N.J. District to Launch iPad Algebra 1 Curriculum

From Education Week:

About 60 high school students in the Edison Township school district in northern New Jersey will participate in a year-long pilot to test the HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app for the iPad, an app designed by education publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to allow the delivery of the entire curriculum via the tablet computer.

The pilot, which will run through the 2011-2012 school year, according to a press release, will monitor the academic progress of the students using the app in a 1-to-1 setting against a control group that does not have access to either the app or the iPad devices. Both groups will have access to the same textbook as well as accompanying online resources.

The project follows earlier use of the app in schools in California, and builds upon a Virginia pilot of social studies programs for the iPad produced by fellow education publishing titan Pearson as well as smaller content publisher Five Ponds Press.

The Virginia pilots only ran for a quarter of the academic year, though they did span across upper elementary, middle, and high schools levels. Participating schools also found other uses for the devices throughout the year, both in their history classes as well as math and science studies, which you can read about in our upcoming spring/summer issue of Digital Directions.

The Fuse: Algebra 1 app includes animated instruction, feedback on practice questions, note-taking and note-saving capability, access to video tutorials, and live feedback that allows teachers on the same wireless Internet network to monitor student progress.

          By Ian Quillen