Australian primary school started the initiative with iPad

According to Apple’s newsroom, Australian Primary School shares lessons learned, launches augmented reality kindergarten classroom.

In an Australian local primary school, it proceeds with one-to-one iPad initiative to find innovative ways to engage every one. With a community of students representing 50 different cultures, of which 73 percent are from non-English-speaking backgrounds. In fact, three-quarters of them speak English as a second language. Thus, the Primary School takes advantage of iPad to help them flourish against all odds.

For example, a self-directed learning program made children find their talents by selecting their own research topics. Even though they studied at home, they could use Keynote, iMovie, Pages, Text to Speech, and stop-motion animation. In addition, during lockdown, students used the Seesaw app to create digital schoolwork portfolios and share them with teachers.

AR realized 3D orientation

An important activity that did not easily transition into a remote experience was orientation for the incoming kindergarten students. In fact, the restrictions did not allow parents to attend orientation in person. Therefore, the school created the interactive book “Welcome to Kindergarten” in Apple Books. It combined video tours, photos, audio messages, and augmented reality (AR) to help new students and parents understand the school.

With the “3D Bubble Experience,” incoming students and their families could virtually explore a real kindergarten classroom through AR. Even though the school cannot open a one-off orientation event, new kindergarten students and their families can revisit the bubble. What’s more, they can read the book again, as often as they wish to do so.

Why is an iPad useful?

According to its official page, Apple‑designed chips in an iPad can transform how we experience photos, gaming, and AR. They also make iPad powerful enough to handle the apps we use every day.

In addition, iPad is incredibly thin and so light that we can carry it with us everywhere. What’s more, it has up to 10 hours of battery life to keep us going all day. iPads can stay connected on the go with fast Wi‑Fi and up to Gigabit‑class LTE. As a result, we can even print, project, and send files wirelessly.

AR is more applicable for education

In the other article, how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (AR) work for vocational training. In this article, we can see the case that AR in iPads transforms students as well as their parents’ experiences. Of course, this is just beginning to make use of new technologies in the education field. This is because we have status-quo bias and some people are reluctant to be changed.

For example, the pandemic urged more countries to impose on severe restrictions and many children learned from their home. However, remote learning is totally different from country to country, or even from region to region. Teachers of Japanese elementary schools felt that digitalization in the school was behind the standards of other advanced countries.

Therefore, there is a huge gap between some schools that take advantage of new technologies or other schools that don’t. Whether we want or not, most of young generations must get accustomed to new technologies to work in this new era. It seems better for more schools across the globe to introduce new technologies to enhance students’ potential.

In this sense, good samples are necessary. This is because they can change our perception or impression. The local school in Australia will be one of them. As a result, new technologies including AR will be more popular in schools.