Blandford, England — In any given year, a large percentage of the graduates of Bryanston School head off to what the British refer to as “red brick schools” — England’s equivalent of American Ivy League colleges. Bryanston students are held to extremely high academic, athletic, and personal standards. In keeping with the school’s long history of combining the traditional with the progressive, students now enjoy a flexible learning environment powered by the Mac. The result: a time-honored curriculum that is being updated and invigorated with revSolutionary technology tools.
The Mac has been the center of Bryanston’s ICT (Information Communication Technology) solution for more than 15 years. But the advent of Studywiz, an award winning online learning environment, has truly brought the strengths of the Mac — especially its support for rich digital media — to the forefront. Developed entirely with Apple’s WebObjects, Studywiz and the Mac “have turned learning on its head,” says Andrew Barnes, Head of ICT at Bryanston.
“The whole concept is a ‘push technology,’ in that instead of students having to know where to look for content, the content is pushed out to them,” Barnes explains. “And it’s pushed in a time-sensitive way. For instance, what they see on Monday morning will be different from what they see on Tuesday afternoon, when the answers to an exam might be posted. Studywiz and the Mac help us deliver those resources, and help everyone get on with the business of learning.”
With the Mac and Studywiz, differentiated assignment work is increasingly feasible.
— Neil Boulton, Director of Studies, Bryanston School
Mac Supports Independent, Customized Learning
Studywiz is well suited to Bryanston’s core value of independent learning. Students typically log onto the Studywiz portal via Safari, using either the eMac and iMac computers in the school’s labs, or on their personal PowerBook and iBook laptops in the dorms. Once online, students have access to an enormous range of digital learning tools, including video and audio files, photos, books, and more.
