In Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, it was revealed that Jobs had a vision where technology such as iPads would eventually make its way into classrooms, ultimately replacing whiteboards, books and actual paper. At the moment various institutions have taken it upon themselves to introduce technology into the classrooms ranging from offering students netbooks to tablets in the iOS and Android variety, and it looks like a panel of Dutch educators and politicians have caught onto the idea as well.
The panel is expected to propose a school where students are actually taught with iPads and has been dubbed “Education for a New Era” and will help students learn “21st century skills” (app programming perhaps?) and push the limits of what can be done in a classroom. At the moment this is merely a proposal, but if it were to be accepted, extensive testing of educational apps will be conducted, and if all goes well, the first so-called “Steve Jobs schools” will be opening its doors to the public come August 2013. While some of us might have missed the opportunity to experience a digital classroom, it certainly will be interesting to see the results that it would yield.