Could iPads in schools end textbook dramas? This is the debate raging in education circles as technology enters the classrooms and universities prepare to enrol the first batch of techno-savvy “Born-frees” – people born after 1994 – next year.
And parents must prepare to fork out for their kids to benefit from the iPad revolution in class. How this cost will be added to tuition and other fees remains to be seen.
Some private schools have already jumped on the technology bandwagon and integrated iPads into their teaching.
But while some pupils and teachers look forward to this brave new world in schools, some experts say SA is not ready for the technological overhaul of the education system, and that it may take a long time before it is fully implemented.
One of them is education specialist Michael Rice, who said teachers were indispensable, adding: “If the teacher is useless, the technology will be useless.”
But Rice admitted that the future is digital and we will have to move with the times. “The government must make sure that broadband is available in all schools for them to be able to access the internet.”
Rice said children were creative and innovative, and going digital in schools would make sure that they were “inspired to get on the Net and take responsibility for their learning”.
However, teachers must also be skilled in mentoring, facilitating and offering guidance to children.
If textbooks give way to iPads, the costs of printing and distribution will be eliminated and textbooks will not be shredded or dumped in rivers.
The excuse of “I forgot my textbook at home” won’t work any more, because it will be much more difficult for pupils to forget their iPad at home.
And school will be “fun”. Instead of paging through grey textbooks, pupils will be able to swipe across animated diagrams.
Last year, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, while campaigning for the position, promised a tablet computer for all pupils.
She came under fire from many who said the schooling system had many problems that could not be solved by technology.
Education analyst Graeme Bloch said most schools did not have libraries, let alone internet and cellphone connectivity. Until those issues were addressed it would be impossible for iPads to take over.
However, the reality was that iPads had “changed the game and we need to see and listen to how they can be used”.
iPads would never replace teachers, but they could play a big part in helping children to learn, said Jenni Gous, principal of Key School for Specialised Education.
Gous’s school, which caters for children with autism, started using iPads last year, and she said the results had been “just amazing”.
Working with autistic children was difficult, and introducing iPads was one of the latest ways of trying to get through to them.
“Everybody loves them and within minutes the children knew how to operate them,” said Gous.
Another school that has introduced the technology in its classes is Sacred Heart College, in Joburg, which has been using iPads for two years. It adopted the approach in an attempt to help pupils engage with their learning.
Colin Northmore, head of the college, said that in teaching a generation that used cellphones extensively, it was a “small step” for the pupils to become familiar with using iPads to learn.
Northmore foresees iPads replacing textbooks, but doesn’t “envisage a time when iPads will be the only source used by students for research and studying purposes. Children must be able to engage with different media, included printed and audio versions.”
This week Maramedia Publishing, which provides school manuals, launched a digital manual that will be available next year. It will have all textbooks in one tablet.
The publishers hope that in a decade “textbooks will have been replaced by advanced interactive digital manuals”.
“Technology in education should not be viewed as a distant future – it is already a part of our learners’ entertainment and should therefore be utilised as a tool in their education as well,” said Gideon van Niekerk, chief executive of Maramedia.
He said some private schools that had shown interest in the digital manuals and disagreed that tablets were elitist, saying they were a “solution to achieve excellence in education”.
He said the company was talking to the Gauteng Education Department about offering the digital manuals to schools. They
were more cost-effective than printed manuals, and tablets had become affordable - Sunday Independent