Abstract:

This qualitative study is an exploration of the inclusion of iPads through consideration of the lecturer’s experiences to obtain new insights and become familiar with professional learning situations, barriers, and opportunities in higher education. The population and purposive accessible sample for this study considers the participants employed at a private higher education institution who lectured in 2022, received an iPad, attended the Apple Teacher Roadshow (ATR), and participated in the Apple Teacher programme. Selected lecturers (N – 19) across several campuses located in four provinces across South Africa such as Gauteng (Sandton, Waterfall, and Pretoria), Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban North, Westville, and Pietermaritzburg) and Western Cape (Cape Town) and Gqeberha (Nelson Mandela Bay) attended the ATR that is focused on the inclusion for iPad and designed to give educators new and creative ways to experience and demonstrate learning offed by Apple Education. Participants engaged in several sessions that involved coding and augmented reality applications and received training, insights, and resources to implement it in the teaching and learning environment. The participants were introduced to the Apple Teacher programme which further required the practical application of insights gained at the ATR. Data collection method that will be utilised to collect the data will be focus group interviews on the Microsoft Teams platform in groups of 4 – 5 participants at a time thus strategized as five interview groups consecutively administered. This study critically too gauges the adoption of Apple technologies into learning design and measures the impact of having an Apple device and the initial training provided at the Apple Teacher Roadshow. Results showed that this digital technology would increase motivation, garner total engagement, and create interactive participation among the lecturers and students in suitably designed learning activities. Limitations to the study considered time-constrained, limited additional resources to use the applications, and added gadgets to their full potential.

Keywords:

iPad adoption, apple teacher, 21st century skills, teaching and learning.