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In this paper, we discuss a one-year-long pilot study introducing the iPad into classroom information ecology. In spite of much enthusiasm in the beginning of the study, interest for the iPad diminished significantly by the end of the study. Our primary interest was to observe the classroom information ecology and how the established networks and relations change with the introduction of a new mobile device over a longer period of time, thus eliminating the novelty effect. Our secondary interest was to identify factors contributing to decrease in both use of and interest for the device. Additionally, factors that may positively influence adoption are discussed.

The iPad as a learning tool has made its way into many elementary school classrooms worldwide. It holds a promise to be a game changer in elementary school education supporting more constructivist learning practices. This paper offers an insight into what happened when in two elementary school classrooms the students were enabled to generate both content and context for their own learning. One of the cases describes the 6 th grade elementary school children's involvement in a participatory design process aiming to design an application for the iPad. The application was to support learning about media production by enabling students to publish a weekly newsletter describing their school week in words, pictures and video. The second case is about how the 5 th grade children influenced their teacher and obtained permission to use one of the iPads creativity apps over a two-week period in order to learn about writing. Both of these projects were part of two larger pilot studies following the introduction of the iPad into the elementary school classroom information ecology. The children participating in the studies evaluated the projects as truly successful. The children's criteria of success were how fun and enjoyable it was to use the iPad. The teachers did not find the projects to be successful. The main criterion they used was the learning outcome. Both teachers found the learning outcome to be inferior to what they usually obtain using traditional teaching methods. Both teachers preferred to use the iPad as a plug-on to traditional ways of teaching. Although our study is small, the results point towards issues that may be important for better understanding of the factors related to acceptance of the iPad as a learning tool.Index Terms-iPad, classroom ecology, cool technology, design with children.

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