A fully wireless campus

Every student and faculty member in the Dubai Women's College uses a laptop. They talk about how hi-tech learning has given them the edge in today's world

The innovative Laptop Learning Initiative introduced in the Middle East by the Dubai Women's College (DWC) is turning five years old. Now, 2,300 DWC students are online in a fully wireless campus with the most modern laptops.

Since the project was started in 1999, the college has created 3,000 "laptop" students. Some of them have graduated and started work.

Jamie Stewart, supervisor, education technology, DWC, said: "It was in 1997 that HCT announced a shift from traditional teaching methodologies to the new learning paradigm. The DWC Laptop Learning Initiative (begun two years later) is one of several projects designed to assist the DWC in moving closer towards a student-centred learning environment."

The Laptop Learning Initiative has been introduced to improve the quality of education by providing "anytime, anywhere" learning. It gives students access to new learning opportunities. It also has faculty and students viewing the resources as tools, rather than additional responsibilities.

All DWC students, faculty and senior managers use laptops, but it is not a paperless campus.

The DWC adopted a gradual approach where all students were required to buy a laptop in phases. Beginning September 2000, it was estimated around 200 students would be entering Higher Diploma year one. These students were required to buy laptops as part of the first phase of this project.

In September 2001, Higher Diploma Year 1 students (around 200) as well as Certificate/Diploma Year 2 students (around 395) purchased laptops. The programme was expanded until all students were expected to use laptops in the academic year 2003-04.

A cross-section of students who spoke to Tabloid said initially they had problems using laptops, especially due to a lack of typing skills. They said they also faced problems with the wireless network. But later, they became skilful.

Eida Saeed, a third year student, said: "Now I am comfortable using a laptop. Initially I faced some problems in typing because I did not have much training. I have been using the Arabic keyboard on my home computer. Many of my classmates also faced problems with typing and the English keyboard," she said.

Eida spends two to three hours per day on her laptop, working on her projects and searching and downloading study material. She does not chat.

Shamsa Abdullah, a senior student of electronics and computer, said: "Initially I did not know English typing. I had been using a PC and had problems switching to the laptop. I did not know how to switch the keyboard language from English to Arabic and the other way around."

Najat Yousuf, a second year student, said: "I am using a laptop since last year. I use it for about six hours a day to do my project work in the classroom. Even though it is easy to use, sometimes I have trouble that is solved by the action group.

"I did not know how to use a computer as the school where I studied did not offer such classes. I learned computer use within three months of joining the DWC."

First year students often find the transition from high school to college challenging. The college adopted a project/problem-based approach, which helps development of critical thinking and problem solving skills, Stewart added.

He showed the latest result of an internal survey conducted among students who use laptops.

According to the survey, a whopping 98 per cent of the students said that they are happy to have a laptop. The survey result also showed that many students spend more than 12 hours on their laptops (see box).

Stewart said some international universities started laptop learning programmes after creating a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, a reliable network, support services, training and support system. The DWC did it the other way around. The college began with the laptop programme and followed it with IT infrastructure and support services.

The laptop-learning model was adapted from Acadia, a leading Canadian University, said to be a major laptop university.

In 1999, Dr Howard Reed, Director, DWC, was keen to change the curriculum to suit the modern work place. He took the idea of starting a laptop learning project to Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Chancellor of HCT, who supported the initiative.

Each student has to buy an IBM Thinkpad from Jumbo Electronics as per the specifications given by the college. An IBMT42 with various accessories cost Dh7,650 after discount. According to IBM, its original price is Dh11,350.

There is no specific government funding for the project and students pay for their own laptops. The college does not charge any fees from students and many of them don't mind spending money to buy a laptop. There is also a financial programme for students who cannot afford to buy a laptop.

"Since all students buy laptop from the same vendor, we get a better price and service. Currently Jumbo Electronics is selling IBM Thinkpad to students and the company has set up a special laptop service and trouble-shooting centre within the campus.

"With the arrival of laptops, the total number of computer labs in the college has come down to three from 40. The remaining desktop PCs found in the college will go to the museum," said Susan Brown, marketing coordinator, DWC, smiling.

"As part of our strategy to develop team skill among students, there is a team grade and individual grade valuation. Authentic learning involves the creation of four school businesses run by students through which they learn accounting, information technology, English and mathematics skills," Stewart said.

Are the girl students hooked to Internet, chat sites or instant messengers? The college authorities say they have blocked instant messenger chat services like yahoo and MSN messenger. And that the use of laptops has actually improved teacher-student interaction.

"We have the Microsoft Windows Messenger and Outlook Calendar services which are effective tools for group communication. Using these mediums, teachers can pre-plan and set an agenda for academic meetings. Using new technology, a special website can be created for a teacher student interaction," Stewart said.

"Nowadays I rarely see students taking down notes. They take notes online as we put them on the website," said Brent Piennar, IT Coordinator, DWC. "A high-level visitor from Intel said that such technology driven education is rare even in Europe," he added.

New students vary widely in their IT knowledge. While some students have rarely used a PC, there are those who've had a PC at home for a long time.

"The IT knowledge of students from private schools is much better. Since all our students are from Dubai their IT skill is much better than in other emirates," said supervisor Stewart.

The IBM Think Aid is a unique program adopted to solve DWC laptop users' problems. "Since many students face identical problems, we have selected and appointed 100 Think Aid Gurus who are trained for laptop troubleshooting. For each group of 20 students, there is a hi-tech Guru," Stewart added.