iPads on my mind

with Lindsey Dawson

I’m thinking few teens are eager to start school now that summer’s finally here –unless you’re in Year 9 at Orewa College. If so, you’ll be dead keen, assuming that mum or dad has managed to get you the big new requirement on the stationery list – an iPad2 or similar tablet. A gasp went up last year when the news about the school’s plans broke in Hibiscus Matters’ July 13 edition. Kate Shevland explained at the time that this is the way the world is heading, that other schools will soon follow and that the college likes iPads because the battery is grunty enough to go all day without a recharge. Meanwhile, parents winced at the thought of finding close to $1000 for their kid’s groovy new learning tool.

You do have to hand it to Orewa for being right up with the play. A quick Google search reveals that many educators worldwide are mad for the iPad. Its whizzy range of applications opens up fabulous access to learning. The difference is that in other countries, taxpayers are supplying them.

Across the Tasman, a Victorian trial programme is handing out 700 iPads to students at selected schools. Here there’s no such largesse, which is tough for parents struggling to pay even basic food bills. It’s hard, too, for some grownups to understand why kids should need them. Just wait though for when their teens can come home and share the wonders they’ve learnt about today.

Me, I can’t live without my laptop. And I long for more local wifi hotspots. I get lonely in my home office so am often out in cafes typing away. (Say g’day if you spot me.) But going online is often not easy. Library wifi is great, but I can’t get coffee there. Still, I’m finding cafes that will give me a password so I can log on; Oliver’s in Orewa is one, and Mozaik just along the road. And McCafe.

I’d like to know about more. Do you have a favourite? Drop me a line (email address above) and I’ll share them in my next column.

Author and media presenter Lindsey Dawson lives at Hatfields Beach, where her connections are so long that she can remember former PM Robert Muldoon sunning himself on the sand during his summer holidays 30 years ago. She will write Life on the Edge monthly, sharing her perspective on a wide range of topics of community interest.

(Published February 1, 2012)