Exploring iPad as a ubiquitous cloud device to enhance teaching

University students today are increasingly ‘digital natives’ each possessing several electronic devices and have never known a without computers or smart phones, interactive video games or iPods (Koutropoulos, 2011). It is typical in a classroom for students sit at the back of the room; each of them is busy with their own devices, browsing the Web, uploading photos to Facebook, and so on, whilst their lecturer focuses on presenting the teaching materials possibly using PPT slides. Generally they will talk to few students on the front rows, trying hard to interact with the other students. Clearly, there is limited student engagement and interactivity in the classroom. If we give the academic a tablet, can they change and channel the students' normal (online) behaviour using their own mobile devices and engage them in meaningful learning activities both in the classroom and beyond? And how to enhance their teaching and learning experiences? In addition, outside the classroom, how can tablets be utilised to assist the academic in many other activities, such as accessing eBooks, interacting with off-campus international students, assessing the students’ work, and performing teaching administrative tasks? This paper aims to explore and develop an effective approach to employ tablets as a cloud-linked ubiquitous computing (UC) device in higher education from the perspective of the academic staff. Since the release of Apple’s iPad in April 2010, there have been early studies into its use in higher education. There is very limited research show that using iPad in tertiary environments. iPad was found to possibly enhance students’ learning experience (Perez et al., 2011, Brand et al. 2011, Fontelo et al., 2011) but not necessarily lead to better learning outcomes. Lindsey (2011) and Yeung & Chung (2011) studied on staff used of iPads in teaching, learning and administrative activities and primarily on how iPad was used for administrative purposes (Lindsey, 2011) or access to course resources and library as a means of communication to students (Yeung and Chung, 2011). However, most of such studies tend to focus on the student perspective, there has been limited empirical research into how the academics use the device. According to many commentators, the introduction of UC and immediate digital information transfer, cloud-based storage and social network communication methods, education has been required to undergo major changes in order to meet changing higher education institutions’ strategic requirements. The incorporation of UC into the educational arena marks an important step forward, with U-Learning emerging as a result. In practice, the uptake of UC devices by academics to assist them in their professional duties has been very uneven. In theory, the combination of U-Computing and U-Learning should allow students to access education in a flexible, and seamless manner that substantially enhances their learning experience. Moreover, the combined availability of adaptive learning with U-Computing and U-Learning offers the potential for significant innovation in the delivery of even greater flexible education, by allowing for the personalisation and customisation of the student learning experience. This project aims to investigate these suppositions by studying how higher education academics actually use tablets and so arrive at a well-grounded understanding of how best to employ tablets in the university environment. Educational technology is constantly evolving and expanding, and it is inevitable that this progression will continually offer new innovation in the higher educational sectors. One potential transformation direction in education is providing teaching services through cloud computing. Cloud computing is defined as “consumer and business products, services, and solutions delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet” (Gartner 2008). U-learning services hosted by cloud computing such as tablets and smartphone in anywhere, anytime on demand. Cloud computing is an infrastructure to host a suite of services on demand just-in-time services (Gartner 2008) in the university and enables U-Learning. References Fontelo, P, Faustorilla, J, Gavino, A & Marcelo, A 2012, 'Digital pathology – implementation challenges in low-resource countries', Analytical Cellular Pathology / Cellular Oncology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 31-6. Gartner, Inc., Cloud Computing: Defining and Describing an Emerging Phenomenon, June 17, 2008, 3. IDC Koutropoulos, A, (2011). Digital Natives: Ten Years After, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 7(4), December 2011 Lindsey, JL 2011, 'LEADING CHANGE: ''GOING GREEN'' WITH iPADS', International Journal of Business, Humanities & Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 10-6. Perez, OA, Gonzalez, V, Pitcher, MT & Golding, P 2011, 'Work in progress: Analysis of mobile technology impact on STEM based courses; Specifically introduction to engineering in the era of the iPad', in Vancouver, BC. Yeung, M & Chung, H 2011, 'iPEP Talk: Pedagogical Conversations from The iPad Exploration Project'.