Technology in the classroom

So last week I had some extra time in the afternoon because of a minimum day so I went to visit my son at school to see how they are using I pads in there SDC classes. At this time this is the only class on campus that is using this type of technology. I was not sure what to expect. The class I was going to visit had six students in grades between K-2 and serves mild to moderate students with a variety of diagnosis. I arrived before they started using the Ipads and the class was structured very similar to many other classes and seemed to have the same results. Some students were on task, some were mildly off task, and others had no idea what they should have been doing. Things took a huge turn when the teacher told the students to line up to get their Ipads. All of the students literally cheered and ran to the line up spot. They were super excited, with most of them being able to control their excitement just about as well as any other student could. The teacher passed out the Ipads and separated the students into two groups. One group would using the Ipads to select books to be read to them and the other group was going to be doing to art stuff on them. It appeared to me that the students doing the art  stuff were those that had a more of a need to develop their fine motor skills. The students that were going to have the Ipads read to them all found a spot away from each other and proceeded to get their Ipads going, with about half of them needing help with this, while the other half seemed to have no problem getting whatever program they were using up and running. The students that were doing the art project seemed to need a little more help in general, but once they were into the program they all seemed very capable of using the program. Probably the most significant aspect of the entire lesson was the amount of engagement the students maintained.   For the entire length of the activity, about 15min, all of the students were very involved in whatever they were doing. The students that were being read to all seemed to enjoy the books and the students doing the art worked very diligently trying to trace and draw shapes and letters. I don't think the activities in and by themselves were the reason the students were engaged, I feel that just like many of us the students were excited to be using the latest technology to learn.