As Apple pushes out its new education products, new information about whether using the iPad gives students an advantage over using print books is starting to surface.
Results from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's year-long study comparing students using the publisher's iPad algebra app are in from Amelia Earhart school in Riverside, Calif., and it's largely positive, according to the company.
The study showed that 78 percent of students who used the HMH algebra iPad app scored "proficient" or "advanced" on the California Standards Test, compared to 59 percent of students who used the textbook version. "As students were randomly assigFuse, the results indicated that use of the app was the chief cause behind the improvement in student test scores," the report states.
Some of the advantages of the app, according to the report:
- Allowed parents to provide more support to their children: “Parents could watch the videos or review problems with their children to help them if they did not understand.”
- Students were much more motivated during class and were more interested in the subject.
- Changes in student learning outside of the classroom. Students reported reading more and trying to work independently outside of class when completing homework. Also, students were coming to class explaining that they had watched the video multiple times at home.
MindShift covered the pilot project when it first launched last year at the Presidio Middle School in San Francisco.