Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire is currently trialling Toshiba Android tablet devices. We paid them a visit towards the end of 2012, not long after their pilot had begun, to see how things were starting out. The school had access to 29 devices and had decided to make them available to staff via a booking system. If a teacher wanted to use them then they would book them out in advance.

Mr Stewart from the Social Studies department was one of the teachers we spoke to about his early experiences of using the devices. He told us that they were being used by pupils mainly to access short video clips, for exam revision and for accessing research notes. He commented on how much better it was to have devices that were instant on in the classroom as opposed to having to access the computer suite.

At that time the school was not focusing on using apps that were available for the Android platform, but they had decided to use the browser to access the learning materials/resources that were recommended by the staff.

Mearns Academy: Mr Fleming gives an overview of the pilot Interview with Mr Fleming

The school was keen to have us back later in 2013 to see how progress was being made once the pilot had been given time to bed in and develop. Look out for further posts from Mearns Academy.