iPads for High School Students?
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The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that Monte Vista Christian School has 60 iPads ready to serve advanced placement students with e-books, instead of the old paper variety. The iPads were introduced, this past Thursday, to advanced placement students who will participate in a pilot project. If all goes well, the school anticipates replacing heavy and expensive textbooks with cheaper, interactive e-versions.
The school believes is among the first to adopt iPads, but it won’t be the last. Teachers love the ability to get definitions of words with a click, and the access to video and newspapers. In some classes, students are using the iPads for anatomy demonstrations. English teacher Marcus Schwager, is excited to show students how to look up obscure words in Shakespeare and get the proper pronunciations.
Just by entering the school system, Apple is giving all developers new grounds to become even more creative with the design of new apps. How about a teacher checking comprehension with a pop quiz? Students can find out immediately whether they answered correctly, and an explanation is just a click away. If a teacher is lecturing, students can type their notes using the flat-screen keyboard, and if the teacher is talking too fast, well, there’s an app for that too. SoundPaper gives students the ability to record the lecture for listening later at home.
For now, students will have to e-mail their notes to an account they can access at home since the iPads are for classroom use only. Students will use their accounts to access e-textbooks at home. To smooth the way, Apple has provided a US$50 discount on the iPads, and it has a program to train teachers in how to use them.
