“When school wants students to put their technology tools away, it’s like requesting a doctor to save a life with one hand tied behind his back,” says Matt Millner, the author of the website Pluralsight. In this digital era, technology tools play a vital role in the education industry. For instance, technology has the capability to boost students’ productivity and it has the ability to transform teaching by conducting in a new model of connected teaching.
Ever since its introduction in 2010, the Apple iPad has made enormous contributions to society. Perhaps, there are people who still think that no other industry has been greatly impacted by this piece of technology, including the education industry. Nevertheless, iPad is truly a device that will bring several positive impacts to students in numerous aspects.
Life as a student can be full of freedom and enjoyments, but it’s not all about gathering or partying; students also have the obligation to complete their school works.
To ensure their journey as a student is steady and effortless, an iPad would be the best technology device to pick out for university or even college. The Apple iPad is a considerable selection for any University students for a few reasons.
1. Making students’ life easier and trouble-free
Carrying notebooks and textbooks around can be burdensome. By having an iPad, it enables students to go completely paperless. This indicates that students can store their lecture slides, notes and anything else on their iPad instead of printing them out. It makes everything so easy and convenient to carry and refer.
Additionally, iPad is ideal for the always-on-the-go lifestyle for every student, which means it can be easily carried and moved if compared with the laptop or textbooks. Here is the comparison between the size of iPad and MacBook.
“As a double major university student, I found myself carrying too many papers, textbooks and notebooks on a daily basis, which genuinely began to leave a negative impact on my health,” a University student, Delarosa mentioned in the interview.
“Now, with being able to just carry my iPad, I can finally walk across campus without a care in the world, and not an ache in my back,” she added.
Moreover, in university, students are always setting up in different classrooms, cafes, study rooms, or dorms where they need to pack up their belongings after every use. At this time, having an iPad is much more helpful and convenient. This is because all the study materials and stationeries that students need can be found on the iPad. Hence, it’s easier for them to slip their iPad into a purse or backpacks.
If you add up all the time students have spent on keeping their belongings and shutting down a laptop, a lot of time is saved.
2. Allowing students to multitask at once
Through an interview with a university student who is studying in Melbourne, named Jayden, he said that through the iPad built in “split view” feature, he can easily split his iPad screen between his power point slides and his notes which is extremely useful for him to perform note-taking.
For your information, the latest version of iPadOS(the operating system of iPad) allows its users to use multitasking to operate with two applications side by side at the same time, which is useful for students to do research, reading and writing.
Besides, students can also keep a stack of apps that slide in front of any opened app, which is known as the “slide over” mode. With the “slide over” mode, students can swipe through those apps to check in on news, messages or other documents.
Other than that, while operating the split view mode, students are able to move text, pictures, or files from one app to another. For instance, students can drag texts from a website into a note, a picture from Google into an email or an event on a calendar into a text message.
Besides, students can also keep a stack of apps that slide in front of any opened app, which is known as the “slide over” mode. With the “slide over” mode, students can swipe through those apps to check in on news, messages or other documents.
Other than that, while operating the split view mode, students are able to move text, pictures, or files from one app to another. For instance, students can drag texts from a website into a note, a picture from Google into an email or an event on a calendar into a text message.
3. Letting students to access to their documents anytime and anywhere
Another reason why iPad is worthy for university students is that iPad integrates data seamlessly with other Apple devices, such as iPhone and MacBook.
iCloud allows all the stuff on iPad to be easily shared and stored. To give you a better idea, if students edit their documents on the iPad, they will see all the changes on the other Apple devices.
Furthermore, iCloudwill synchronize and back up students’ staff on the iPad daily over Wi-Fi. Images, documents, files, apps, and notes on the iPad will be kept into the iCloud automatically.
Thus, students can access all their files from the Files app on Apple devices or File Explorer in Window PCs. That means students’ files are safe, up-to-date and available anytime and anywhere even when their iPad is not with them.
4. Allowing students to download numerous useful applications for their study
Other than that, the iPad can actually be an effective approach to complement any students’ study. This is because the iPad consists of thousands of useful applicationswhich are best suit for university students.
Note Taking applications like Notability and GoodNotes allow students to perform note taking on their iPad, without the need of preparing paper and stationeries before the classes.
Apart from this, Remind is also one of the free educational applications that is designed to improve the communication between students and lecturer. From Remind, lecturers or tutors can send messages to their students instantly in order to keep their students updated of what they need to work on.
What’s more, Apple does provide a discount on new iPad for students’ studies with Apple Education Pricing. The discount is available for all the students, teachers and staff. For referencing, below are the different models of iPad and its price.
Apple iPad model :
iPad 2019 - RM1489
iPad Mini - RM1699
iPad Air - RM2199
iPad Pro - RM3499
To sum up, every coin has two sides. Hence, as a university student, you should weigh the cost and the benefits, and decide for yourself whether it is necessary to purchase an iPad for education.
By : Lai Vick Hang