Olashore School Set to Introduce iPads in Classrooms
Stories by Emma Okonji Olashore International School, located in Iloko-Ijesa, Osun State has continued to integrate technology into its school curriculum and will soon introduce Apple iPads in all the classrooms as part of the daily learning process.
The initiative is part of its efforts at becoming one of the most technologically advanced schools in Africa and to continually prepare its students for the new competitive knowledge economy.
The initiative, according to the school, would enable students and teachers solve complex problems and discover latest research information simultaneously in real time.
This will be powered by Apple iPad and a full educational technology back up from Core Group Africa. This new and unique technology enhanced teacher-student connection for fast track learning, was announced at the recent Apple iPad Summit, organised by Core Group Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Nigeria can no longer wait and be playing catch up with technology or keep waiting for technology transfer. We have to leapfrog to catch up and get our young Nigerians prepared for the new technology driven world. We are pleased to be making substantial investment in this direction,” the school said.
The iPads in classrooms programme is expected to be achieved by setting up long area network (LAN), network distribution in classrooms and hostels, proper wireless distribution in each of the classrooms, indoor wireless device with high frequency, firewalls to manage internet access on the iPad, proper audio and visual multimedia systems in the classrooms that will support the iPad integration, learning management system that will not use the internet, and a Mac server for mobile device management that will be used to manage the iPads.
According to the school principal, Mr. Derek Smith, “Olashore International will also review its overall technology framework through a curriculum mapping program, faster internet connection, a new mobile device management (MDM) to check unproductive online presence. It will also make professional development for teachers mandatory, constant and purposeful, and finally, reinforce students’ responsibility in taking charge of their lives.”
The Apple Summit was aimed at running a successful students’ centred classroom, integrating technology in the class for differentiation, putting learning at the centre of the class not the technology, enabling a successful flipping of classroom, maximizing the learning time rather than the teaching time, encouraging collaborative learning system as well as making learning more experiential and interactive for the students.
Resource persons were invited from all over the world and most especially North America to facilitate the different sessions which catered for different levels of involvement in the deployment of iPad in the teaching learning process.
The summit took a look at how students could be empowered through creativity, how teachers can connect with students on a one-on-one basis and make learning last; how teachers can help students achieve learning using an iPad app called ‘Explain Everything’; how a collaborative web solutions like drop box, ever notes, Google docs, and ‘Socrative’ can help teachers and students share resources; how teachers can prepare video of their lessons on the app called ‘Explain Everything’ and share the video with their students to watch before coming to the class and then students’ practice in class, rather than the traditional method of teaching by delivering instructions online outside the classroom.