Tablet workflow for beauty academies and hairdressing schools: welcome, analysis and plan

A shared reference point

In teaching, the hardest thing to convey is the criterion: why one proportion works and another doesn't. On a screen the whole class sees, the criterion becomes visible — the tutor points at it, the students see the same thing, and the discussion has an object.

The second use is documentary. Photographing the work at the start, at the middle and at the end builds a record of progression that's worth more than any mark: the student sees her own improvement, and the tutor has evidence to back an assessment.

Placement in a school is different from a salon: one screen per station is expensive and unnecessary. A shared display at the front for teaching, plus one or two tablets for the practical sessions, covers what's actually needed.

In the school

• One shared display for the lesson, not one screen per station.
• Photograph start, middle and end of each exercise.
• Use the record in assessment, not just at the end.

The record of progression is what makes an assessment discussable: without it, a mark is an opinion; with the images of three moments, it becomes an observation the student can see for herself.

Reusing the recorded material in later lessons is the part most schools skip: a well-documented case is teaching material that improves year on year, and it costs nothing more than having filed it.