The iPad: A Mobile Learning Device and Innovative Note-Taking Tool

Introduction

Mobile learning, the concept of both teaching and learning using electronic mobile devices (Kaganer, Giordano, Biron, & Tortoriello, 2013), has grown into an accepted form of learning for twenty-first century students in both K-12 and higher education settings. Although the mobile learning phase began with laptops on carts and eventually expanded to cell phones and tablets, many school districts now implement bring your own device (BYOD) or bring your own technology (BYOT) policies (Grant, Tamim, Brown, Sweeney, Ferguson, & Jones, 2015; Hill, 2011) that allow students to use personal devices during instructional time. Additionally, school districts have purchased mobile devices such as Apple’s iPad and Google Chromebooks for students in one-to-one technology initiatives aimed at providing every student with a device.

Regardless of how students access technology, mobile device use has increased in the United States (Pearson Education, 2015). Each year, the Pearson Student Mobile Device Survey is administered to students in grades 4-12 across the United States. According to the most recent survey, students are currently using laptops, hybrid devices, a mixture of a laptop and handheld tablet, tablets, and cell phones in the classroom while 1 in 5 students attend a school that offers every student a mobile learning device (Pearson Education, 2015). These results suggest that mobile learning is nationally present and must be considered when designing and planning classroom instruction.

Note-taking, one of the most common classroom practices used to organize and learn content material, is now possible through multiple applications available on mobile devices. Recent research focuses on typing notes, often verbatim, and has found that comprehension and retention decreases as compared to traditional pencil and paper note-taking (Aguilar-Roca, Williams, & O’Dowd, 2012; Muller & Oppenheimer, 2014; Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013). However, taking notes has transformed from just typing. It is now possible to draw, organize, search, record, import, and edit notes through multiple applications available on mobile devices. The current applications provide students with ubiquitous access to their course notes and provide users with multiple note-taking features.

The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to existing research on mobile device use in the classroom while providing a deeper look into how iPads can be used for note-taking purposes in a K-12 educational setting. Objectives of the chapter include:

• 1.

  Mobile Devices in K-12 Education: Providing a brief literature review about mobile device use in K-12 classrooms.

• 2.

  Note-taking Using Mobile Devices: Explaining the difference between traditional note-taking and note-taking using an electronic device.

• 3.

  Note-taking Applications: Providing descriptions of the following applications: Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, MyScript Memo, Notability, Penultimate, Simplenote, Notepad+, Metmoji NoteLite, with specific emphasis on explaining the Notability application using Apple’s iOS.

• 4.

  Note-taking Using the iPad: Describing and providing student note-taking examples of taking notes using an iPad and the Notability application.

• 5.

  Advantages and Disadvantages: Explaining current advantages and disadvantages of taking notes using mobile devices, and providing practitioner suggestions to overcome technological barriers.