Phew, what a week it as been for my boss, Professor Bob Hill – Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Adelaide and his team. It is an absoulute thrill to be part of his very bold experiment in reforming the way science is taught at one of the nation’s top tertiary institutions. A major lever in this broad reform project is the provision of a free iPad to every first year student enrolling in the Sciences next year. This blog will try to keep track of information about this project as it emerges and provide links to source material wherever possible.
UPDATE:
(mid year break, prior to second intake of students receiving free iPads)
A dynamic list of some of the online material related to the iPad ELFS trial at the University of Adelaide. Feel free to add your contributions by using the tag “uofaipad” in pinboard.in or other social bookmarking tools.
Faculty website:
- Project page on the official faculty of sciences at the university of Adelaide website. Includes information on the 10BigQuestions and eligibility with terms & conditions.
- Additional info for teacher information evening
- Podcast from teacher information evening
Mainstream Media Coverage:
- Sat Advertiser article that started it all
- ABC radio Sat a.m.
- Sunrise 7 tv Mon a.m.
- ABC 891 breakfast radio Wed a.m.
- Syndicated stories [google news alert or search or something for the collection]
- UPDATE1
- Tue Advertiser front-page ‘scrap exams’
- 7pm Project tv Tue 26/10
Presentations:
- Prof Bob Hill at CEBIT Web Forward 2011 (slides)
- Apple Education Consortium June 2011 national roadshow (references).
- SASTA annual conference keynote speech (Scientists for the future – training professionals for a brave new world)
- AISSA iPad event.
- DECS SA “Scientists for the Future:
- December ‘information night‘.
- October ‘information night‘.
- Prof Bob Hill at “switching on to science”
Social network buzz:
- Phew, there have been so many tweets, facebook updates and more that I cannot link to them all. Will try to get some sense of overview in the coming weeks.
- Snapshots of a few of my favourite tweets.
- There have been over 50 comments on the adelaidenow webpage for the “Sat Advertiser that started it all” listed under mainstream media coverage
- The portable prof at iPad academy looks interesting
Blogs and stuff:
- between the buttons: podcast with more detailed interview of Prof Bob Hill
- Learning with Angst: Notre Dame University (an excellent blog by Corey Angst who is teaching the first pilot class with iPads – an inspiration to my attempts to document our efforts)
- Mobile learning blog – early analysis.
Interesting responses:
- ‘Wunder-Flunder‘ german tweet (twitter for iPhone translated a reference to the iPad as “Wunder-Flunder” to “Miracle-Flounder” which I found so amusing that I decided to code-name the project after it and to weave the word flounder into the title of this post)
- RSB-accessibility
- Schools: a couple of schools have already offered partnership & preparation
- Research staff: a range of responses including an individual rant based on mis-information. That staffer has been seconded to the project team for their sins and has already made significant positive contribution
- Teaching staff: lots of reactions both +ve and -ve. Most of the people with -ve comments warm to the larger strategy
- Professional staff: excited but have not had time to catch breath yet!
Quotes and soundbytes:
- “open source textbooks”
- “Anyone coming in on this trial is in for a very intersting ride”
- “This will be the first cohort of students who really saw the revolution in how education is going to be in the future”
- The iPad is seen rather as the catalyst for a wholesale paradigm shift in the nature of science education at the university, as connected, interactive, collaborative students explore the workings of science, and its real world applications, in a radically reconceived way – betweenthebuttons
technorati tags:seyfang, mikeseyfang
This looks like a terrific opportunity to rethink and renew teaching and learning. The focus will, I hope, be on new ways to engage learners, as well as new and innovative learning activities such as student-created work, collaboration, interaction, and mobile learning activities beyond the classroom. There’s so much potential, far beyond digital textbooks, and I’ll be watching this project with great interest. Best of luck!
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