Blog #11 -U.A.E. Moves Toward Paperless Classrooms

This article is about several Islamic Universities giving first year students tablets to assist them in their schooling. This is a tactic to attract men to pursue higher education because there are only 30% men in these universities. They also hope that the tablets will assist in raising the test scores, encourage the students to study more diverse areas of study, and to learn practical skills as well as skills that apply to the workplace. The Islamic universities have seen how tablets and technology has helped students in the United States in both middle and high school so they decided to mimic it to see if it is as beneficial for them as it is in the United States. It has also been shown in other countries such as Switzerland that tablets help students that are in graduate programs which will eventually rely solely on it for distant education. Another reason for the tablets is to minimize the amount of heavy books that the student has to carry around campus as well as saving students more money. Although the Islamic Universities don’t have to pay for tuition or books they are required to get a computer and if the school hands out tablets to these students they won’t have to spend their money on expensive laptops or the software that is required for a laptop. At first the teachers weren’t so sure about the IPads because they didn’t know if they would be able to operate them but once they received them they realized that it wasn’t hard at all. The Islamic Universities are working with Apple to create e-books and other apps specific to their curriculum.

I think this is a good idea because it more convenient for the student to be able to carry the tablet around with all the information needed instead of carrying around a lot of heavy books. It is also a good idea because it helps the teachers and students become familiar with modern technology which will in turn help them become more prepared to deal with technology in the workplace. I wish this was implemented on my Early College high school because it would have saved me a lot of money and relieved my back pain from carrying all those college books around.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/world/middleeast/29iht-educlede29.html?ref=internationaleducation