Tablets are becoming a norm in classrooms across the country, and teachers are finding new and innovative ways to use them successfully.

Three educators, Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Alex Gonzales have devised a model, "they call the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model which imparts both instructional strategies and technology tips for educators planning for, deploying, and integrating tablets into classrooms," said an article on eschoolnews.com.

“The very first question we asked ourselves years ago when tablets came out was, ‘Does this belong in the classroom?’ That’s a really important question to ask,” Gonzales said in a webinar. “We quickly noticed the influence that the tablet had on teachers’ learning environments—choice is key in bringing in this device. How do you want to interact with this device and its content?”

Quite a few reports have examined the effect of tablets on instruction, including including a Pew study on the "impact of digital tools and writing instruction," the article said.

A study in 2014 by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center on families’ use of educational media found that “parents believe digital tools have helped their children with cognitive skills, math, and reading and vocabulary.” The study also found that “parents believe there is benefit in giving devices to young children.”

School leaders, according to the article, looked at instructional models and found ways to support GRR with the use of tablets in their classroom.

"For some reason, it just wasn’t that easy for teachers to integrate the tablets into collaborative learning,” Fisher said. “Yes, [we think] tablets absolutely belong in the classroom, but we want to remember that some of the tasks students do with the tablets are collaborative, so that the tablets don’t just become battery-powered worksheets.”

Read the full story. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor