How Tablets Are Utilized in the Classroom

New technologies are a large part of the educational landscape in the 21st century. Emergent technologies are implemented in the classroom at an exponential rate. The newest technology to be added to the daily classroom is the tablet computer. Understanding students' and teachers' perceptions about the role of tablet computers is important as this can provide information for future development and implementation of table technologies in the classroom. To gather users' perceptions, observations of eight classrooms and interviews with 23 students and three teachers were performed in a middle school that implemented 1:1 iPad program, toward the end of the first-year implementation. Themes elicited from the interviews included like/dislike of the iPad, iPad as an educational tool, iPad for play, iPad as a distraction and responsibility, and favorite apps and projects. Although most participants did like having the iPads and considered them useful for education, there were a number of concerns, particularly with learning to use the tablet technology and distractions created by having the device. The apps used in the classroom were limited, with the majority having been productivity apps. The need for teacher training for effective classroom applications of mobile devices is discussed. (Keywords: 1:1 iPad program, instructional use of tablets, student perceptions, tablet technology, teacher perceptions)     

An embedded professional paired placement model: “I know I am not an expert,but I am at a point now where I could step into the classroom and be responsible for the learning”

We present a sustainable and innovative model for pre-service teacher paired professional placements called the Teaching School model. The Teaching School model was piloted initially in partnership with a Metropolitan University and a P-12 College located in Melbourne’s northern suburbs in 2013. It was expanded in 2014 to capitalise on an existing university school partnership at a regional campus of the university. We present evidence of success through the voices of pre-service teachers, mentor teachers and school principals to demonstrate the success of professional experience model. The findings clearly show the benefit of this model of professional experience for producing work-ready graduates and for creating authentic learning and teaching environments that, according to the school principals and mentor teachers, contribute to school improvement. Our research demonstrates that this Teaching School model builds relationships and creates a community of learning and teaching educators; however, its adoption is not without challenges and limitations.     

Trauma-informed interventions for counselling sex trafficking survivors

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling - Human trafficking represents the fastest growing form of transnational crime and remains the third largest criminal enterprise following...     

Dribble Deficit: A novel method to measure dribbling speed independent of sprinting speed in basketball players

Basketball tests assessing dribbling speed predicated on total performance times are influenced by sprinting speed. This study examines an approach termed Dribble Deficit to counter this limitation by examining the relationships between sprinting and dribbling speed during linear and change-of-direction (COD) tasks measured using total performance time and Dribble Deficit. Ten semi-professional basketball players completed linear sprints and COD sprints with and without dribbling. Dribble Deficit was calculated as the difference between the best time for each dribbling trial and corresponding non-dribbling trial for linear and COD sprints. Large to very large significant relationships (P < 0.05) were evident between linear sprint and dribble times (R = 0.64–0.77, R² = 0.41–0.59), and between COD sprint and dribble times (R = 0.88, R² = 0.77). Conversely, trivial-small relationships were evident between linear sprint time and linear Dribble Deficit (R = 0.01–0.15, R² = 0.00–0.02). A non-significant, moderate, negative relationship was observed between COD sprint time and COD Dribble Deficit (R = ?0.45, R² = 0.20). These findings indicate Dribble Deficit provides a more isolated measure of dribbling speed than tests using total performance times. Basketball practitioners may use Dribble Deficit to measure dribbling speed independent of sprint speed in test batteries.