City of Edinburgh Council is to give iPads to every school pupil from p6 to S6 year groups as part of its Empowered Learning programme.
It is also planning to distribute more of the devices to pupils in P1 to P5 on a ratio to be agreed.
The distribution will involve a spend of £17.6 million and will begin from September in partnership with the council’s ICT services provider CGI.
Edinburgh said the programme will ensure all children in the age groups have personal access to digital learning, they will benefit from an effective digital workflow and teacher feedback, and have access to a range of accessibility features and digital applications for productivity and creativity.
It meets a key element of the one of the 15 outcomes from the council’s three-year business plan, Our Future Council, Our Future City, to increase attainment for all and reduce the poverty related attainment gap.
Game changer
Councillor Ian Perry, education convenor for City of Edinburgh, said: “This is a really exciting project which is going to be a real game changer for the learning and teaching in our schools.
“Giving pupils their own device has been shown to improve outcomes and result in increased engagement and motivation for our young people. It will create a learning environment which will drive higher levels of creativity also improve teacher and learner collaboration.
“The roll out will build on the skills developed by our teaching staff by having many more opportunities to use digital technology and create effective digital leadership teams in all our schools.
“In addition to giving pupils their own devices we’ll make sure the IT infrastructure is in place by increasing the bandwidth capacity and Wi-Fi connectivity in our schools.”
Image from iStock, monkeybusiness images
