Was there any indication of the iPad being connected to Common Core curriculum in either of your situations?
Are you aware that one of the purposes of using the iPad for common core curriculum is to track the body language using the video cam?
NSA related?
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.
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.