With 17,000 seventh graders across the state of Maine about to get iBooks, teachers in that state that have been part of a pilot program are starting to share their own perspective with other teachers, according to a new Associated Press article.
For one thing, some involved with the pilot project are advising that other teachers learn to ask students for help. One social studies teacher said that students who had historically struggled, learned to take leadership roles in the classroom because they’re good with computers.
Other advise asking kids to charge up batteries at lunchtime to figure out how to use the iBooks more broadly in the course of the curriculum. Teacher feedback has been positive, with some reporting that iBooks helped kids focus right up until the last day of the academic year, when most students are too interested in summer vacation to bother with studying.