L.A. school district demands iPad refund from Apple

LA Times ^ | April 16, 2015 | Howard Blume

[Lazamataz]

Cut it out.

[Lazamataz]

Quit laughing.

[moehoward]

"...designed to provide low-income students with devices available to their wealthier peers."

Which is the sole reason they went with an Apple product. The shame the children would have suffered had they been forced to use a (gasp) MS/Google product, how would their self-esteem ever recover.

[zeugma]

Critically — and despite being listed in workflow documents as a prerequisite — Pearson’s software was not ready prior to the start of the project. District administrators were only provided with samples.

This means that in effect, the district bought iPads to run software that did not yet exist.

In other words, the school district is run by idiots. Big surprise there.

[Star Traveler]

If they had done a small sampling, then it’s entirely possible that through the back and forth of testing a small sample, they could have fixed problems before rolling it out to the entire district. Then everyone would have been happy!

But, they jumped in with both feet without working it through first ... that’s not advisable.

[zeugma]

No folders, no coherent file/folder systems, no external storage, inability to sideload custom apps,

I'm not a big fan of ipads for my own personal use for  the very reasons you describe above, however, when distributing these to kids, (which is stupid anyway IMO), I can easily see those very things being desired features I can't really comment on the file management stuff though, as I've not used an ipad enough to have an opinion on it.

[Swordmaker]

Ill thought out iPads in the LA Schools roll out resulted in a failed program because of poor preparation and poorer still planning. Now the LA Schools want a refund from Apple. iPads have worked well in many other schools, but they used different software and were properly planned. . . with staff properly trained. — PING!

Apple iPad refund for LA Schools poor planning? Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[MeshugeMikey]

The Audacity of Stupidity!!

Now available for the apple ipad....at your app store

[Swordmaker]

These fools spent millions to outfit every kid with a their own portable storefront to the Apple store. The homos that run apple must have been laughing.

The iPads were locked down and no unauthorized apps would be capable of being installed on them, including access to the Apple App Store. Other schools have done this quite successfully. Nice try.

[amigatec]

It takes time to develop a test. I was the victim of illegal testing for a job onetime.

There is a lot of things to consider with writing s test.

[Swordmaker]

Neither apple nor pearson could figure out how to put some pdf books onto an ipad.

Taking you as if you were seriously making a point. Apple has iBooks which display PDF books natively. . . and Apple uses Display PDF for their screens. So sorry BZZZZT. Wrong. In addition, Apple iPads pioneered e-text books for college level textbooks. . . and many Universities and Colleges issue their students an iPad to supply all their text books, college documents, access college emails, bulletin boards, and to take tests.

[Swordmaker]

They should have gone with Androids or Chromebook. iPads are a major pain in the butt. No folders, no coherent file/folder systems, no external storage, inability to sideload custom apps, and unnecessarily expensive in comparison.

There are several false statements in your claim. iPads do have folders. Custom Apps for business and schools are easy to install. Schools and businesses can have off external iPad storage easily and far safer than the systems used on Android. . . and so can any private iPad user. Just because YOU don't know how to do these things, doesn't mean they are impossible on an iPad.

[John Valentine]

The question that needs to be answered, and isn’t in the article as far as I can see, is this: Was Pearson a LAUSD nominated subcontractor or were they selected by Apple?

My guess is that LAUSD didn’t go quite so far as to nominate Pearson, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they steered Apple in Pearson’s direction due to what Pearson describes as its “long history working with LAUSD”.

I would not be surprised to see Apple also sue Pearson, and as well offer up a defense that they selected Pearson on the basis of LAUSD’s representations to them.

This will be fun to watch.

[Phillyred]

Not really a robust folder system like you have on droid. Not even close. You can easily install apps after you pay Apple a yearly fee and get it approved and on and on. I can install any app I want to on droid. I can copy entire folders of files over on droid. No middle man. so much more freedom.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Apple has iBooks which display PDF books natively. . . and Apple uses Display PDF for their screens.

And they still couldn't figure out how to put a few textbooks onto an ipad. Pathetic.