New UWS students collect their free iPads

Student taking a 'selfie' with iPad

Thousands of new University of Western Sydney students are collecting their free iPads as part of the University's program to bring knowledge to life for students wherever and whenever they need it.

Over several days in December and January more than 10,000 iPads will be distributed to new first-year undergraduate students at 'Connect & Collect' events on the UWS Parramatta campus.

This is the second year the UWS iPad program has run with current UWS students reporting the mobile devices have changed the way they study.

First year Bachelor of Arts student, Teigan Bryce, is just one of the 11,000 UWS students who have been using their free iPad for 12 months as part of the University's innovative 'Blended Learning Strategy'.

Teigan, who is the first in her family to go to university, says that receiving the iPad is helping her with university studies, and allows her to access her uni work anywhere, at any time. 

"The iPad has meant I no longer have to be at home to access my work, I can be anywhere with Wi-Fi. It has been instrumental in helping with my education," says Teigan.

People collecting iPads

Believed to be the largest rollout of its kind ever carried out in an Australian university, the UWS iPad initiative is the beginning of the University's major longer-term strategy to engage students in new ways of learning and interacting with all that UWS has to offer, across all its campuses and online. 

The iPads are helping to free students from the burden of carrying heavy textbooks as they can access their learning materials on one small portable device. 

Connecting to Wi-Fi at home, or via the free the wireless service on all UWS campuses, allows students to stay in touch with lecturers, with each other and to share the learning experience wherever they are. 

Learning concepts are being introduced through online media, so that in class, students can interact more with their teachers and with each other 

The UWS iPad initiative is just one part of a broader strategy to embrace emerging technologies to increase collaboration and complement face-to-face teaching, which remains core to UWS.

Ends

23 December 2013

Photos: Lena Balout

Contact: Paul Grocott, Senior Media Officer

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