The Advent of Tablets and iPads
We briefly touched on this in an earlier blog. Technology has dramatically changed how people improve learning due to the advent of tablets and iPads. They are now able to learn in ways that previous generations could not possibly have dreamed of. To learn in 90s, all you have in front of you was the teacher and the textbooks. In some cases, you had to share a textbook because there weren’t enough to go around. Often they are tatty and worn out. Rarely you can find a text book in new condition. Outdated books or materials are usually available and keeping them for several years already. Sometimes, outdated information were being taught. Thus would lead to poor learning outcomes due to inaccurate information used for assignments.
Access to Latest Information
Nowadays students don’t need to worry about that. Because when books are available, they are now always in a form of hard copy and digital version. Enabling updates to be more easy and quick, and therefore students can learn more current information. This just isn’t an issue with iPads because books and other items available in the Apple iTunes store are updated fairly regularly. Some app developers update weekly, others fortnightly and at the very least every few months. It is actually a requirement if an app developer wants their app to remain in the store. Constant updates mean the information is more relevant and can be better applied to real life situations.
Along with being up to date and information available in real time, collaboration is much easier than the usual. It used to be that if you were in Australia studying an Australian course, with an Australian teacher you would only receive information from Australia. Nowadays, due to iPads having high speed WIFI and video calling capacity, students can connect with teachers, lecturers and students from other countries. This means that geography is no longer a barrier to guest lecturers making an appearance. If you were studying Politics at university and a teacher from America wants to offer some analysis based on American politics, then it would be easy. They would just video in at the right time and you’d have access to information you otherwise wouldn’t.
Interesting Way of Learning
Due to their internet capability, teachers and lecturers can also make courses more interactive. They can use videos to break up the lecture, so people no longer talk all the time. They are also able to participate and in some cases, particularly in the case of Media Studies and Film students. Students can generate their own content and make their own videos, without blowing the budget. The very cost effective solution for educators is the use of tablets and iPads.
Capability for Disabilities
That’s not the only way that tablets and iPads are helping people to learn. Likewise, students with special needs can learn more easily. Kids with disabilities have the capacity now to learn quickly due to their touch recognition. The benefit of this is that kids with special needs can also learn as the normal kids do. They can learn in the same way that able bodied students could. Ultimately, that leads to better outcomes for everyone in education.
This is of course, just a snapshot as to why more schools and tertiary education providers embrace tablets and ipads.
