I am a high school teacher in a poor region in Africa and I have some really tough students (16 - 19 y.o.). Most of them come from the local slums and have zero motivation for school.

This week, I showed them the iPad and they loved it.

I divided the class into groups of three and each student had the chance to use the iPad and try some of the apps: an electronic version of Rolling Stone magazine, an app with babies (most of the students are girls, so they loved it), Photo Booth, Solar Walk and a couple of games (Lane Splitter, Angry Birds).

They also tried a local website with corporate information - that was the main reason (or should I say pretext?) for bringing the iPad to school.

It was wonderful to see those kids so interested and happy. Steve Jobs would have been proud.

What a great story, Flavio...that was so nice for you to bring your iPad in so the students to see and use it.

Would love to hear what more you will do with your class using your iPad!

Cheers!

Keep us posted on that story Flavio.

Nice story. Does your iPad have a camera? If so, please consider taking a picture (of your students looking at you ask you hold the ipad and upload it here), so we can see their faces (assuming they won't mind their images going on the internet, of course).

I teach also, but in the US. I've brought mine to school and let the kids use the educational apps. They love it. I've made certain high-interest apps a "reward."
One student loves trains and will work hard if I let him play the train app (Speedy Math Train).
There are lots of free education apps for it that your students may love. I teach elementary now, but when I taught middle school, I had some difficult-to-motivate students, and many were also from poverty. I think they would have loved to do some activities on an iPad if they were invented back then. (They loved the computers.)

Also, there is a free sku-ball app that some teachers use to teach place value. Kids take turns getting the ball in the hole, and students have to say which place value they reached, etc.

good story.