Chatard, Cathedral embrace iPads

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Our Week 4 Zone tailgate features a classic Catholic school rivalry: Bishop Chatard against Cathedral.

The two schools are foes on the field, but they have a lot in common in the classroom - especially this school year.

Students can now read lessons, take notes, communicate with teachers, and plan their days without picking up a pencil or turning a page, because both schools have taken a technological leap.

All students at the two schools now carry an iPad.

"The iPad has been the greatest tool in education I've seen since the calculator."

That bold statement comes from Jeff Bach, who teaches science at Chatard. He's one of several faculty members and students with whom we spoke. They all expressed enthusiasm about the school's new iPad program.

"This has been so embraced by the entire staff - top to bottom, young and old, veterans and fresh out of college," Bach raved.

At Chatard, the students use school-issued the iPads. Students pay for them through tuition.

Chatard's iPads are basically all the same; they have a case with the school crest and each has apps already installed.

Occasionally, the school will add a new app. For instance, Katie Armstrong, a senior in Mr. Bach's class, says, "We didn't have a calculator on here before. We kind of need it for our math classes, so they finally put one on here for us."

In terms of making it feel like "their own," options are limited. The students can call up a favorite desktop image and make a few other tiny tweaks, but otherwise customization is curtailed.

Cathedral students also use iPads, but the program is not identical to Chatard's. The tablets were essentially part of the mandatory school supply list this year at Cathedral, so each student acquired an iPad from another source to use in the class. In this case, the student — rather than the school — controls it.

Both schools have policies on appropriate content for the classroom.

And as for fears that the students would use them as time-wasters, students claim the devices actually make them more responsible.

"I mean now there's no excuse. You can't go home and say 'Oh, well I didn't bring my textbook. Or I didn't know what my assignment was,'" Chatard senior Reese Trainer says.

The two schools are certainly "early adopters," but they are not the first in Central Indiana to try an "iPad-for-all" approach. Danville High School started a similar program last school year.