wireless internet at home. Due to restriction of not accessing this at home, our knowledge of applications is limited and therefore not realising its full potential. This will come in time as the pilot continues.