This post first appeared on eSchool News.

Putting iPads in the service of learning, in our view, means putting technology in the service of preparing students to solve unstructured problems and communicate persuasively and with deep understanding. That’s our vision of what great schools do.

As we approach the challenge of creating powerful learning environments with iPads, we use five bedrock principles to keep us grounded:

1. Technology must be in the service of learning. Without a clear vision for learning, technology is the engine of a ship without a compass.
2. Tablets are not computers. There are some things they do much better. There are some things they do much worse. Focus on exploiting what they do best.
3. iPads are mobile, flexible media production devices–not repositories of apps. Teachers need a vision of powerful student-owned learning, and a few basic apps for media production and sharing.
4. The iPad has a design bias towards consumption; great teaching has a design bias towards student production. To make the iPad support powerful learning, we work with educators on moving from consuming content to curation and creation.
5. Technology initiatives will only work with broad support from community stakeholders: parents, teachers, students, and the community.

Your vision and principles may be different. They should be particular to the culture and the needs of the children that you serve in your community.

>> Read the full article on eSchool News.

Tom Daccord, Director of EdTechTeacher, is the co-author of iPads in the Classroom: From Consumption and Curation to Creation and will be a featured presenter at the February 9-11 EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in San Diego.