Apple iBeacon: signs of new direction — from theage.com.au by Garry Barker]
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
For local initiatives, I consulted two Australian pioneers of iBeacon technology and related educational app development: Geoff Elwood, chief executive and founder of Melbourne-based Specialist Apps (specialistapps.com); and Paul Hamilton, an Apple distinguished educator, and primary school teacher at Matthew Flinders Anglican College at Buderim, Queensland.
Both are highly respected developers of educational technology and iBeacon is the latest of their passions.
Hamilton says he was the first person in the world to use iBeacon technology in a school. At Matthew Flinders he has installed three iBeacons for interactive technology, library and art learning zones. His website, appsbypaulhamilton.com, includes videos showing them at work.
Elwood’s largest installation so far is at Bryanston, an elite coeducational school based in a country mansion on a 160-hectare estate beside the River Stour in Dorset.
Bryanston employs a student management application that uses an online eLockers information system, distributed by the iBeacon network. ”With iBeacons, a teacher can use an eLocker application to quickly form a proximity group, press a button on the iPad and transmit a notification to students within the proximity to open an eLocker that is blinking on their screens. The app is both transmitter and receiver, but we have taken the technology beyond just transmitting and receiving to establishing direct relationships between teachers and students, individually or in groups,” Elwood says.