iPad replaces text books in Media Fundamentals

Donald James, Media fundamentals student, left and Donny Jun Man having a conversation with their iPads.

STORY BY SATYARTH MISHRA

For the second year, Apple iPads have replaced text books for Media Fundamentals students at Sheridan College.

Donny Jun Man, a Media Fundamentals’ student at Trafalgar Campus believes that the iPad makes him study better.

Students use iPads to research topics like current news, history and political affairs in classes.

“I Google the topics, which helps me understand exactly what my professors are talking about in class,” said Man.

While some research says writing notes are easier than typing, most of the Media Fundamentals students choose typing because of the convenience of checking spelling, grammar and many other reasons.

First year students in Media Fundamentals received iPads in the second week of their classes and then downloaded software.

“We don’t have to buy e-books. They even gave us a year licence for premium software for everything that we need and it completely gave me a better learning experience,” said Donald James, a Media Fundamentals student.

Some students believe that having an iPad is a lot more convenient than buying a lot of textbooks.

The cost of an iPad is around $400 to $500, where some text books individually cost that much.

“We have weekly quizzes in some classes so we need to have an iPad in order to deal with our weekly quiz,” said James.

Alan Flint, a professor in Media Fundamentals, believes a lot of students think that media is mainly entertainment culture, but after taking Media Fundamentals they realize there is advertising, photography, writing, etc.

“The iPad is an essential tool of the trade that is fully equipped with the latest software for processing many types of digital projects like Sound Design, iMovie and word processing,” said Flint

According to Flint, media is a frequently changing field and the idea behind replacing textbooks with iPads is to increase media literacy among students and to ensure that all students have access to the same software in program.

Working on the same type of device helps students share notes, websites and research faster than textbooks.

‘This external memory device becomes a good reservoir of information,” said Flint.

“The decision of replacing textbooks with an iPad made me nervous as an instructor in the beginning but later it freed me up because there is a lot of incredible good resources material if you know how to identify it online.”