Once upon a time teachers stood in front of a blackboard writing letters of the alphabet with chalk and drilling students to develop literacy skills. But now that children are growing up with laptops, streaming video, and even iPads, what’s a teacher to do? Well, some of them—like James Harmon, an English teacher in Euclid, OH—have jumped on board.

During the 2010-2011 school year Harmon conducted a “teacher-research” study to measure the effect Apple’s iPad had on the language test scores of his students taking the annual Ohio Graduation Test. He published his results in a paper titled “Unlocking Literacy with iPad.”

Among the findings presented in Harmon’s paper were state-compiled statistics, which seemed to indicate that those students with iPad access in the year leading up to the test had a 6-percent greater chance of passing the test’s reading portion than those without, and an 8-percent greater chance of passing the writing portion.