
Well, I was thinking about this the other day and decided I should do some research. See, I never used iPads when teaching ESL. In fact, I’ve never used an iPad at all. Why would I?
English language training centers, on the other hand, can’t think of anything better to do. For them it’s all about profits, and if parents see or hear about students using iPads to learn English at one school they’ll put their kids there over a school that doesn’t have them. So in that regards it’s nothing more than a business decision.
Hey, convince me otherwise! Before I left EF in China they were going to roll these out, and I knew it was just a way for them to increase sales. I’d realized long before that having students actually learn English was secondary to boosting the bottom line as much as possible.
That said, iPads can be used effectively. I’ve read several good posts from teachers using them to good effect in classes with 10 students or less. I guess I just don’t know enough about them to tell you anything helpful.
But I’m damn good at content curation and finding what other people have to say. Below you’ll find several links to useful iPad ESL apps, iPad ESL lessons, and just some tips and tricks that will help your ESL class use an iPad better.