At the beginning of 2011 the Federal Government funding as part of the D.E.R. made it possible for us to supply all of our Year 10, 11 and 12 students with laptop computers. The decision was made to go with Apple Macbooks. The program has been highly successful. The 1:1 computing allows students to research, collaborate, access tools like Word and PowerPoint, access the College‘s fledgling Learning Management System (Moodle) and organise their note taking and assignment work. Electronic texts also mean the weight in the school bag is reduced.
We decided that we would provide parents and students with an option where students could take the machines home (for a small fee) and an option where the machines would stay at school. However, this has been problematic. The distribution and retrieval system of the stay-at-school computers is clumsy and time consuming. During assessment times students are feeling the pinch of not having their computer at home to work on and for those who have a home computer there are issues of compatibility with the Apple specific programs.
Due to the success of the Senior School program we have decided to adopt a 1:1 computing program in the Middle School. As of next year, each Middle School student will be issued an iPad in a protective case. IPads are being used increasingly in schools for good reasons. We believe they suit the needs of our Middle School particularly well for the following reasons;
- They are powerful computers in their own right, perfect for research and creating content
- They have no “boot up” time
- They are reliable
- They accommodate electronic texts very well (this means a much lighter school bag)
- They are very portable
- They are considerably less expensive
- They are easier to monitor
- Apart from the internet there is no requirement to “log on” to a network
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