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School Swaps Math Textbooks For iPads
MexiCali59 writes "Four of California's largest school districts will be trying something new on eighth-grade algebra students this year: giving them iPads instead of textbooks. The devices come pre-loaded with a digital version of the text, allowing students to view teaching videos, receive homework assistance and input assignment all without picking up a pen or paper. If the students with iPads turn out to do improve at a faster pace than their peers as expected, the program could soon spread throughout the Golden State."
Because the USA, unlike the rest of the world, is immune to the idea that investing in education and infrastructure yields tangible benefits for society!
Sure, but think of the children and how much better they will be able to learn under Lord Jobs.
"To prevent this day from getting any worse, I'll just read ERROR as GOOD THING" 1GJU8xLuDKDxEs4KLf8fAGyptoDsqvEsBT
Note that these benefits are specific to devices like the iPad and not PCs. PCs are much more expensive, delicate and difficult to set up, maintain and use. They are more prone to obsolescence. That's why computer-based teaching/earning has not expanded as rapidly as once was hoped. It was an expensive waste, but technology has improved and we are finally getting the right kinds of devices.
Not all expenditures are a waste of money. Not all are throwing money away. Otherwise you'd close all the schools, quit maintaining roads and other infrastructure and stay home. That would save a lot of money by your logic. Smart businesses know that cannot cut your way to profitability or growth.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
iPads are much more durable than laptops or netbooks. We've been evaluating them at my company. They are also much easier to set up.
You seem to think that there is no problem with a textbook being 10 years old. Well, a lot you (don't) know about textbooks. Not only do they need updating much more frequently then that, many schools don't have enough to give to students. They have to share them in class and cannot take them home. It's a huge problem and a huge expense.
As for the $500 for a device. Well, that's as cheap or cheaper than all the texts a middle or high schooler uses and you didn't include all the other teaching content - interactive and all - that can be included. You can make parents share financial responsibility or assume all of it. We used to have to pay for lost or damaged textbooks. Why not iPads?
Like it or not, the publishers are all moving fast in this direction. Where you see that its because they can make more money I see it as they can provide more value and replace some more expensive assets.
Maybe a lot of small classrooms with unionized teachers aren't as needed if we can put devices into the hands of the little darlin's. Maybe fewer teachers and some baby sitters to keep them in line would do the trick. If you think an iPad is expensive, try a teacher. A lot of them make $100,000 here in Chicago plus pensions and you can't fire them. Get rid of one teacher and you've paid for aroung 300 iPads. Fewer teachers means fewer administrators and book warehouse employees, etc. One great teacher and a production studio can produce a lot of instruction that can be used all over the country. Think about that versus tens of thousands of mediocre teachers trying to cover the same material? What is the savings there? How about the potential for home schooling? It would work better if you could get more and better content to help the parent doing the schooling. What does that save when we are spending $15,000 per student per year now?
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
Without copyright, old son, you'd likely not have a textbook. People still generally have this whole "pay me for my knowledge" defect, you see. I know you think information "wants to be free", but it's actually "freeloaders want information to be free", and the producers of information have a lot more value to society than the freeloaders do.
Now, when you can find a freely-given text (which is certainly doable in some cases), and get that into a curriculum (harder), that's just fine. But blaming copyright for availability issues... that's just wrong.
That's not all there is to it. While the concepts may not change, the way they are taught may change not once, but several times. How problems are mixed together has been a subject of interest in just the last week; it apparently affects how well you actually learn. Approaches vary from learning times tables to handing the student a calculator. Something like an iPad makes it possible to stay current, or for that matter to take a mixed approach.
iPads, however, can grab the textbook from the network. So it's trivial for the instructor to stand in front of the class, say "do this, do that, press here, read chapter one." Even so, should they turn out to have a natural home in the classroom (and I fully expect them to, they're bloody marvelous tools), how long do you think it'll be before Apple provides a central management tool?
I'll tell you what, it makes a lot more sense to carry an iPad than it does to carry a bunch of physical books. The sooner we move to e-books in the classroom, the better off we'll be. Both the students, and in general as a society.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Battery dies on your iPad - Apple gives you a new one. Yup, that's their policy. BTW, this isn't about iPads. The rest of your argument. You are completely ignoring the cost of labor. Labor costs go up faster than other costs. At some point we can't afford it either we reduce the amount of labor by investing in capital or we reduce production. We cannot sustain ever rising costs. So what do we give up - textbooks, class size and teaching quality, what? We can introduce some automation, yup that is what IT does best, and reduce the cost of labor by reducing the amount of labor we need per unit of output. Basic economics. In this case we are talking about reducing the amount of time kids need to spend with a quality teacher in person. Your teacher costs a hell of a lot more than $500 per student.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok