Creative engagement with 1:1 iPad Pro & Pencil at The Scots College Sydney

The Challenge

The close collaboration between The Scots College’s elearning and ICT teams underpins its driving pedagogy: the understanding of the diverse and dynamic nature of intelligence. Learning experiences need to be increasingly personalised, shaped in response to the boys’ stages of development & towards a ‘growth mindset’.

Mr Bobby Demitriou, ICT Manager at The Scots College Sydney, explains that the Preparatory School’s shared bank of laptops previously had to be booked by teachers and moved between classrooms. Problems ensued, including the management of the various devices and teachers’ reluctance to use the fleet due to unreliability and time loss. “Young boys logging in at each lesson ate into class time. There was no individual responsibility to look after or charge devices. And the boys often had work stored in different places,” he says.

The Solution

The existing iPads at the school were “very popular with teachers and, with their requests for access to more of them, we decided to go completely iPad for our new fleet,” Mr Demitriou says.

The iPad Pro wrapped the advantages of a keyboard, to be used to learn touch typing, as well as the paper-equivalent Apple Pencil for freehand writing and drawing.

CompNow confirmed the solution and implementation path. The single technology fleet would solve the management simplification issues. Appropriate restrictions could be placed on access and use.

The Apple Device Enrolment Program implemented by CompNow, saw the new fleet pre-configured and set up to connect to Scot’s Jamf environment out of the box. “This approach smoothed the introduction from the first batch. We have had continuous, great support from CompNow,” Mr Demitriou says.

The success of the project, from the initial order of 300 iPad Pros, has grown in the last two years to a fleet of 380. CompNow undertakes all repairs and replacements.

Emerging research is showing the use of iPad Pro and Apple Pencil for writing, sketching – as opposed to pure keypad – has a significant impact on the depth of retention. There are distinct differences between a stylus – tapping to move or open assets – and digital inking with an Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil add-on was to help Scots’ primary aged boys in their transition to educational technology, to work on their pencil grip and writing, as an adjunct to traditional pen and paper. “With the Apple Pencil they can draw a response to something they read or learn. It also opens the door to information and ideas sharing,” Mr Brandon Bailey, The Scots College elearning Integrator says.

Professional Development for ‘Growth Mindset’

Critical to the success of the iPad and Apple Pencil introduction was CompNow’s Professional Development program to provide the big picture for all Preparatory School teachers.

CompNow met with Scots’ Leadership Team to determine how best to rollout in line with its pedagogy. Critical to adoption would be building integrity for the new learning tools.

What support did the teachers need to maximise the effectiveness of the iPad and Apple Pencils in the classroom? What skills would help them explore the creation of content and the devices’ power to deepen student learning?

“CompNow proposed having a single induction workshop, with our teachers working together from a common knowledge base to create a single positive mindset. From there we have built a highly effective program,” Mr Bailey says.

The Benefits

With the single fleet of iPads and 1:1 ownership: “Technology is no longer getting in the way of learning. Teachers can confidently plan to include it in their lessons. Now, there’s no stress, everything is reliable,” Mr Bailey says.

With each student allocated a device “the boys have a sense of independence and responsibility – in terms of not only use but charging and keeping their devices safe. We have far fewer insurance claims and repairs,” Mr Demitriou says.

The adoption of the iPad, as the only in-class device, has “simplified our system issues as we are no longer rushing around the campus delivering and maintaining equipment. And there’s additional time saved as pushing out apps is a simple operation and licensing is automatic. We are able to do more strategic ICT development for the College” he says.

CompNow is a trusted technology partner at The Scots College: “they have been supporting us for several years and that relationship is critical in our drive to extend learning opportunities within each of Scots’ campuses,” Mr Bailey says.