THE USE OF IPADS IN HIGHER EDUCATION TO INCREASE ENGAGEMENT

In this session, I will talk about my experience of using iPads in a Higher Education (HE). My session will explore the benefits and pitfalls of using two applications that increase collaboration and discussion in the classroom.

The applications that I will show are:
- Explain Everything (EE): this application creates videos very easily, which could be shared with students as a part of a flipped learning approach. This application is very versatile, and can be used to explain different resources, give feedback to students or introduce topics that students are going to see during the lesson.
- Plickers: this application makes it even easier to create live quizzes and encourage discussion during the class. It is also a really good application to start using for team based learning (TBL).

Background:
During 2016, the Learner Technologist for Law and me started a project to find how extended the use of iPads was in our departments. We found that 95% of academics were using iPads as a storage resource to connect to Google Drive, or to do online marking through Turnitin. However, only one academic had used the ipad during a lesson in a teaching environment. From that point on, we started to find, and research, applications that lecturers can use during the lesson to make the content of the session more engaging for our students. We also wanted to try to fulfil the potential of the learning resource fully.

Discussion:
In my presentation, I will talk about the process of introducing those applications to the department and how you support and empower academics to use technology. I think that technology has to be used in situations where it brings a real benefit. It also needs to be embedded in the curriculum so that students will find a real use, and real connection, with the rest of the material and teaching during the lesson. One of the points of discussions is how to encourage this process.

I will show some of the resources that academics in the Politics department have created using these two applications, and I will share some of their experiences and comments about using technology in a HE environment. I will also talk about the possibilities of moving to a more flipped learning model, particularly during a time when class sizes are increasing and the possibility of making sessions with a big number of students more engaging and challenging students to discuss and move to a more student-centred approach.

Other points of discussion are:
- Student generating resources with iPads
- iPads used as portable screen
- Find more experiences/uses of iPads