Scottish iSchool goes 100% iPad

Great

So all the students in this school will be able scrawl like a fingerpainting 4 year old. Since that's what a capacitive screen entails.

In principle there is nothing wrong with a tablet based learning an absolute prerequisite is to be able to write normally on the screen with a stylus device. Not only for learning handwriting, but also taking notes etc. That doesn't mean doing away with capacative input either since there are hybrid screens that do both.

Other prerequisites are that the device should be rugged, cheap and unattractive to thieves. All things that should instantly rule out using the iPad in any school.

It sounds like this school hasn't thought their cunning plan through or charges such exorbitant fees that they can afford to waste it stupid gimmicks instead of on proper facilities for their students.

So much negativity

Computer-based education has great potential, to be realised sooner or later. I have a shelfload of technical books I haven't opened in years - all my learning is on-screen.

Not sure you can get rid of writing on pen and paper until all examinations are computer-based, but then you don't write in textbooks either.

I haven't actually seen many computer-based learning resources that are better than a textbook for secondary school students, but I don't deny the possibility.

I have had some success with some simple javascript-based tools to teach basic algebra to a kid with very underdeveloped maths skills, and some of the phonics iPhone apps are quite interesting (although didn't hold the interest of a four year old for very long).

Anyway, good to see the market being developed with private money and other people's kids. Experimentation is good, right?

Here is your finger, far from the point..

iPad = (almost) porn-free zone

Whatever you might think of not letting an adult look at porn on your device, not letting kids look at it is actually advantageous.

I bet they would have used netbooks had it no been for Apple's porn-resistance.

Bad writing

They will have terrible handwriting when older

Back when I was at school......

We had to have a scientific calculator. That was about the same size as an i-pad, probably heavier but with more battery life.

Another Science vs Religion rant

As a supply teacher I have taught science at many schools. I can say that I have never met a science teacher that denied the evolution and/or big bang theories at church schools - and I have taught at Catholic, Anglican and Jewish schools. However, you do find them at secular state schools in alarming numbers.

BTW, any introduction to genetics will cover the work of Mendel, an Augustinian priest. I usually mention Georges Lemaitre, an RC priest, when covering the Big Bang theory.

Too pricey for me, but...

I can see many useful ways an iPad could be used in schools. Schools have computer labs, and iPads are really just portable computers, and far more advanced than the computers I used throughout school. It's probably not the best use of funds, but it's a private school, so go figure.

A 'Jennifer Government' Vibe

Putting aside the froth that invariably erupts all over The Reg the moment someone mentions "faith" or "religion", AC @ 09:17 01/09 made an important point. Technology has a place in education, sure: a very important place. But it must be introduced at appropriate times, and not used as an easy alternative to actual education.

I remember throwing a minor paddy as a v. small person because I hated maths and didn't see why I couldn't have a calculator. The parental units sat me down and patiently (really patiently) explained that being able to do maths with a calculator isn't really "being able to do maths". It's "knowing what buttons to press on a calculator". Once I'd proved that I understood the concepts behind the subject, then I'd be allowed to use a calculator.

I sulked a bit at the time but I have to admit that even then, when I thought about it, this kind of made sense to me. And as an adult I'm bloody grateful to the parents and teachers that they didn't just give in to my childish demands then. The odd thing is I actually find I really like maths now.

But that aside, what struck me about this story was the 'Jennifer Government' vibe it had. Yes, I know it's a private school, and therefore in theory it can do whatever it wants (and yes, it's run by religious people anyway -- cue aforementioned hysteria). Still, I can't help thinking that submitting an entire school's equipment supplies to one single multinational corporation is a step towards imposing a pseudo-education in which history, economics and other similarly... flexible... subjects are redefined to suit the corporation's own desires.

Not Catholic

I think Catholic schools in Scotland are all paid for by the taxpayer.

I expect this place doesn't pay VAT for anything, though.

Pentecostal means that they believe in superhuman powers, I think - "speaking in tongues" and healing and so forth. I've seen this "done" elsewhere, and when, unlike in the bible, they are seen to be not speaking any language known on Earth, it probably doesn't bother them. This makes it quite easy to do. There is a separate superpower of understanding what a person speaking in tongues is saying, which is rarer. I mean, -they- don't know.

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-did-you-leave-fold.html refers very unfavourably to what appears to be now the little network of churches that supports the school. This seems to be at variance with other evidence.

"Some members of my family started going to a scottish pentecostal church called "Struthers Memorial Church" In Greenock Scotland which in my mind has many almost cult-like attributes. And I saw how children in that church were almost brainwashed form an early age and encouraged to fear anything form thew "world" including newspapers, TV, theatre - basically anything that didnt "glorify" god. Not the typical pentecostal church by any means - far more "radical" but i saw what kind of personality type was drawn to that church and didnt like it. Think JESUS CAMP meets the "strict brethren" and you get some idea."

The other evidence I mentioned is that the school apparently are blogging on Blogspot, maybe have just started. The science blog didn't touch on evolution directly yet that I could see, but they don't seem to be coy about biology in the natural world (and cheese making), or emphatically pious. Mainly it's pictures, taken on iPhone if you were wondering.

http://cedars.inverclyde.sch.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Blogs

Also, their prospectus on their wiki, there, at first glance doesn't mention taking care not to learn things that God disapproves of.

http://www.buying-ipod.com/TB/?P=2303 is an older report about how the school was much concerned about the amount of smut on offer in the App Store, which I think has now been substantially removed. "Their students might be exposed to apps like Amateur Swimsuit , Movie of Sexy Japanese Girl and A Hidden Cam Thong. Silly or no, the school has an obligation to parents..." And to the children. I don't think that is silly, do you?

But, what would "A Hidden Cam Thong" actually show you? I mean, if it's facing out then you see your trouser zipper, if it's facing in then it's dark. Perhaps you unzip and let the lens peep out to surreptitiously photograph people around you at waist height, for what that's worth, but I think you'd be noticed. Or you leave the thong lying around and hope that somebody else finds it and decides to put it on. But I don't think they've thought this through...