Posted on 04/08/2011 10:51:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker
AUBURN, Maine — Moments after her daughter worked on writing and pronouncing letters on an iPad 2 Thursday, Natasha Landry said she was happy the Auburn School Committee voted to give kindergartners the tablet computers in the fall.
“It makes it easier for teachers to teach a larger group of kids, one on one, without having more teachers,” Landry said in the hall of Washburn Elementary School.
The $200,000 cost for the iPad 2 tablets will be less than hiring more teachers, she said. “It probably would take four teachers to do what the computers can do with one teacher.”
Landry was also fine with a 5 percent hike in the school budget, even though it would mean her property taxes would go up, if the budget is approved in a May 10 referendum.
“If we don’t try to keep up, our kids are going to fall behind,” she said.
But parent Nicole Fortin said she didn’t understand the idea of giving iPads to young students.
“It’s crazy,” Fortin said. “I look at all of the budgetary restraints we have. Our school system loses money every year to certain things. This is a lot to put in the hands of a 5-year-old.”
That great divide in opinion was common in Auburn on Thursday as news about iPad 2s for all Auburn kindergartners spread throughout Maine, New England and beyond.
Washburn Elementary School Principal Holly Couturier was “ecstatic” about the vote.
“I’ve seen myself the few students who have used iPads with [teacher] Mauri Dufour, and the gains they’ve made,” she said. “If they can make those gains in a relatively short amount of time, I can’t imagine where the kindergarten students are going to be at this time next year.”
Superintendent Tom Morrill said he would work diligently to pay for the iPads privately through grants or donations. Only if that fails will money in the budget be used, he said. By being first in Maine, and gaining the endorsement of former Gov. Angus King, Auburn has positioned itself well for grant money, Morrill said. The iPads will cost $479 each, he said.
Another way of paying for them could be through the newly formed Auburn Educational Fund, a private, nonprofit organization to support educational initiatives, Morrill said.
Some people questioned giving iPad 2s to 5-year-olds. They said the youngsters would drop and break the tablets. But children take care of things that are important to them, Morrill said. Also, the iPads are lighter and smaller than laptop computers, have no moving parts and will be in protective cases.
After students, teachers and parents go through iPad orientations, students will be allowed to take the computers home, Morrill said.
Two people representing Auburn taxpayer groups said Thursday they were unhappy with the school committee’s decision to approve the iPads.
Leroy Walker, a co-owner of Andy’s Beans in New Auburn and leader of the United New Auburn Association, said the iPads “are not needed in the kindergarten age.” He called the tablet “a toy.” Kindergartners “are a little young to be starting off with iPads. They’re too expensive,” he said.
However, he said, “educated people like teachers may be right. I may be wrong. We’ll see.”
He was less forgiving of the 5 percent budget increase, which he said is far too much.
“The whole state is in deep financial trouble,” he said. “Taxpayers are strapped with all these fuel problems and wars going on. It’s not the time to be asking for this kind of income.”
Ron Potvin of the Auburn Small Property Taxpayers Association agreed, calling the increase “beyond common sense.” To go from no increase to 5 percent when people are struggling “is not a doable figure,” he said. “All the things they’re asking for do not have to be done this year. They can be phased in.”
Both said a 2.1 percent increase would be more realistic.
Potvin was receptive to iPads “if the money’s there.” Young people seem to instantly understand technology, he said. “You look at kids today, they do stuff I never did. There would be value in it.”
That is really a serious question.
I envy those who know how to use a slide rule. I acquired
one via eBay but haven’t sussed out how it works, much.
Those ex-servicemen are the best. The Armed Forces were
intent on getting recruits to actually learn the material.
No “education by inference” no guessing games, no “inductive
approach” State principles, and teach and test.
Interesting observations about video games. There’s also
the questions about how they might affect physiology. The
deleterious effects of *television* on metablolism is
well know. I have no idea about what iPads, etc. or
video games do, other than observation of some patrons
at a video game business I frequent (mostly for YouTube,
believe me. only lynx at home) I recall one painful sight
visiting someone in a hospital; a father maybe 35, rather
overweight and his son, likewise, about 11 playing a video
game in one of the reception areas. Charming sight except
for the appearance of the two, which I’m not medically
skilled enough to describe.
Interesting. I never got tickets but I never was comfortable
driving except in very routine circumstances.
Upon reflection, the real issue is whether or not a parent
thinks a iPad is an appropriate item for a student of
any age. Given the issues raised in this thread it’s
entirely likely that many think it is not appropriate.
Therefore, cost issues are fundamentally irrelevant.
Some teachers back in the 1970s would have used video/
filmstrips every day if they thought they could get away
with it. Computers in schools seems to let them do just
that.
Etch-A-Sketch is more appropriate for that age.
The kids need to learn to read and write and calculate and process information the old fashioned way.
The big disadvantage is that stuff like computers only really fits with a child who is a visual learner. Those who are auditory or kinesethic learners won’t do as well.
Well if they were like mine, they would TRY to take them apart to see how they worked (telling them fairies and elves inside did not save the devices!! LOL). Deconstruction is how kids learn but also how libtards want to destroy civilization... sort of a grand cosmic irony...
Just like my parents generation found VCR's and Cable TV a challenge and made US hook it up for them (my dad did not get a VCR until 1995 and then a DVD player around 2004), my kids learned a lot about computers and the net on their own and NOT from school.
If they learn to program and build web sites and applications that could be useful...
Shhhhh the home school revolution could just tip over the apple cart of public education and destroy the "Iron Rice Bowl" of government schools.
Have you used one? Those $67 tablets are junk. Resistance screens requiring styluses... Not too useful for five year olds. Angle of view LCDs that are less than 45° and battery life less than two hours! Less if you try to use flash! That's how they get the price down to $67.
The education apps on Android tablets are nowhere near the quality or quantity of what's available on iOS. . . Nor is it ever likely to be. fragmentation in the Android market and lack of economies of scale have already seen to that. 15,000,000 iPad 1s had been sold in 2010 plus a lot more in 2011 before the March release of the next generation iPad, many of them are already being used in schools and for education, and many, many educational apps have been written for them in the past year. Very few Android tablets have sold, and extremely few (under 100) tablet optimized apps have been released, and few of them are education oriented.
Analysis by Deutsche Bank has shown that the Motorola Xoom, arguably the best of the Android tablets, has sold only 100,000 units in the six weeks it's been on the market, compared to the 2.5 million iPad 2s estimated to have been sold in the first three weeks of availability. iPad 2s are being produced at a 4 million unit per month pace and cannot keep up with demand. Do you think any competent educational software publisher will produce on speculation that the Android educational tablets will be worthwhile? I don't see it.
Your point is well taken.
There is a plus side, no doubt. I have no objections to the iPad any more than I object to crayons, paper and scissors. It is the “cut and paste” type of instruction I always hated.
Here is the dirty secret of public education Protect, they use those methods because when you lack talented teachers they will teach at the level of their (not the students) competence (or incompetence). Great teachers are leaders and motivators and as such have to be creative and talented. Those creative and talented people can not and do not thrive in unsupportive heavy handed centrally planned bureaucracies and as such either leave or get burned out.
Institutions that are centrally planned, have to have predictability and must by nature work at the lowest common denominator. We wont raise the bottom but lower the top (hence all this foolishness with "zero tolerance", tenure and fighting everything to do with merit pay). We would not tolerate a C+ person becoming a doctor much less a brain surgeon, but its OK for them to teach poor kids in the urban ghettos. Excellence becomes an anathema because it would clearly point out all the losers that need to be better served in other (and more productive) areas of the economy.
This is why the manufacturing sector of the American economy (and the 3 three auto makers in particular) nearly collapsed. You can not pay wages higher than the level of skill and productivity of its workers in a FREE ECONOMY!! Unless you have a centrally planned or government controlled market. Then its political considerations and connections which then are the dominating factors and consumer demand and what parents want be dayumed. Go see Waiting for Superman if you want to view EXACTLY what I am saying. Liberals of course just see it as a plea for yet even more money!
They can pick and choose what is stored locally on the device, and what is only available while the device is at school, connected to their network.
Unintended consequences, any one?
1) Styluses. GOOD FOR CHILDREN. THEY NEED TO USE PENS, PENCILS, CRAYONS. THEY NEED TO LEARN HOW TO USE THEM. Resistive screens help children. Capacitivive screens like the ipod hurt children, keep them from learning. They might grow up needing to use an apple computer because they’re too stupid to use a real computer. There’s a real danger there.
It’s clear to anyone who is not an apple cultist that learning to “write” with your finger is not a skill that 5 year olds need, but learning to write with a stylus is a skill that 5 year olds need. But be happy that you agree with the leftists that 1 ipad which doesn’t teach writing skills is better than 7 tablets which do teach writing.
2) 45 degree angle. Look closely at the picture. Notice how the ipad is in an adjustable ipad holder of some type. Simply adjust the ipad and holder so that the child can see it. Problem solved, no need to spend $467 when you can spend $67. The taxpayers spend much much less money. A win for the taxpayers, but a loss for apple, which is not based in Maine btw. And a loss for the apple cultists I suppose.
3) Battery life. Notice again the picture. The ipad is not particularly mobile when affixed to the holder. Is there any reason why the ipad can’t just plug in to the wall. Power adapters, power strips, wall outlets. Problem solved.
Advantages that ipad has in terms of battery life do not apply to the needs of childred. Children take very few international airplane flights. If they did, it’s not up to the school district to provide them with a 10 hour battery.
The battery life of these android devices is perfectly suitable to being plugged in most of the time.
4) I’ve asked this before, and I might have gotten an answer and I might’ve forgotten. What exactly does the ipad do that the android can’t? The $67 android can do flash. The $467 ipad can’t do flash. What are the things that the $467 ipad can do that the $67. Remember, the key word is DO, not NICER. The 5 year old doesn’t need NICER, the 5 year old needs DO, and actually, the 5 year old doesn’t need the device to do much, except teach to use a pen, pencil, crayon, stylus, and the ipad can’t teach that. Ipad is stupid fail for 5 year olds.
5) Xoom. Don’t care. Apple cultists want to compare their ipad with a specific tablet. Apple is on their way to getting crushed by android devices. Not a specific android device, but all of them combined. The $67 dollar one, the $100 one, the $150 one, the $200. And there are lots and lots of choices of androids in those price points. Even now, these $67 devices DO as much as $467, but not as nicely. The $67 device doesn’t make you feel good about yourself for owning in. But schools don’t have the money to spend on the unneeded ipad when they can buy 7 of them and give them to all the kids, not just the 5 year olds.
6) Educational software manufacturers better be developing for the Android. No school should be buying ipads, but they should be buying cheap android tablets, arguably made to their specs. Apples are a waste of money for 5 year olds. A Xoom would be a waste of money for a 5 year old. A $67 android tablet is PERFECT for what a 5 year old might need, and if schools want software for devices that they buy, software developers will be there to make that software, because they know the schools need it for their androids.
Unintended? Don’t school districts already assign course materials. They used to give out textbooks when I was a kid, and I guess they can save paper by putting textbooks on these devices. You’re still going to want your own computer. These tablets should cost under $100 and if you don’t want a 5 year old surfing porn, some modifications are going to have to be done to the device.
Unintended in that it wasn’t considered when evaluating the idea.
maybe, but maybe the leftists who want control are the same leftists who were voting for this. They’re not going to say that it’s their intention. But this particular school board does seem stupid more than anything.
That's possible, but it could get dismissed as FUD.
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