For Seton Hill students and professors, iPads open new paths
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Katie Fritsch, 22, of Allison Park, was one of 300 students to graduate earlier this month from Seton Hill University in Greensburg.
Soon, she will begin a career in graphic design. But she is already among an elite group attracting national attention as the first class at Seton Hill and one of the first universities in the country to use iPads in the classroom.
The university gave each of its 1,850 students a 10-inch touch screen iPad and a 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop this school year.
Ms. Fritsch saw how the iPad helped students in her classes.
"In my art history class, we could look up 40,000 images of paintings on our iPads," she said, "and it had a zoom-in feature that even let you see the brush strokes on the painting. Then you could get more online background on the painting or artist, too."
"In my calculus class, we could use a 2-D and 3-D design program on the iPad," she said. "That saved students from buying an additional device, and we got better designs on the iPad, too," she said.
Students usually can choose whether to take their iPad or laptop to class. Ms. Fritsch used the more powerful MacBook in her advanced graphic design classes. But the smaller, lighter iPad was more convenient to carry for many students since it weighs only 1.5 pounds.
Mary Spataro, director of the Center for Innovative Teaching at the university, said the integration went well.
"Students embraced the device, and a majority of the faculty was very receptive, too.
"We did a survey and found that 66 percent of the students said they used their iPad at least daily," she said.
Dennis Jerz, an English professor, said the iPad helped his freshmen students do the kind of research that isn't usually required.
"In my American Literature class, students were reading a poem," Mr. Jerz said. "One of them asked me what a word meant, and I told them, 'Look it up.' That's so easy on the iPad, and that was the last time a student asked me for the definition of a word. The technology empowered them to look it up."
First Published May 26, 2011 5:28 am
