Honors and iPads

This year, the Honors Program has joined the initiative to utilize technology in classrooms by integrating iPads into two of our Honor courses. Professor Brandy Benedict, who teaches Honors Calculus I, and Professor Paul Antonellis, who teaches Essentials of Business Analysis, both use the iPads to strengthen their curriculum and create an environment more beneficial for learning. For both courses, the iPads assist students by giving them an easy way to take and read notes.

In Calculus, the Students complete examples on their iPad and can easily access a previous part of their notes. With a graphing calculator app that further reduces the amount a student needs to carry, students can easily screenshot the graphs and place the images right into their notes. Michael Santoro, a freshman in the Honor’s Program, likes the iPad’s and says, “It’s easier than carrying textbooks. I use it for all my classes now.”

The Essentials of Business Analysis students focus more on designing and presenting projects with their iPads. For one presentation, a group even recorded their information on iMovie beforehand. Another benefit for this course is the ability to have a Bloomberg Market app, which the students used to immediately get information about the company Starbucks. They have more reliable and relevant data at their fingertips due to the new technology.

This is only the start to the Honors Program’s use of iPads. In the future, Professor Benedict states that she wants to look into online testing and that she wants to figure out how to share videos made on the iPads of solving example problems. Both Professor Benedict and Professor Antonellis would like to employ iPads for future Honor classes as well, even with the increased interest by other professors in the iPads. The iPads are faster, less overwhelming than a pile of written notes, easily transportable, and more convenient.