As Kentucky's flagship institution, the University of Kentucky is dedicated to exploring how technology can facilitate learning, teaching, research, healthcare, and ways in which it can help enhance the future of our students and the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The University of Kentucky’s goal is to become one of the country’s most innovative campuses. As a part of its wider Smart Campus strategy, the university provides all incoming degree-seeking, first-time undergraduate students with an iPad Air, Keyboard, and Apple Pencil. We want technology to help students learn and compete in the workforce for which they are preparing. UK wants the faculty to have the tools that match their expertise as educators, to integrate the use of technology across campus in a strategic and coordinated way. It’s an initiative aimed at improving learning, graduation rates, and leveling the technological playing field for students.
The University of Kentucky is a public, land grant university and home to over 30,000 students and 15,000 faculty and staff.
Students have an opportunity to explore more than 200 academic programs from 16 degree-granting colleges, honors college, and graduate school.
Click the link to see what students have to say about receiving and using iPad Technology at UK!
Our students come from diverse backgrounds, equipped with different resources and levels of preparedness. The iPad provides a level of digital equity and inclusivity to help students get started on the right path. Student access to equitable digital resources also creates opportunities to practice digital literacies, think critically about the digital messages they receive, and gain agency and awareness in their own multimodal communications.
The widespread availability of iPad devices allows instructors to create active and engaging opportunities for authentic and meaningful learning. For example, our instructors have used this technology in their courses to encourage students to collaborate with peers, practice real-world application of content, create multimodal projects, communicate complex ideas, and solve challenging problems.
To support instructors as they develop new ways to utilize iPad devices for instruction, UK’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) leads an annual Teaching Innovation Institute. The Teaching Innovation Institute is a highly competitive, year-long program where a cohort of faculty work together to explore digital pedagogies for inclusion and engagement. Participants receive a Pad from UK’s Smart Campus program and collaborate with CELT instructional consultants through workshops, group experiences, and reflections to innovate their classes.
The iPad Initiative at the University of Kentucky enabled UK to transition quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were well prepared because of the iPad Initiative and an existing relationship with Apple. Becoming an Apple Distinguished School will further enable us to pivot quickly to respond to an ever-changing, dynamic world.
Due to the pandemic, iPad technology distribution was recently expanded to all degree-seeking undergraduate students who needed a device to continue classes at UK. Providing this opportunity allowed many of our students to continue their education and classes from home during the pandemic.
The University of Kentucky encourages students to take advantage of various applications on the iPad devices to help them navigate student life and even destress.
Future objectives will be focused on expanding our efforts on teaching creatively with the Apple technology, building additional iOS apps, boosting coding opportunities, and considering ways in which our students can get more involved. For more info see uky.edu/smartcampus
