iPads and iPod touches are increasingly common in classrooms across North America, it seems.

iPads are being provided to students at several Bay Area public and private schools this year, including Hillbrook, which claims to be the only K-8 school in America using tablet computers in class and sending them home, reports the "San Jose Mercury News" (http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16860666?nclick_check=1).

At Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose -- which introduced 32 iPads into the classroom this fall -- the devices are used only in class. And Stanford's School of Medicine gave 92 iPads outright to its first-year students this September. At Hillbrook, which received its iPads last summer as a gift from the parents of two students, seventh-graders such as Sophie slip the handheld devices into backpacks at the end of the school day. Hillbrook's program has been such a hit that it will be expanded next year to include eighth-graders, says the "Mercury News."

What's more, 20 third-generation iPod touches and one iPad have been purchased for use by students and teachers in an effort to bring technology and learning together at the Lloydminster Public School Division in Canada, reports the "Meridian Booster" (http://www.meridianbooster.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2889786).

"We're trying to look for ways to tap into the current culture in terms of technology that's out there," says Michael Diachuk, director of education for the LPSD. "One of the things we see as a priority is finding ways and means where … they're really engaged in learning."

After teachers apply for use of the class set, they're given a list of approved applications related to their specific course material that are downloaded to the iPods before being used by the class. The "Meridian Booster" says that students through all grades have found uses for the iPods, with kindergarten students using them to learn their alphabet, high school biology students comparing what they're seeing through the microscope to video examples, Cree studies students learning the three different dialects and advanced math students using a flight simulator.