Scotland Capital's Schools to Get 39,000 iPads in 'Edinburgh Learns for Life' Initiative

[MacRumors]

All school pupils in Edinburgh, Scotland, between the ages of 10 and 18 are set receive an iPad as part of the capital's "Edinburgh Learns for Life" program, the city's council has announced.

The initiative, which begins in September and runs through to the end of 2022, will see the local government issue 27,000 new iPads to pupils and staff, and 12,000 refreshed iPads for pupils and staff.

Younger pupils will also receive iPads, however the city has yet to provide the exact number of units that will be available.

The 1:1 deployment is being made possible thanks to a £17.6 million ($24 million) grant provided by way of a partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council's ICT services provider CGI. The initiative will also provide wireless access points and a comprehensive program of professional learning for teachers.

"This is a really exciting project which is going to be a real game-changer for the learning and teaching in our schools," said councillor Ian Perry, education convener for the City of Edinburgh Council. "Giving pupils their own device has been shown to improve outcomes and result in increased engagement and motivation for our young people. It will create a learning environment which will drive higher levels of creativity also improve teacher and learner collaboration."

According to the government's website, key benefits of the Empowered Learning program for young people will include:

• Fair and equal access from P6 to S6, ensuring all pupils have personal access to digital learning with their teacher in school or at home.
• Effective digital workflow to increase engagement, improve teacher feedback and raise attainment.
• A range of innovative accessibility features to improve access to the curriculum for pupils with additional support needs.
• Pupils can work online simultaneously in a class or collaboratively outside the classroom.
• High quality digital applications for productivity and creativity, providing more ways to personalise and choose how they learn.
• Development of learning, thinking and digital literacy skills vital for success in today’s rapidly evolving, technological society.

The rollout meets a key element of one of the 15 outcomes and actions from the Council's three year business plan "Our Future Council, Our Future City: increasing attainment for all and reducing the poverty-related attainment gap."

The initiative highlights the increasing adoption of digital devices in education since distance learning needs increased since the global health crisis took hold.

Last August, Apple and T-Mobile announced a collaboration to provide 1 million iPads with high-speed cellular connectivity to students across California, as part of advance planning for distance learning in the next school year.

(Via AppleInsider.)

Article Link: Scotland Capital's Schools to Get 39,000 iPads in 'Edinburgh Learns for Life' Initiative

 

[Vado]

It makes me proud to be born and raised in this beautiful city

No child should be left behind or penalised in education due to a lack of access to technology.

 

[PeteBurgh]

As an Edinburgh resident, I am interested to see how this goes.

A useful reference point is Fraser Speirs's work elsewhere in Scotland. He ran the world's first 1:1 iPad deployment programme in a school, and talked about it on a (now defunct) podcast called Canvas with iPad guru Federico Viticci. Speirs went on a decade long journey from iPad-for-education evangelist to iPad-for-education harsh critic, eventually transitioning his school over to Chromebooks.

His argument, if I remember correctly, is that whilst the hardware is mostly great, the backend system administration tools to manage large numbers of iOS/iPad OS devices either don't work reliably, or simply aren't there. Particularly odd was Apple hosting an 'education focussed' event in Chicago in 2018, yet the crucial tool for managing iPads - iTunes U are basically abandoned. I hope things have improved since!

 

[George Dawes]

For such a small country they sure do have some very smart people, obviously with great taste too 😎

 

[jimbobb24]

No study has ever proven that technology increases education. The few randomized studies I know of showed it makes no difference. My school gave my son a chrome book and it has enhanced me having to police his watching youtube videos instead of doing homework.

in the future we may develop machine learning teaching that can perhaps he’ll students but until then most of these initiatives are a waste of money. Of course during the pandemic adaptations have to be made which might require technology but that doesn’t make it intrinsically useful.

 

[ruka.snow]

Great to see, especially when so many students are stuck at home. Though, strange to think there are many still in S6 by 18. You can leave school in S5 if you are 16 or at 15 if you have been accepted into university as I was.

 

[MBAir2010]

aye, can the kin place a hearts logo on the screen saver?
or Hibs?
hearts or hibs?

 

[qoop]

aye, can the kin place a hearts logo on the screen saver?
or Hibs?
hearts or hibs?

Half eaten bridie on the side

 

[ruka.snow]

Half eaten bridie on the side

You'll be hard pushed to find a bridie in Edinburgh, thats northern food. Dundee is the home of all things pastry and dripping with fat.

 

[true god]

iPads/iPhones actually make kids and adults dumber. Just saying.

 

[javanate]

Always good to lend the Scottish a hand

 

[guzhogi]

As an IT tech in an elementary school district that's also 1:1 iPads, I'm curious to see how they manage it? My district uses Airwatch as our MDM.

 

[GeoStructural]

For such a small country they sure do have some very smart people, obviously with great taste too 😎

Some of the greatest scientists in history were Scottish: Maxwell, Fleming, Bell, Napier, Rutherford, Lord Rankine, Cullen... these guys were either geniuses or way ahead in their fields.

Regarding the post: Apple once donated a bunch of iPads for our department, they had to be exchanged for Macs because they were nearly useless for everything we did. I related this story before here, I love my iPad but it is no where near to replace computers for serious work.

 

[ruka.snow]

It'll be interesting to see what the generation born into the iPad will bring to the workplace. For me, I can't imagine not having a keyboard.

Yet I watch my 8-year-old niece happy sit there with the Apple Pencil in a app that looks very CAD like as she designs her bedroom and does so as naturally as I put pencil to paper. Not only that, but when she is stuck on something, she doesn't ask for help, she goes to Youtube to look up a tutorial to follow.

Hopefully, these kids getting iPad's develops a generation of people that know how to look up information for themselves, rather than ask a teacher or their team leader.

 

[jimbobb24]

Some of the greatest scientists in history were Scottish: Maxwell, Fleming, Bell, Napier, Rutherford, Lord Rankine, Cullen... these guys were either geniuses or way ahead in their fields.

Don’t know why we are talking about this. But since we are for a period of time in the 1500-1800 a huge portion of the meaningful intellectual heft in the world was Scottish. Maxwells equations are a singular achievement of humanity on par with the development of calculus. Outside of scientists you have the moral philosopher Adam Smith (who also wrote some stuff on economics that made him more famous) and lots of others. In the book the 1000 (about most important/influential people in history) they have a section just talking about how it was possible that a tiny country over a brief period of time produced so many people that made it into the book. Anyway —- why are we talking about this?

 

[bobenhaus]

Chromebooks much cheaper, durable and the teachers can manage it students chrome profile. just drop one of those iPads and its game over for that kid. Not a good decision

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

What do Japanese or Nigerian people look like? People who are genetically isolated for periods of time have an observable phenotype. I dont know what’s tricky about this.

I never proposed that societies don't have a phenotype. I asked what Scottish people generally look like.

 

[qoop]

Some of the greatest scientists in history were Scottish: Maxwell, Fleming, Bell, Napier, Rutherford, Lord Rankine, Cullen... these guys were either geniuses or way ahead in their fields.

Regarding the post: Apple once donated a bunch of iPads for our department, they had to be exchanged for Macs because they were nearly useless for everything we did. I related this story before here, I love my iPad but it is no where near to replace computers for serious work.

Carnegie, Baird & Krankie too

 

[ruka.snow]

Chromebooks much cheaper, durable and the teachers can manage it students chrome profile. just drop one of those iPads and its game over for that kid. Not a good decision

Chromebooks also don't have any of the software on the Scottish curriculum and the students don't know how to use them. Regardless, they'll be coverage for replacements. Since this isn't the first time iPads have been deployed, I would expect there are numbers on how many need replaced.

 

[ruka.snow]

Don’t know why we are talking about this. But since we are for a period of time in the 1500-1800 a huge portion of the meaningful intellectual heft in the world was Scottish. Maxwells equations are a singular achievement of humanity on par with the development of calculus. Outside of scientists you have the moral philosopher Adam Smith (who also wrote some stuff on economics that made him more famous) and lots of others. In the book the 1000 (about most important/influential people in history) they have a section just talking about how it was possible that a tiny country over a brief period of time produced so many people that made it into the book. Anyway —- why are we talking about this?

Adam Smith also left a good fund behind which covers the bursaries for students in Adam Smith/Fife college. The man did a lot that lives on.

 

[qoop]

Adam Smith also left a good fund behind which covers the bursaries for students in Adam Smith/Fife college. The man did a lot that lives on.

Minnie the Minx founded modern day feminism.

 

[GeoStructural]

Don’t know why we are talking about this. But since we are for a period of time in the 1500-1800 a huge portion of the meaningful intellectual heft in the world was Scottish. Maxwells equations are a singular achievement of humanity on par with the development of calculus. Outside of scientists you have the moral philosopher Adam Smith (who also wrote some stuff on economics that made him more famous) and lots of others. In the book the 1000 (about most important/influential people in history) they have a section just talking about how it was possible that a tiny country over a brief period of time produced so many people that made it into the book. Anyway —- why are we talking about this?

I was replying to a comment where someone mentioned the proportion of significant figures in Scotland to its small size.

 

[Reason077]

At about £450 per iPad, it doesn't seem like they're getting a particularly good deal considering how many they're buying (and some of them are refurbished)!

 

[grantew1]

As an IT tech in an elementary school district that's also 1:1 iPads, I'm curious to see how they manage it? My district uses Airwatch as our MDM.

Maybe they have an MDM in place?

I work in a school district as an IT tech, we use Mosyle.

 

[ruka.snow]

At about £450 per iPad, it doesn't seem like they're getting a particularly good deal considering how many they're buying (and some of them are refurbished)!

Its pocket change really. 1 year of worksheets, textbooks, pencils, photocopy pages all cost more. iPad's are cheep and provide good value for the kids.