U.A.E. Moves Toward Paperless Classrooms

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

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DUBAI — Ahmed bin Futais is not carrying a heavy backpack with massive textbooks around Zayed University ’s Dubai campus this year. Instead, he has an iPad.

“I used to use it just for games, but now we use it for everything from presentations to study groups,” said Mr. Bin Futais, 19, a second-year student majoring in multimedia design. “Even when it comes to sketching for art class, I use the AutoCAD application instead of pencil and paper.”

Last year, the United Arab Emirates decided to turn a product that was already popular with students into an academic tool.

So when school began in September, 14,000 tablets were handed out to all first-year students in the country’s three major higher-education institutions: United Arab Emirates University , Zayed University and the Higher Colleges of Technology.

“Everyone’s on mobiles and iPads, so we thought this was the right time and place for what has now become the largest systematic deployment of any mobile device in schools in the world,” said Jace Hargis, director of Abu Dhabi Women’s College and Khalifa City Women’s College, both of which are part of the Higher Colleges of Technology. Dr. Hargis is also a member of the iPad initiative steering committee.

“Now, the goal is to roll it out to all students so that in four years, we will have complete saturation,” he said.

It is not about fun and games. The U.A.E. has an urgent educational need to address. Young men make up only 30 percent of university enrollment , and teachers often struggle to find ways to engage and motivate students who rely on the promise of public-sector jobs.

Education experts hope that the tablets will help raise low test scores; bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical workplace skills; and promote more diverse fields of study in a region where students are often pushed into subjects like business.

Tablet use has already spread around the world, particularly in the United States. In autumn 2011, New York City public schools paid $1.3 million for 2,000 iPads distributed across the five boroughs, including 300 iPads sent to a high school in the Bronx. In Chicago, 200 public schools followed suit.

Younger students have benefited as well. Six middle schools in California began using an iPad-only algebra course created by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt this year. And in Arizona, 36 kindergarten children were given iPads as a learning tool.

While iPads seem to be the tablet of choice, other devices are also being used. Kajeet, an American cellphone carrier, will give Android tablets to 120 public school students in Virginia and 180 to public school students in Chicago for the 2012-2013 academic year.

At the other end of the spectrum, tablets are becoming increasingly popular at the graduate level. All incoming students enrolled in an online M.B.A.-F.S.A. program, which focuses on the financial and insurance sectors, will get their own iPads preconfigured with applications specially designed for the course. The partnership between the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, in Belgium; University of St. Gallen, in Switzerland; and H.E.C. Montréal will rely almost entirely on digital, distance learning.

“Aside from relieving the previous burden of carrying fat, heavy folders when traveling, the iPad can open the door to new, effective ways of learning,” Jonathan De Grande, program manager at Vlerick, said by e-mail from Belgium. “Lectures are enriched with interactive material and video in a digital carrier that is compact and cost-effective.”

At $750 an iPad, it is a less-expensive alternative to laptops that cost an average of $1,200.

Local U.A.E. students attending public universities generally do not pay for tuition or textbooks, though they are required to buy their own laptops. The introduction of iPads will reduce that cost by nearly half, though in the U.A.E., which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, few schools reported problems with families that could not afford the technology.

The plan to offer iPads across the U.A.E.’s three main higher education institutions has been in the works for one year by government decree. With the support of the government, a team of specialists visited Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, in April to form a partnership and agree on training services for teachers and students.

Apple then completed a feasibility study to determine that the campuses had the proper infrastructure for the project. They shipped 14,000 iPads to the country and asked faculty members for their opinions on which 20 free applications should be downloaded for student use.

Teachers were “panicky” before they realized how easy it would be to use the device, said Andrew Blackmore, curriculum supervisor at Zayed University. He added that educators were now working directly with Apple to develop their own apps and create their own reading material as e-books on iBooks Author. By reducing paper use and waste, the iPads also promote environmentally friendly values in a region where fast cars and massive shopping malls rely on low-cost energy without thinking twice.

“Everybody is concerned over paper usage, wastage,” said Bryan Gilroy, assistant provost at Zayed University. “With an iPad, you just don’t get that. We already see a remarkable drop in paper use and the need to print things out. Even for us, we go from meeting to meeting and write notes on the iPad and send directly to other people.”

Troy Priest, also a curriculum supervisor at Zayed University, said a major change is that “the iPads are being used to engage students in a way traditional content didn’t.”

The initiative is a first step toward paperless classrooms.

A study by the consulting firm Booz & Co. shows that digitization ultimately supports the creation of labor-intensive jobs in an economy, in sectors like manufacturing, which has a greater effect on gross domestic product in developing economies, particularly in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

“When I used to walk around campus, I previously didn’t see many students sitting around with their noses in books all the time, whereas now everyone’s on their iPads,” Mr. Gilroy said. “They’re not necessarily working all the time, but they are definitely engaged with the technology in a powerful way.”