Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, dubbed "the new and terrible iSchool" has purchased a range of electronic devices as part of an upgrade to a new IT-centric teaching and learning method.

Using iPads that are synched to the school's wireless network, teaching is now conducted using pre-approved websites and online lesson plans, while devices are also used for homework, reports the Daily Record.

Speirs said this allows students to view science experiments on YouTube which would be too dangerous to perform in class, as well as improving their understanding of technology.

He explains: "Before we had the solution, the children were only able to get around 45 minutes a week on computing studies ... now they'll be some of the most technologically advanced in the world."

It helps that Cedars School is small. With around 100 pupils in total, aged from 5 to 17, and 10 students per class, the teachers can make sure that no one is perusing Facebook when they should be doing their times tables.

Forbes blogging the story notes Speirs is leasing the iPads from the school’s local Apple store in Glasgow, Scotland and paying £14 ($21) per pupil per month, or about £1,400 ($2,150) per month for the whole school. That works out at £504 ($780) after three years (the retail price of an 32GB iPad in Britain), and after that Speirs hopes to swap the iPads for upgraded models and continue the leasing arrangement. “I would hope by then to get a bit more of a discount,” he says.

You could argue that Cedars can afford this because it’s a private school. But Speirs points out that the total costs (around £58,000, or $89,400 over three years) are amortised across every class, and long term the school is saving money on photocopying, paper, pens and eventually, even books.

“We’re hoping to be able to give kids text books on the iPad rather than have to carry 10 to 15 pounds of paper every single day,” says Speirs. They can’t claim to have forgotten a folder, either. “If you’ve got your iPad you’ve got all your folders in one place.”

Speirs not only teaches computing at Cedars School of Excellence.  but is one entrepreneurial, role setting model for the young, being also a software developer by profession.  

His company, Connected Flow, provides FlickrExport, Viewfinder, Darkslide or Changes. He also speaks on topics around Mac OS X/iPhone development and photography and writes his own Blog

The Centre for Science Education has  stated that it is essential that schools make efforts to engage students with science & technology at a primary and secondary level in order to foster long-term interest in the fields.

Speirs is certainly working at it having been ScotGrid technical coordinator on Scotland's  LHC computing grid  commenting "Improving our contribution to the LHC Computing Grid makes the University of Glasgow a significant part of a project that spans Europe and the worldwide scientific research community."