iPad Grant Proposal

Delaware Technical Community College

Brad Thompson
Mathematics, George Campus
February 19, 2015

My goals for this grant proposal are to utilize the iPad as both an interactive tool in the classroom, as
well as to continue developing digital textbooks and other iPad resources for teachers. Additionally, I look
forward to continuing to share my expertise and experiences with iPad educational applications with my
colleagues through in-service faculty development opportunities and workshops.
I. Developing and creating digital resources for both teachers and students for use on the iPad.
As both a freelance and in-house digital content editor, Ive had
the opportunity to work directly with educational publishers
such as Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and Scholastic on developing
applications, textbooks, and resources specifically designed for

I want all students to be able to learn

from digital textbooks.
-

President Obama
2011 State of the Union Address

use on the iPad. These experiences led to a grant through

Columbia University Teachers College to help develop a
digital textbook and curriculum for the developmental
mathematics sequence at Montgomery County Community
College. I was happy to share my experiences with faculty at
the DTCC Instructional Innovation Conference in August of

If we want American students to be the

best prepared to compete in the 21st
century global economy, we cant allow a
majority of our students to miss out on the
opportunities of digital textbooks.

2014, and was again offered the opportunity to present for

adjunct faculty professional development. While I continue

Julius Genachowski
Chairman, FCC 2012

researching and developing products for the ever-growing

movement of digital textbooks in higher education, both in my
freelance work and through my doctoral work at the
University of Delaware, I will continue looking for
opportunities to share this knowledge with my colleagues here
at DTCC. Currently, I am researching how interactive digital
textbooks can be used in conjunction with existing learning
management systems to improve student success for online
learning.

In the next few years, textbooks should be

obsolete. The world is changing, this has to
be where we go as a country
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Arne Duncan
U.S. Secretary of Education
2012

II. Using the iPad as an interactive presentation tool during class lectures.
When teaching mathematics, it is always beneficial to include as many visual representations and aids as
possible. This not only helps students who may favor the visual learning style, but helps strengthen
connections for all mathematical concepts by making them less abstract.
And while textbooks and SmartBoard notes can do this by providing
static images of graphs, diagrams, etc., they cannot produce the level of
interactivity and real time variable control of visuals that the iPad can.
Because of this, I have been working with several interactive
mathematical applications (GeoGebra, HTML5, iBooks, Mathematica) to
try out live in my classes. In order to facilitate this, I have been working with Jake Neal and Tony Rispoli to
install a wireless router in one of the primary mathematics classrooms to mirror the iPad to the SmartBoard.
Thanks to these gentlemen and the DIET department, we were able to successfully install the hardware and
software to make this happen on February 5th. The hope is to obtain an iPad through this grant to fully take
advantage of this technology and further engage my students by allowing them to manipulate mathematical
graphics and visuals in real time.
I plan on assessing the impact of the iPad on my teaching and learning environment by continuing to advise
and collaborate with my colleagues on iPad applications through both informal meetings, as well as CCIT
sponsored workshops and professional development. Additionally, after implementing the iPad in my courses
(MAT143, MAT255) to allow students to work hands on with manipulating visual graphs and testing
mathematical theories through physical experimentation, I can gather qualitative data in regards to student
attitudes towards interactive digital resources in the classroom and if/how it helped with conceptual
understanding. And as Ive worked closely with members of CCIT and DIET to make this possible, I look
forward to sharing results with them as well to help allow other instructors to soon take advantage of this
technology.
Thank you for your time and presenting this opportunity.