750 Students + 850 iPads = Saving 1,000,000 Pieces of Paper

Two weeks ago at BbWorld 2011, a group of brave souls got out of bed, in Vegas no less, to see a presentation given by Geoff Powell, Director of Learning Technology, from St. Hilda's all-girls K-12 school in Australia.  One tweet from "atlantamayose" summed it up: "one of the best presentations i've ever seen. ever. geoff powell from australia on 1:1 ipads & Bb mobile at #bbworld11."

The St. Hilda's story is compelling for a couple of reasons.  An open-entry, non-selective all-girls school, St. Hilda's on the Gold Coast, Australia, strives to be a world leader in primary and secondary education.  All of the students are provided with leadership opportunities to develop their confidence, such as today's TEDx which features student sessions on topics as diverse as robots, good manners, and the need for a "Ginge Day" to help redheads have good self-image! Check out the site at http://www.sthildas.qld.edu.au/index.php?r=site/index&page=445

The leadership of St. Hilda's wanted to introduce a mobile initiative for their girls, allowing the students to engage more with their courses and with the school overall.  Little did they know that choosing Blackboard Managed Hosting, Mobile Central and Mobile Learn along with eBooks and a variety of educational apps would also allow them to dramatically reduce their printing (on track to achieve their aim of 1,000,000 less A4 pages this year) and also reduce the cost of school books.  Daily page views in Blackboard Learn soared, going from approximately 3,000 page views per day to peak at 30,000 page views per day at the start of this year and average over 16,500.  All data shows that the students are extremely enthusiastic about being able to access their course materials directly from their iPads.

One thing is for sure: the introduction of mobile learning resources increased interaction and improved communication between students and their teachers, while engaging students more deeply and effectively with the course content.   

Check out this video of two adorable St. Hilda's girls using Blackboard Mobile Learn on their iPads!

Download iSt. Hilda's, the first Blackboard Mobile Central K-12 app in the world,  from the App Store, to see a map, listing of events, videos, images, news, and school directory.