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Fun and Challenging

E-LEARNING

Blue Hills College is a fully fledged e-learning school which uses:

  •  E-textbooks instead of paper textbooks

  •  Electronic messaging notices instead of printed circulars and notice boards

  •  The intranet as a primary resource

  •  On-line teaching and learning tools

  •  Electronic collaboration tools for group work

  •  On line testing and grading

 

To fully exploit this technology every student at Blue hills uses his/her own tablet. 
We prefer tablets as compared to laptops or smart phones because tablets:

  •  Have a longer battery life

  •  Are lighter and more portable

  •  Are more robust

  •  Have access to many free apps

 

PHASE 1: E-BOOKS OE E-PUBS

E-books or E-pub is short for electronic book or electronic publication respectively. Since its implementation, it means that instead of using paper printed books, all learners at Blue Hills College use their books downloaded and stored in their tablets in electronic form.

 

THE PROCESS

EBooks/ePubs from the publishers are downloaded and stored in the school server dedicated for this purpose. All learners purchase these electronic books and store them in their tablets. The textbook fee paid to the school at the beginning of the year is used for this purpose. The tablet requirement and specifications In order to purchase eBooks or ePubs a learner must have a tablet with the following minimum specifications:

  • Dual Core or Quad Core CPU at 1.2GHz processing speed

  •  8GB or 16GB internal storage space or higher-16GB highly recommended

  •  1.GB RAM or higher

  •  iOS 7 should be installed. Device: iPad 2 and up

  •  Android 4.1 or higher

  •  A-Grade WIFI components

  •  Battery life that can last up o 8 hours during video play

  •  Please note that it is strongly recommended that a dual band(2.4 and 5Ghz) Tier 1 branded devices like Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, Sony Experia, to name a few is purchased.

 The school is negotiating with one local supplier who can tailor make our tablets at a very low price. If this succeeds you will be advised.

 

Other recommended suppliers are:
Pinnacle: Offers great after sales support service through Infrasol at an additionalonce off fee of R150 per tablet for 2 years or R250 for 3 years. The price include the following services:

  •  24/7 Call Centre Service * Web and Email Logging Service * Swopping of faulty units for free. For more information visit: www.itschools.co.za
     You can also use your preferred service provider and negotiate for the best terms and service. Ensure that the tablet is insured against theft and damage to minimize the risk of incurring further expenses in case of such loss.

 

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT & INTERACTIVE CONTENT

On the school server educators have access to content they can use to enhance the learning process. In the MIEBOOKS application educators are able to upload content which learners can access at no cost as long as they use the school Wi-Fi.

If learners are to do this from home they should be connected to the internet. Blue Hills College has used this platform to transform the teaching and learning process in the classroom. Tablets at Blue Hills College are used beyond the eBooks/ePubs.

They enable learners to receive notes & videos from educators in an electronic form. E-learning has taken away all the photocopying which characterizes the current method of disseminating information to learners.

Learning and teaching at Blue Hills College in the near future will become a paperless exercise except for test & exercise books.

 

ELECTRONIC LIBRARY

Blue Hills College is in the process of launching a fully fledged electronic library. All learners can access this electronic library through the school intranet.

The electronic library enables our learners to access valuable information for research purposes.

Currently our electronic library is limited to the following educational resources:

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