School to equip students with iPads

A top-tier high school in Nanjing is considering equipping its seniors with iPads, the first inChina to do so, chinanews.com reported on Monday.

Starting in September, Jinling High School will provide the popular Apple tablets to seniorsinvolved in a project of cooperation between the school and the University of California at LosAngeles in the US.

Under the project, those students will take Advancement Placement classes and parts ofUCLA’s classes in addition to their own academic studies. If the pilot project goes well, theschool will extend the iPad plan to all grades.

At least for now, they are optimistic about its effectiveness.

"Students won’t need to depend on expensive foreign textbooks they used to buy at a fairlyhigh price if they have iPads," said Zang Yanzhang, the project director. "And they will receiveupdates on the contents of their textbooks and have access to academic resources in otherfields."

He also thinks the tablets will help the students get involved in classes more, and improve theirEnglish skills.

"By adopting certain educational software on iPads, the teacher will be able to follow all thestudents’ academic performance, which will help the teacher adjust his teaching techniques atproper times," he said.

"Using iPads will also help their English skills and better prepare them for the ScholasticAssessment Test."

The flip side of the popularization of iPads among students falls in mainly two aspects: parentsworry that their children could be distracted by games on iPads, and it may affect theireyesight.

Zang says those concerns are unnecessary.

"Technically we can control what the students can download on iPads. Entertainment items likegames, and QQ (a popular instant messenger) will be banned."

Gao Yanqing, an eye specialist, says that shortsightedness is mainly caused by intense closevisual work. If the students are not addicted to iPads they will have no problem with their eyes.

Apple sold 4.7 million iPads in China last year.