[LINK] Apple iPads for Victorian School Students

[Tom Worthington]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> Tom writes,
> 
>> ... students could decide themselves which parts of the course they
>> need face to face help with. ...
> 
> Yes, it would be. However ... parents get to hand-over their kids ...
> for a significant time while they have another life of their own ...

One use for libraries at educational institutions is to give students 
somewhere to study when not in face to face classes. TAFEs and 
universities are upgrading their libraries and calling them "Learning
Commons" or "Flexible Learning Centres". A recent example is the
University of Canberra:
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/05/designing-learning-commons.html>.

The books in the libraries are being replaced with mores desks, some 
with computers. There are staff on the door to make sure things are 
under control. There are extended opening hours and a more relaxed 
attitude to food, drink and talking than the average library. There are 
group work areas and teaching rooms: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2007/12/ezones-at-university-of-queensland.html>.

The library may also have helpers walking around to deal with computer 
problems and research issues. At set times there may be staff to answer 
questions on particular topics or to supervise online tests: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/06/learning-spaces-in-brisbane.html>.

This arrangement is cost effective, compared to having to provide 
classrooms and teachers, with only a few teacher/librarians needed to 
supervise one large multi-purpose space. It should work fine for 
secondary school students, perhaps less so for younger students.

Some of this is being incorporated into Australian schools: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/05/research-lead-learning-space-design.html>.
At the risk of some debate, I suggest this "new" approach to teaching is 
much like Montessori schools of 100 years ago, just with computers 
added: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2010/01/book-on-designing-classrooms.html>.

In my view building more conventional lecture theatres and tutorial
rooms at universities is a waste of time and money. It would be 
interesting to see how much of the money currently being invested in the 
school building program by the federal government is on new style 
teaching spaces and how much is being wasted on obsolete classroom designs.

> Meanwhile, regarding iPads, here's another 'ICT-appliance'
> perspective, with apps which may not be possible (or easy eg
> touchscreen) with a PC ...

Recently a student in a seminar at ANU was using a touch screen ASUS
netbook. They had folded the screen back over the keyboard to use it as
a tablet computer. The result was not as elegant as an iPad (this looked
the size of two iPads stacked on top of each other). But it seemed to
work okay. They commented that teachers seemed to be less bothered by
them making notes on the device in tablet mode, than with the keyboard
in conventional laptop mode.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/user/3890