Posted on 06/25/2013 10:52:09 AM PDT by jacknhoo
At first blush, it seems crazy.
The perpetually destitute Los Angeles Unified School District will spend $30 million to purchase thousands of iPad tablets to give away to students at 47 LAUSD campuses.
At second blush, it seems crazier.
This purchase all but commits the nation's second largest school district to hundreds of million of dollars of additional spending with Apple over the next two years.
That's right, two years, hundreds of millions.
At third blush, it seems like a rip-off.
The LAUSD will pay $678 per iPad, even though you can belly up to the Genius Bar at the local mall and pick one up retail for around $500.
At fourth blush, it looks like a conflict of interest.
LAUSD Supt. John Deasy is not only an Apple stockholder, he has appeared in at least one Apple promotional video.
At fifth blush, it doesn't seem ethical.
The funds slated to buy the iPads come from a school construction bond approved by voters for brick and mortar construction and maintenance on existing structures. Would voters have said "Yes" if they knew hundreds of millions would end up in Apple's pocket?
And at sixth, seventh, eighth and
50th blush, it raises all kinds of unanswered questions.
Questions like what happens when kids lose them? What happens when kids drop them? What happens when kids steal them from other kids? What happens when kids view porn on them? What happens when kids download personal photos onto them? What happens when kids drop out of school? What happens when kids move out of the district, or out of state, and take their LAUSD iPad with them?
And what happens to a generation of kids who will go through life without ever having opened a book? I mean a real book with covers and pages and print?
In our increasingly semi-literate, short attention span world, do we really need to expunge the few remaining books from our kid's lives only to replace them with yet another digital device offering flashy images and slickly produced video.
I know I'm a quasi-Luddite and I might as well take a kitchen broom to Zuma and try to sweep the Pacific back to China. Still, actual textbooks and the physical act of reading a full-length book is an exercise in long form study and concentration that trains the eye and mind to think.
No doubt the iPad is an amazing device. The wife has one; so do each of the kids. It's a magical machine with remarkable capabilities to educate and amuse.
But it's not superior to books. A reminder to the digital generation, Steve Jobs didn't have an iPad when he went to school.
Superintendent Deasy defends the move as a necessary step for students living in an increasingly online world. He specifically cited state and national standardized tests that will soon be offered only in digital form as one of the many reasons this program is not only necessary, but visionary.
So a case can be made. But this massive investment has been sprung on the public with far too little input from the people paying the freight and far too many unanswered questions.
For the record, I do not believe Deasy pushed this plan for personal profit and he correctly recused himself during the debate and vote. And the superintendent argues the high cost per iPad is deceptive because it includes an educational software package that replaces expensive textbooks. Fair enough.
But I suspect what's really driving the bus is the ugly underbelly of Los Angeles, massive poverty.
As more and more of life's processes are converted to online operations, the disparity between the haves and have-nots has become a digital divide. With so many kids living below or hovering near the poverty line, the LAUSD is attempting to level the playing field by giving every kid a tablet, costs be damned.
So the planning process that teachers had to spend time on became so much eyewash. More often than not, my wife reverted back to hard copy worksheets and dry erase board drills to educate kids. She locked the iPads in the storage cart at the beginning of each period and only released them to individual kids who completed their work to her satisfaction AND they could only work with an app that reinforced her lesson.
Needless to say, she wasn't the most popular teacher in school, but her classroom was quiet and orderly, not a madhouse like so many others.
It’s ipads now, it’ll be something else next. It’s not about what lie they tell, it’s about separating the American middle-class from his hard-earned cash and redistributing it to worthless losers who will vote for the thieves.
We're heading toward Common Core, but it hasn't really arrived yet. There is too much organizational mish-mash to sort at at the district level. I also don't see any effort to watch what the kids are doing using the devices. Nobody has time for that in a school setting. If the NSA wants to watch their body language, they are in for a rude awakening with some of these kids, especially those in the inner city.
We can do that without iPads, for all practical purposes. Many of our text books are available through eText, so they can keep their school issued book at school and access the electronic version at home on the family computer if they decide to do some homework. Studious kids will either schlep the books or go online while less studious ones won't make the effort even if you tattoo the content on their eyeballs.
An I-pad or Kindle is a lot easier to read material off of than a computer screen. If you don’t believe me, just try it or reading a dead tree book vs. Reading the same off a computer screen. Then try an I-pad or Kindle. You’ll find the pad works far better than the computer screen. I know; I’ve done the pads, dead tree books, and the computer screen.
I've come around to thinking that they can but only with serious thought and well-designed programs. And even then, computers are just convenient [and efficient] content-delivery tools.
But I agree with you to the extent that computers are simply handed out as replacements for books and library research.
That will do nothing at all.
Fine!
That’s the way to do it.
And when the new batch of folks do the same thing...
BINGO!!!
We have a winner in the cover-all!
If a NOOB can control your computer; just imagine what the NSA can do!
I've heard (on the net) that Obama used to do this work before he became President...
Baraq was an Apple salesman?
Who knew...
There are gobs of them available. 5 years old but only $200 instead of $1600!
... advantage of our special holiday deals, shop at www.ibm.com/shop/pref
Look at all the stuff he’s sold the American public!
So, if the new people do the same thing, what do you suggest any of us do? Move? Start a revolution? Hold a sit-in? Hmmmmm?
They are YOUR kids.
YOU are responsible for their well being.
Do whatever you have to do.
The Apple computers I bought were from recyclers. When schools decide they have to go, someone gathers them up, and ultimately they end up at the recyclers. They are happy to see someone reuse them rather than see them go to a landfill. I literally get them for $5 to $10 each in bundles. The hard drives alone can easily be resold for five times that. The machines work, can access the Internet. They’re just not “cool” if more than 7 years old. What a waste, and shows the hypocrisy of liberals, pretending to be green by discarding functional equipment in favor of newer “greener” equipment. I know, the money is for the use of the technology, but schools are incompetent in using the technology.
All the vehicles I have ever bought (with the exception of a Honda cycle in ‘63 and a Dart in ‘65) were used.
There is more bang per buck in a used one than in a new one.
The ‘new’ wears off LONG before the payments do!
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