My bet is that nearly half of the I-pads will be broken, stolen or sold within the first week. I-pads are great, but putting them in the hands of kids is inviting disaster. Our local school district is trying the same thing and I’m sure there will be similar results with a large number broken, stolen or sold in the first few weeks.
That, IMHO, is the best argument against giving the pads to the kids. In itself, an I-pad is one of the world’s great book handling and storage devices. Instead of carrying around several books, a kid can carry only one I-pad. Equally important, the schools do not need to buy thousands of new test books every year, saving a lot on storage and distribution. However, the nearly $700 spent on each I-pad would buy 35 hard copy books at $20.00 per book. I have an I-pad and a Kindle and really like the I-pad as a book storage and reading device; indeed I prefer it for book reading to regular books, especially because it solves the storage problem.
The problem I see i personal responsibility. Kids, given expensive devices like I-pads for free, will treat them like so much junk, and will expect to get new ones for free when they break, steal, or lose the old ones. They can only be expected to treat such valuable property with the respect it deserves if they have to pay for it with their own money.