Concurrent: Laptop Education
All students in the Concurrent Education program are leased a laptop. This fee is based on the Faculty of Science's fee since the base image consists of science software and programs. Additional educational software is added to the student's laptop throughout the program on an as needed basis.
In the fifth year of the program, all teacher candidates at UOIT (including Concurrent students) are leased a new laptop and upon $1.00 payment at the end of the year, the laptop is theirs to keep. The laptop component ensures the same hardware and software configurations for all teacher candidates. Participation in the laptop program is mandatory, even if you have your own laptop or desktop computer.
Students will receive an Education image with software specific to the teaching profession. Nearly 60 education software titles and education documents are part of the laptop image and are freely accessible to teacher candidates for all of their studies and field experience teaching.
Worth approximately $5000 (academic cost), this software aids teacher candidates in accessing:
- Ministry of Education software titles
- Report card and marks software
- Webpage editing packages
- Specialized education programs
The laptop is heavily used throughout the entire program for a variety of purposes:
- Taking notes in the classroom
- Preparing lesson plans for professors
- Using in field eperience placements
All of the Education courses have an online course component, which varies in use from posting assignments and marks to in-depth discussions and sharing of new learning. WebCT Vista is the main learning management software (LMS), yet professors use other environments and platforms along with web pages to share information and communicate.
The Faculty of Education has a dedicated Laptop Specialist who serves the needs of the students and faculty from training and orientation sessions to daily support and service with hardware and software problems.
Teacher candidates make significant gains in the acquisition of and comfort level with various computer tools and software after only one year in the program. We know you will find your laptop a valuable component to your learning!
