iPad, therefore I am, and keeping a wired open mind

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This was published 12 years ago

iPad, therefore I am, and keeping a wired open mind

By Maris Beck

THE backpacks at Albert Park College look a little small. But then everything at the school, which is entering its second year, is a little different.

Students helped design the bags and point out that they do not need many books. Nor any calculators, notebooks, atlases and diaries.

Albert Park College students Aislinge Samuel and Oscar Walsh, both 13.

Albert Park College students Aislinge Samuel and Oscar Walsh, both 13.Credit: Rebecca Hallas

Instead each student has what the principal calls an "electronic pencil box": an iPad.

Principal Steven Cook, who founded the school last year, remembers his school days. He would get rapped across the knuckles for writing left-handed and smearing the ink. "It's quite a revolution that has taken place,'' he says. The revolution may be spreading, as the state government is assessing last year's iPad trial, in which it distributed about 700 of the tablets to 10 primary and secondary schools.

At Melbourne's Albert Park College, which was not part of the trial, students submit assignments and tests by email, and each subject has a web portal with homework, lesson plans and applications to download.

They create multimedia slideshows, stop-motion animations and cartoons for projects, as well as traditional essays. Parents can track progress online and check the lesson plans, which Mr Cook said created accountability and transparency.

"I really wanted to explore how far we could go," he said. "It's not just to access information. It's to create."

He said the technology was shaving $300 off the cost of each student's book list, almost enough to cover the cost of the iPads, paid for by parents, and costing less than $600.

The government-run school received twice as many applications this year as its 300 spaces, and students are chosen by geography and achievement. Aislinge Samuel, who is entering year 8 this year, said students liked the technology and used it frequently outside school.

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"It's for us, it isn't just for school,'' she said. ''We can do all these quite cool things in 2D or 3D."

Oscar Walsh, also 13, said: "The way the future is going, I think knowing how to use this stuff will be very helpful."

Victorian schools that participated in the government's trial of iPads last year included: Warringa Park School, Dimboola Memorial Secondary College, Epsom Primary, Manor Lakes Specialist College, Sunbury Downs Secondary College, Ringwood North Primary, Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute, VCA Secondary College, Westall Secondary College and the Victorian College for the Deaf.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department said the evaluation of the iPad trial would be available to all schools once completed.

"It is up to individual schools to choose whether or not they would like to introduce iPads at their schools,'' she said.

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