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I just finished my first year of teaching, and already have seen some of the iPad initiative at two schools. The first was an inner city school which aggressively rolled out iPads to its freshman class. I hated having these devices in the classroom. The IT folks were supposed to block access to unapproved online sites via the school wifi. Within 24 hours the kids had figured out how to hot-spot off their O-phones and were on FB and watching football games during school hours. The students were told by admin to take notes on them, so I was not supposed to tell them to put away the iPads during class, lest I upset their educational use. Few were taking notes; most were watching ball games, checking FB, etc, etc. I caught a few of them and when the disciplinarian checked their iPads she found a lot of banned content and even student-generated porn with photos of classmates in compromising situations on school grounds. Very educational of course. It's just one more very expensive distraction. We were expected to create lessons for the iPads (with little to no training for many of us), but anything that required WIFI access usually failed for about 2/3 of the kids in my classroom and the only thing that worked was a few apps that made gee-whiz noises as the kids 'built' and destroyed atoms on their apps.

My next school was heading down the same path but hadn't distributed the devices yet. They'll go to next year's freshman class. Many of the teachers there have the same concerns that I expressed. There is a big drive toward Apple everything, but that doesn't work well with many of the current lessons, test banks, publisher ancillaries, etc. It will mean a lot of new equipment and re-thinking how many things are done that currently work just fine. There is a big issue with textbooks. Many of the textbooks in the building are too old to have an iPad app or to have eText available. Going digital is in conflict with efficient use of existing resources.

I'm starting at a third school next fall. Apparently they've been a little less gung-ho on the iPads, but are also heading in that general direction. I may have a little time to breathe and get oriented before I get hit over the head with it.

I will give credit to Apple. They have done an incredible job of marketing to the educational establishment. They have legions of administrators completely sold on the idea that kids need school-provided devices and that everything teachers are doing on current platforms is of no consequence and that any who resist are luddites. Some teachers support it, but many are skeptical of the benefits and concerned about distraction and the impact on lesson preparation. Schools that are forced to replace large numbers of text books with eText and iPad apps might find themselves spending a lot more than they expected and also subject to a lot of ongoing expense to renew their access codes every school year. As a teacher, I'd like stability, attentive students who can read, a building in good repair, a safe work environment, and reliable equipment for classroom use. I don't need iPads for any of that - just a solid desktop unit with projection capability.

I will give credit to Apple. They have done an incredible job of marketing to the educational establishment.

Yes, that's how Apple got rich in the early 1980's. They went back to their original sales techniques of selling to schools. I've bought and resold surplus Apple computers. It amazed me that I could buy dozens for a few bucks apiece, that schools had paid hundreds for not long before. I'd peel off the school inventory tags and resell after some cleaning.

It's school administrators who are guilty, not Apple. The schools have done the same thing with books, tossing them out after a few years for new ones. Rather than teach kids how to learn using basics, the schools are focused on warehousing and indoctrinating kids. Give the kids a pad of paper and a pencil, and instructions on using a library. And stop wasting taxdollars on schools.