iPads at school

It sounds like iPads-at-school isn’t ready for prime time yet, but Fraser Speirs, a school tech director by day and Mac software developer by night, has successfully launched a program at his private school in Scotland and chronicled his experience here. Speirs is pioneering an iPads program at Cedars of School of Excellence, a private K-12 school in Greenock, Scotland (about 26 miles west of Glasgow). In his latest entry, Speirs declared the first day of school a success. “I’d love to tell you a story of techno-heroism in which I saved the day from certain disaster, because that would make a great story. Instead, like all the best flights, today was calm to the point of almost a wee bit dull.” In a few iPad-related classes, he ran the secondary-level students through “a quick tour of the iPad,” including text selection and Cut/Copy/Paste; spelling and keyboard autocorrect; the basics of Pages and Keynote (word-processing and presentation software), saving and reading PDFs in iBooks; and sending and receiving documents via email. Here’s a bit of coverage at ArsTechnica and CultofMac.com.

Related links

• “From digital disconnect to mobile learning”
• “Cellphones & school: A great mix”
• “iPod Touches in the classroom”