Drawn Perspectives: Students Illustrate the iPad’s Role in Their Learning

Having worked in a 1:1 iPad environment for the past ten years, I have seen firsthand the many ways the device can support student learning. However, what remains less clear is how students themselves perceive its role. Do they know why they are using it? Or how they can use it to its full potential?

This led me to my research question: How do students perceive the iPad role in their learning?

Sure, I could just ask them point-blank — but for something so abstract, I figured I’d start with something more concrete: I’d ask them to draw their answer. 

Working with 86 students across three different grade 1-3 Montessori classrooms, I asked the students to do just that: on one side of the page, draw or write how you feel when you learning with the iPad, and on the other side, draw or write how you feel when you are learning without the iPad. No names were written, no spelling was checked, and if they didn’t want to colour? No big deal. 

This activity, known as the Student Drawing Protocol, is described in Drawing on Education by Haney, Russell, and Bebell (2008).

 

After the drawings were completed, I used a checklist to aid in analyzing the drawings. It contained things such as: the type of social engagement shown, the student's demeanour, and the emotions expressed.

The following are some of the notable results: 

 

Most students focused just on themselves in their drawings — whether they were using the iPad or not — and no one showed themselves interacting with others. This made me reflect on how the iPad is currently being used in our classrooms and the need to intentionally create more opportunities for collaboration. In my role, I can focus on supporting both teachers and students in exploring apps, projects, and workflows that use the iPad as a tool for working together, not just working alone.

What really stood out to me was the difference in how they showed their emotions. When they drew themselves with the iPad, most looked happy or positive, but without it, a lot more showed negative feelings. To me, that says students see the iPad as something that makes learning more enjoyable and positive.

Next, I sat down with a small group of students for semi-structured interviews to dig deeper into how they see the iPad role in their learning. Click here to read more!

Want to explore the Student Drawing Protocol further? See the attached quick guide, sample pages, and the example I had planned for my study. Looking back, I realize I would have added labels—something I’ll be sure to do next time!