In my Think Tank class, I am blessed to have 20 iPads, which is enough for 1:1 for each students plus teachers. I haven't been keeping up with software and application updates lately in the flurry of activities as we hurtle toward the end of the year...until one of the apps I wanted to use with my 5th grade students yesterday crashed right after starting. Turns out there was an update that I needed to install that fixed that.
Anyhow, once I figured out that there were a dozen apps needing updates installed in addition to an iOS update, I decided to take today to complete all my updates. You'd think, since this is all being done over wi-fi, that things would all happen at the same time, right? Surprisingly (at least to me), this was not the case. Instead, the iPads updated at speeds on a continuum, some updating rapidly, most updating about the same speed (I just put passwords into 6 in a row that were queued up almost simultaneously) and a couple that are lagging significantly. This performance is not unlike that seen in a bell curve. Even though each iPad should be virtually identical in computing power, there are still unseen parameters that affect the download and update speeds.
Upon further reflection, I thought about how this variation in performance is not unlike what we see in classrooms, though each student is unique and comes with all kinds of qualities that make them each individuals and different from their classmates. So a greater variation would be expected. Yet, so often school districts and administrators have the expectation that teachers, who must administer standardized tests to their students, have students who must learn the same way, are taught the same way, and are expected to perform well on the same test.
I believe that this expectation of sameness is the biggest flaw in education today. Many public school teachers have shared with me that they are expected to teach strictly to a pacing guide, and that every classroom in that grade level or in a specific subject area should be learning the exact same thing at the exact same time. If we can't even get iPads (which are internally identical) to update the same apps at the same speed, how can we expect our students to learn the same way in he same time frame?
I began my iPad updates yesterday afternoon, and completed full updates (apps & iOS) on 3 iPads before I left for the day. Those could be likened to the advanced students who enjoy accelerated learning. Currently, I have completed updates on 18 iPads. The largest group was about 6-8 that all were updating about the same time. The last 2 are somehow having difficulty downloading the apps, so I haven't even tried downloading the iOS yet. I have moved them to the iPad cart where my other iPads seemed to download well, to no avail. I finally decided to try restarting the iPad to see if something got stuck. They currently are in a holding pattern, and may need some additional technical assistance to jump start the downloads. These could be likened to students that have the greatest difficulty in class, who need extra assistance and attention in class.
How does this relate to teaching? Well, I would need to be prepared to have a continuation of activities prepared for the "rapid downloaders." Because there is only one teacher and lots of students, the activities for the "rapid downloaders" would most likely be more independent, (otherwise they would end up just sitting for the rest of the time waiting for their classmates to finish). I would most likely spend the bulk of my time working with the majority (or mode, in statistical parlance) of students. This is similar to the stack of iPads that all were in the same update queue at the same time--and each one needed the same buttons pushed (same instructions given). In class, perhaps I would be able to give the instructions to this group all at once, but the situation could also be one where I would need to check the work one-on-one for each student. This can be a challenge, because then each student is wanting attention at the same time because they are all at the same stage.
Finally, there are the 2 iPads having difficulty. With an iPad, I just kept letting them sit, in the hopes that the app updates would finally download. A student that works slower sometimes just needs more time to do their work. Other times, however, the student is having real difficulties, and the teacher needs to carve out special time to help the student, more so than simply giving an instruction or checking the work. It requires diagnosis and time dedicated to finding out what the difficulty is, and ways to address the difficulty.
I know that "differentiated instruction" has been a buzzword that has been flying around for a while, but it is so much more than that...it is what teaching children is all about. If only school districts and even textbook publishers could understand that uniformity is not what we should strive for, but rather we need to find ways to do a better job of truly differentiating our instruction. It means teachers should be allowed to digress from pacing guides, and to use different methods and techniques for helping students with different learning styles learn better. It also means that, at times, it would help teachers a whole lot to have some additional assistance, either to specifically work with the students needing the most help, or to help guide the majority of the students so that the teacher can work with the students needing help and to further guide the "rapid downloaders."
I never imagined that updating a bunch of iPads would become a metaphor for teaching, but it seems to make sense to me. I would be interested to hear the thoughts of other educators out there.