Four schools in Singapore, the wealthy city-state, have begun handing out Apple iPads to students, relieving them of the need to carry satchels full of bulging textbooks and notes.
Nanyang Girls High School has spent S$135,000 (about $100,000) to buy 150 iPads for 140 students and 10 teachers in a pilot project. Users connect to the Internet using the tablet, and download books and course material. They can take notes on the iPad, and use worksheets.
"It's much more convenient," said 14-year-old Chloe Chen, sitting in a classroom wih her iPad in front of her. "Teachers can just tell us to go a website, and we can immediately go and do our work."
Seah Hui Yong, dean of admissions at Nanyang Girls school, said the iPad was chosen because it complemented a new method of teaching under which students are given more freedom to learn themselves, instead of relying solely on the teacher in traditional classrooms. "It's not so much about the iPad," she said, adding that if some other better device comes along, the school could switch.
"If you talk to the girls you will realise that they practically don't need training. I think if anything, the joke is the teachers are probably taking a little bit longer time in getting used to it." Safeguards are being put in place as well.
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