CPS Adds iPads to Classrooms Through State Grant Program

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Aug 23, 2011 4:20PM

Through a state grant, Chicago Public Schools will add 4,500 more iPads to its classrooms this year, reaching an additional 8,700 students. The program started last year with 750 iPads, provided through a federal grant. The expansion of the program is aimed at low-income schools with less technology available and students performing below state standards. The Sun-Times spoke with a fourth-grader, who enjoys playing "math baseball" in Jennie Cho Magiera's class.

Data from the ninja and baseball games, as well as a math test Johnson just completed, is sent back to Cho Magiera’s iPad, where she tracks each students’ progress, enabling her to pinpoint problems and tailor the lesson plan each student will face on their iPad.

This is how Cho Magiera was able to simultaneously teach 20 students 20 different lesson plans as a violin version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody played Monday morning in the background of her classroom in the South Loop.

Let's hope these kids learn more about math when playing baseball on their iPads, than we learned about pioneer life when we played Oregon Trail through DOS.