ANCHOR’S AWAY LLOYD ROBERTSON PREPARES FOR HIS FINAL NEWSCAST {page 12} LUNCH RUSH HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DOWNTOWN CAFÉ OPENS UP {page 18}
SUPERHERO PITT RESCUES WOMAN ON SET OF NEW FILM
{page 14}
VANCOUVER
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
MATT KIELTYKA/METRO
Tech-savvy schools do away with textbooks College students will be handed iPads at the beginning of the semester It’s the ‘way of the future,’ proclaims school ARIANA KAKNEVICIUS
VANCOUVER@METRONEWS.CA
Get used to seeing more students using handheld devices, such as the Apple iPad, as heavy and expensive books are swapped in favour of user-friendly eTextbooks.
Out with the old, in with the shiny, new and high-tech. Students at CDI College and Vancouver Career College will be using iPads as their primary learning tool this year, replacing the enormous cost and weight of textbooks that have burdened young scholars for generations. This will be the first and largest rollout of iPads in post-secondary institutions across Canada, with over 1,300 devices being distributed to students starting Thursday. Drew Lawrenson, vice-president of senior council for the
schools, says the institutions have been working for two years to develop a complete understanding of what the students would benefit from most. “This is a great opportunity for students,” says Lawrenson. “The iPads are user-friendly with extensive resources included to learn how to use and get the most out of them.” The iPad only weighs 1.3 pounds and will already be loaded with eTextbooks for students’ enrolled courses, complete with highlighting and book-marking capabilities and an Internet connection for research. The tablets are included at a discounted price in students’ tuition and are theirs to keep at the end
Wired in 54 per cent of students use their phone primarily for texting, while 31 per cent mainly use their phones for talking. 44 per cent of smartphone owners use Facebook as their primary communication app, while 20 per cent use BlackBerry Messenger and only five per cent use Twitter. Source: Best Buy mobile survey
of their studies. “This is the way of the future,” says Lawrenson. “We are hoping to eventually see 100 per cent of programs using this tool.”