During the last few weeks ACS Cobham International School has begun the distribution of ipads for their students. Every child from first to tenth grade has now received an ipad for school purposes.
As technology has progressed rapidly over the last decade many schools across the globe are struggling with the dilemma of how education needs to adapt. If a school doesn't progress fast enough their students lose learning opportunities and the school falls behind. However, if a school attempts to move with technology they can hit some serious pitfalls costing them money and time, but still being left behind in a world of educational innovation.
While ACS Cobham is not the first to take on the ipad as a learning and teaching tool this move is still both cutting-edge and precarious. The school did know the risks when making the bold decision, they launched a pilot programme in the media department during last year. After seeing the results of the pilot programme they signed off on the full doling out of the apple product. The benefits can be shown clearly to anyone who is curious, the teaching applications that involve both studying and note taking on the ipad are both easy to use and helpful. Also many students with learning disabilities are even more able to reap the benefits of the ipad through applications specifically made for those with Dyslexia, ADD, and OCD to help them keep their schoolwork organised.
On the other hand, ACS Cobham has been experiencing some unforeseen consequences of the ipads. Firstly, the internet speed all over campus has slowed to a near halt recently. This has been due to the huge increase, across the board, of activity on the server. Secondly, there is every teacher's worst nightmare, no students paying attention. With every student in class allowed to be on their ipads, ipads which have apps for games and social networking, teachers are going to have to work harder to keep their classes focused. A teacher who prefers to be unnamed even stated that the administration told them that if students weren't using their ipads for school it was because their lesson was not engaging enough.
Like any innovation a lot is going to happen in the first few months of its introduction. ACS Cobham will either pave the way for other schools to follow in their footsteps or they will crash and burn. Regardless, if ACS Cobham wants this to go well they will need to have their policies and methods evolve with the new technology.
