George Fox University, located in Oregon, has expressed its willingness to ‘take new Apple product on board’. The university authorities are sure that iPad will become indispensable in the educative process and can maximally simplify access to the whole necessary information that will promote rise of general learning curve.
Formerly each first-year student was supplied with new MacBook which has been a right hand throughout academic activity but after iPad outlet the situation will somewhat change. New students will be given an option of choosing between MacBook and iPad; everyone will be able to weigh all pros and cons and choose the most suitable device.
Of course iPad can’t completely substitute for laptop and in principal it doesn’t have to. There is one conscious reason for giving such choice to the students, most matriculates are sure to have laptops and it makes no sense to receive another one. In this case it will be logical to choose tablet as in fact it can fulfill some functions better than laptop or considerably easier.
Greg Smith, the university’s chief information officer in his speech says the following: ‘Hereby we kind of ask students: ‘What platform do you need?’ Now they can choose between tablet iPad and more high-performance laptop. We understand that there is some uncertainty at present. Will students undergo hardship owing to lack of physical keyboard in iPad? Can tablet entirely supply all student’s needs? We will find answers to all such questions only after we start’.
Today the average training cost in George Fox University is $ 26, 000 what is definitely more than enough to develop the system of information delivery by the instrumentality of tablet; however this is just plan so far. After market launch it will become clearer how much can it fulfil these functions but judging by range of rumours tablet has very comprehensive facilities.