The University of Western Sydney set to deploy black boxes
The University of Western Sydney ("UWS") recently announced that it would give all new students an iPad. Numerous commentators on The Conversation and elsewhere have — probably rightly, in my view — panned the initiative as an example of marketing over substance.
UWS' own information on the initiative provides a vague assurance that "the iPad initiative will assist academic staff in the delivery of cutting edge learning and teaching." The concrete examples that follow are limited to online lectures and library services, which have been available for a decade or more at universities around the world, and work fine with devices that existed long before the iPad.
The Conversation quotes one Phillip Dawson observing that the iPad may help bridge the "digital divide" (though he thinks it is an expensive option). I can certainly see a lot of sense in providing facilities that mean that students, no matter what their background, are able to participate in their courses and complete the work required by them. UWS, however, seems to have fallen victim to the black box fallacy in thinking that iPads are the solution for all courses. Given that much university work involves writing essays, doing mathematics and (in the courses that I teach) writing computer programs, what are students expected to do with a device without a keyboard?
Dawson goes on to observe that students can expect "this sort of technology will be an integral part of the learning experience at UWS", which seems consistent with UWS' own announcements as well as the comments of Simon Pyke on a similar initiative at the University of Adelaide. If so, I pity the academics at UWS (and the University of Adelaide) who I suppose are being asked to teach to the technology instead of being offered the technology that best supports their teaching. I fear to write what I would think if someone told me that I had to teach programming using an iPad, which I understand to have no keyboard, no compiler, and no ability to run programs until they have been approved by Apple.
I'm pretty sure that Apple will be the biggest winner out of UWS' purchase. Apple will sell thousands of devices, and add UWS' imprimatur to its educational credentials. Maybe the students will get a piece of equipment with some value as a content delivery and communications tool, but to what are they going to turn when they want to practice the critical thinking, scientific skills, art and communication skills that they actually came to university to develop?
