With technology a necessity of the future, some University of Iowa students are staying ahead in the present.
The UI College of Education will continue a program that supplies iPads to all students enrolled in the teacher-certification program.
“iPads are given to all our undergraduates in our teacher-certification programs,” said Nick Colangelo, the dean of the College of Education. “We do not provide them to faculty.”
In September 2013, officials started providing students with the iPads after a donation was made from alumna Linda Baker.
William Coghill-Behrends, the director of the College of Education’s Teacher Leader Center, said the college will continue to fund the program in the coming years.
“The importance of program is to continue with college’s goals to produce the most relevant teachers,” he said. “It’s the No. 1 things schools are looking for in teacher candidates.”
This coming fall, Coghill-Behrends said, anywhere between 100 to 120 iPads will be given out depending on how many students are admitted to the teacher-certification program.
The program will cost about $80,000 for the year, Coghill-Behrends said.
Last year, the school gave out 200 iPads to incoming students during the fall and spring semesters.
“We have the highest admission standards in the state,” Coghill-Behrends said. “But if people meet those minimums, and they’re admitted into the program, then they’ll be given iPads.”
Starting at the end of the spring semester, officials began asking for feedback from students who received the iPads.
Coghill-Behrends said they are conducting the feedback in phases and have followed up with the first group who received the iPads. They will follow up with the next group in the coming weeks.
“So we follow up with students at the end of the semester,” Coghill-Behrends said. “In the summer, the students are using their iPads in courses at the UI and at their clinical.”
Because of the success, other colleges have been asking if they could start sending their students to help receive iPad training.
Coghill-Behrends said the college is looking into doing workshops for other departments.
Students said they have been satisfied with the iPads, Coghill-Behrends said, and the iPads allow the students to stay organized within their classrooms and course work.
“The feedback we’re getting from our students are important, and give us good statistics,” he said. “One of the most important bits of feedback we get is from school administrators, and they’re really impressed with how our students are technology knowledgeable.”