Promoting Literacy Through iPads

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

The South Bronx is one of the poorest congressional districts in the US. It tops the nation in hunger rates and is last in health. Our school shares the same block as a jail. Our students often walk past a daily line of inmates arriving or departing in buses with bars instead of windows.

The Bronx has a reputation of poverty, crime, drugs, and failing schools.

But our Debate Team has shattered these stereotypes. Our students devote themselves to daily practices starting at 7:00 am, evening practices, tournaments every weekend, and camps every summer. Students learn valuable skills in debate; public speaking, leadership, research, writing, typing, and learn about a number of subjects including philosophy, current events, economics, public policy, civics, law, international affairs, and critical theory. Debate also helps in college admissions by improving chances of college admissions from 30-60% according to a Wall Street Journal study. Many Supreme Court justices, Presidents, and lawmakers are former high school debaters. Because of these benefits, we believe that debate should be an opportunity for ALL students and so we started the Bronx Great Debaters. We are currently developing programs in three schools and that is growing.

My Project

The iPad is an educational technology that can end all educational technologies! It's a library of up to 80,000 e-books (don’t need a school library). It’s an interactive touchscreen (don’t need a $5000 Smartboard). Its a video camera (don’t need a $200 camcorder). It’s a camera (don’t need a $100 camera). It’s a computer (don’t need a $500 laptop). It's a television (don’t need a $500-$1000 television). It can transform into any musical instrument (don’t need a band room). It can video conference (don’t need a $1000+ conferencing system). It can be a stereo system (don’t need a $100 stereo sound system). It’s a game console (don’t need a $300 game system). And it can evolve infinitely with Apps that you download (calculator, atlas, Google Earth, Solar Walk, Periodic Table, etc.). It’s classroom and student friendly - the size of a small book! The keyboard is the essential ingredient because it transforms the iPad into a full computer.

What does this mean for my classroom?

My classes can connect to experts, texts, and any resource throughout the world. Our award winning Great Debaters, in one second can download any files and arguments, hold the screen in the palm of their hand to read their arguments, take a video of their cross examination, play an audio track or poetry slam to reinforce their arguments, and then twitter their teammates on what arguments the other team is running!