A Day in the Life of the iPad Classroom

Lenny Gonzalez

“This is not a magic wand. This just makes it more fun for them to learn.”

Halfway through a year-long pilot study using iPads instead of textbooks, a San Francisco eighth-grade algebra class is showing signs of every teacher’s dream: the spark of engagement in her students’ eyes.

Jeannetta Mitchell, a veteran teacher of 20 years, is encouraged by what she sees so far. “This is not a magic wand,” she says. “This just makes it more fun for them to learn. Nobody’s just sitting there writing down the answer, saying I don’t know how I got there. They know how they got there.”

During my visit to her class last Friday, it was apparent that she was a big part of the reason they understood those problems. Mitchell walked up and down the aisles of the class for the entire duration of the period, asking questions, offering explanations, and giving one-on-one help when it was needed......