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L.A. School District's 30,000 iPads May Come With Free Lock-In
lpress writes "The Los Angeles Unified School District will spend $30 million over the next two years on iPads for 30,000 students. Coverage of the announcement has focused on Apple winning over other tablets, but that is not the key point. The top three proposals each included an app to deliver Pearson's K-12 Common Core System of Courses along with other third-party educational apps. The Common Core curriculum is not yet established, but many states are committed to it, starting next year. The new tablets and the new commitment to the Common Core curriculum will arrive around the same time, and busy faculty (and those hired to train them) will adopt the Pearson material. The tablets will be obsolete in a few years and the hardware platform may change, but lock-in to Pearson's default curriculum may last for generations."
iPads are okay for grandmas, but giving them to kids is just mind numbing. With a real PC or even a netbook or a hybrid, atleast the kid can do more as get tired of Angry Birds. Not all will, but some will definitely venture out to programming and alternate OSes, even if only in a VM. Give them an iPad and it's nothing more than a glorified iPod Touch. Not to mention that the lack of a physical keyboard discourages thoughtful writing of even a few sentences and instead encourages texts-like writing. The Chromebook isn't much better either.
so 30000000 / 30000 = 1000$ per ipad? i take it they are ipad 1's pretty sad deal for the district.
I'm just jealous of whoever gets the repair business!
The people and the stories all focus on the device. The device is not inherently educational. People think of these devices as fun things... entertaining things. They are, in fact, designed mostly for entertainment. Why is this good for schools?
Now, if some educational software system out there which makes especially good use of iPad as a student interface, then great! Let's hear about this great software system. To put out "students get consumer device" followed by "students are easily distracted by social media and entertainment" makes me wonder what they have in mind for the educational system.
My son is in a year round STEM school in NC and their school uses a system based on android called Amplify http://www.amplify.com/. It isn't just an app it is a modified android tablet that allows students to participate as a collective in the individual classroom. Students can use the table to raise their hand, ask question and participate in classwork. Teachers use it to teach their curriculum and after a lesson can deploy a quick quiz so the teacher knows who understood the lesson and who may need additional help. Teachers can see what each student is doing on their tablet at any time with the master teacher's tablet. Each individual student has their own tablet and the tablets are locked down, always on with att 4G when off campus and students take the tablets home to do their homework on them. Their main responsibility is charging the tablet every night. It has been great over the last school year watching my son enjoy his curriculum in new ways using his tablet and the best part is really how well the tablet fits into the classroom and is replacing the tradition text book. The program was supposed to be only a 1 year test of the product but the school has asked to allow the 6th grade students to continue to use their tablets in 7th grade. Kudos to Amplify I hope all schools in this country will stop wasting money on promises and use something that I personally have already watched prove itself as a fantastic learning product for my 7th grader.
...and this is why our schools are failing.
A local school was complaining that they'd have to lay off a bunch of teachers recently. Come to find out they'd also recently installed a $3000 digital whiteboard into every classroom. What the fuck is wrong with our schools? You're think teachers could do basic math. I understand that the boards can make the teacher more productive... but those boards are going to fail. Chalkboards and whiteboards don't. For what they spent on those boards they could have kept 4 or 5 teachers on staff. How many teachers could the school district hire for $30 million? I could understand if our school systems were flush with cash but they're not. Once class sizes are bellow 20 students and teachers stop protesting about their raises and benefits, maybe then we can think about giving the kids toys to play with?
Is the famous USA educational system becoming the pinnacle of consumerism? Where pupils need only to consume hi-calorie concentrate food canned in hi-tech tablets and evaluated only by pressing their fat fingers on multiple choice questions check-boxes?
"Question 1: The rectangular machine you have in your hand at this very moment and reading this question on is:
a) a tablet
b) a computer
c) a calculator
d) a PC
e) an iPad"
I think the best combination of devices for kids would be an e-reader(preferably something bigger like the Kindle DX) and a real laptop, here's why.
Pros of e-reader
1) Better battery life measured in days rather than hours. Less of "Hey mom, I'm watching tv because my textbook ran out of juice(because I was watching youtube.)"
2) Readability outdoors and in sunlight. Tried to read a tablet on a bench? All you can see is your face!
3) Less distractions from the temptation to play games, videos and apps. The last thing a kid needs while studying is distractions from notifications from games, twitter, facebook, instagram, snapchat, vine etc. etc.
4) DRM. Yes, since it's obvious that textbook makers are preferring iPad in this story because of the DRM to discourage sharing and copying, e-readers are similarly locked down and will help them get on board.
5) Cheap. Break one? Cheaper to replace. And they're more rugged than the iPad which breaks if you look at the wrong way at it and needs bulky cases.
Pros of laptop(whether touch or not)
1) Can watch videos that you cannot on the above e-reader.
2) Interactive educational apps
3) Bigger screen to read and do things.
4) Attached keyboard encourages writing more than a tweet length.
5) Some kids can do programming if they want, whether web or Python or even Logo.
6) Install alternate OSes on hardware or in VMs
7) Millions of programs, er.. i mean apps, available
Stories like this make the MS tax days look like the golden era of computing where you were free once once you paid the tithe to MS and exposed a lot of kids to Linux.
This space for rent.
In the late '70s and early '80s, Apple was getting hammered in the market by the newer, faster Z-80- and Intel-based microcomputers that were becoming available. Apple II sales slid, but Apple began dumping the IIs to schools at ridiculously low prices. The result was to produce a generation of students indoctrinated in the Apple paradigm. Later, high schools realized that business and, therefore, jobs demanded PC software skills. Education began to shift its focus, but the Apple company had kept itself afloat to fight another day with its new Macintosh.
- Sent from my iPad(TM) ?
Mod me down if you like, this is the technical details. If the school puts Skype on there, they're exposing kids to a million defense contractors with no legal controls on them and no consequences for bad actions:
http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-europe-06/bh-eu-06-biondi/bh-eu-06-biondi-up.pdf
Skype obfuscates its code. Has 300+ checksum routines, that attempt to prevent breakpoints being set in the code to prevent debugging it. Decrypts code to run. Tries to test and block system level debuggers. Polymorphic.
It's potentially an NSA spying app, Blackhat presentation confirms voice/messages/mail etc can be intercepted by Skype Inc, (we knew this anyway from the PRISM leak) but they were unable to determine if it contains any back doors. e.g. can it remotely told to turn on the mic and or camera? can it grab files off a computer remotely? etc. The code anti debugging techniques make it difficult to tell.
So LA should block it from kids computers.
I'm not seeing posts here addressing the more serious issue, which is the lock-in to Pearson. I know people who work at Pearson, and they do have an intentional policy of moving into schools, taking over curricula, evaluation, and eventually eliminating teacher jobs. I think that it's good to have plenty of teachers, fewer students per teacher, and I'm skeptical about the value of the new shiny, whether it's a gadget or some theory of fixing everything cheaply, but--by far--the more worrying concern is allowing a single corporation have such a large sway over public education. Especially as, in my opinion, Pearson provides some of the shittier textbooks out there. And that's saying something, given the general shittiness of textbooks.
From TFA:
The iPads will cost $678 each, which includes a case and a full slate of learning software, but no keyboard.
That is ridiculous. If I felt like tablets were the right thing to work with, I'd have gone with ~$150 Android tablets. Decent models, bought in bulk from China.
Kids are going to loose / break / ... them, and they're going to need to be renewed at some point, too. It shouldn't cost too much to do that.
(I do not think bulk licensed software for educational use and teacher training and stuff will amount to $480).
For those of you that have been out of school for a while, this fits right in with where things have been heading. Kids cannot wear bags or backbacks during the school day, etc. This allows schools to eliminate carrying around half a dozen books to and from school so that kids can work on homework, allows them to make digital/interactive worksheets that can't be "lost" or destroyed by the dog. (of course the device still can...)
I do see a lot of potential for this to come out good. Most of these comments come across as quite luddite-ish. As mentioned above these can be augmented with workbooks or wide-ruled notepads. Also, who says these things need to have internet access 24/7. Applications can be created that stores the content locally. I'd be shocked if at least half the /. community couldn't come up with at least one way to restrict the device to the task at hand.
Textbooks are not the valuable unreplacable commodity they're touted to be. They service a purpose and have for a while, but the technology is here to replace them and it's about time someone gave it a try.
How can adopting a particular curriculum lock in students for "generations"? School districts / states can, and do, make curriculum changes All. The. Time.
Of course, what is missing and hard to find about the Common Core Standards is they were started by the government (state governors association, I believe) to standardize curriculums and teaching methods accross the states with one of their key reasons being to hold down education costs. That has since been removed from the website, but the CCS was not about improving educational standards but cost containment.
How will they do that? Pay teachers less and pay Pearsons more. You want to improve education in America? Find out how the 1% educate their kids. It won't be cheap, but you do get what you pay for.
Forget the iPads - Pearson, and these other parasites are going to do more to cripple education in this country than anything else. Private profits from the public taxpayer's dime, they're going to be unaccountable. We'll certainly blame the teachers when this canned curriculum crashes and burns, but Pearson and their ilk? They'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
You know what's worse than government? Government contractors and suppliers.
How will the kids take notes, write reports and essays, etc?
I guess the CCS assumes life will be a multiple choice menu made up of animated icons. If you don't fit one of the options offered, you're screwed (like a Slashdot poll).
Have gnu, will travel.
That's a refreshing $1,000 a pop.
Wasn't "high volume purchase" meant to work the other way, originally?
Did I just miss another great innovation by Pearson and Apple, along the lines of
"The more you buy, the higher the per-item price"?
Not to mention the fact that iPads are, by design, nearly non-repairable. What a bad idea to give such an example of non-sustainability to young people these days.
Not to mention that an all purpose computing platform, like a netbook, with a choice of OSes and application software (preferably OSS/FOSS), not just single task "apps", would render a better service to high school students
CA sure knows how to waste money. Why are they paying $1000 per ipad?
and it's incredibly frustrating. I'm a bright guy and I can help her with her homework, but I don't remember everything from high school physics or algebra/trig. And with humanities and the Arts there's often a 'right' answer from the teaching materials.
I used to wonder why this stuff wasn't online until I saw the profits those textbook companies make. Stupid capitalism.
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Corporate greed and corruption at it's finest, and all done in the name of "for the education of our kids".
Shame on Apple. Shame on Pearson. And shame on the people who got paid off for this at LA Unified.
I think Pearson hopes schools do not adopt texts which are not available on the iPad. LAUSD will be paying for new editions of the same virtual books in perpetuity. This is corporate welfare at its finest.
maxiPad
There are $100 tablets that kick the crap out of an iPad on portability and compatibility and battery life. There are even more $200 ones. The Samsung Tab 2, Avatar's about to be released new tablets, most of the AGPTek ones, some iView models all crush the ipad on useability and features vs price. I can't see why a school district would waste money on such a locked down, overpriced tablet like an iPad.
The decision to put iPads into the hands of LA USD students is wonderful news. Ipad is by far the best platform for deployment, creativity and certainly has the software options needed for today's learners. The protected ecosystem Apple has is fantastic.
So L.A. is gong to throw around another thousand bucks per student for E-books. California's spends less per student and scores less, too. Why not pay for the basic stuff that other states are getting right?
Random question: Why are they paying for a electronic primary school curriculum in the age of free online Stanford and MIT courses?
The iPad is for the wow effect for the kids to want to learn about common core. A propoganda program.
... my wife is a teacher and her high school decided all teachers must have and use iPads. She teaches horticulture and the apps in the Apple store are all for preschoolers, maybe grade 3 max. She found one or two BBC interactive documentaries with David Attenborough but that's it. Everything else is babysitting software.
Almost (not total) waste of money, and they're laying off teachers because they don't have enough funds.
Training for the iPads? Two two-hour sessions for the staff. That's it.
I second the thoughts by others that this is a bad way to spend all-too-sparse funds in the educational system.
ERROR 144 - REBOOT ?
Yeah. That's what government spending usually looks like. Our government buys services from the same market consumers and business do which is mostly private business. The alternative would be the government runs most industry almost completely communist state.
Yeah ... 3 year old "Samsung Chromebook"
Maybe if you weren't such a dumb fanboy without any intelligence you would had spent 10 secs checking out the release YEAR of the Samsung Chromebook
This is what happens when you let people who don't understand technology make decisions about technology. The LAUSD will be lucky if half of these iPads make it through the first year without being stolen or broken. I just want to know how who at the LAUSD was buying Apple stock before the vote to buy $30 million of worthless equipment.
The iPad hasn't been updated for two years. so who's the fanboi now?
to pay for something that'll go obsolete in 5. God Bless America and the stupid politician.
LAUSD is one of the worst school districts in the country. The only thing they care about is money (and faking their numbers so they can get more money), so this would be the other shoe dropping.
http://www.gnu.org/education/education.html
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE
This is complete bullshit. Shoveling tax money into Apple's pockets is bullshit.
For $30 million you could outfit every student in the STATE with a Raspberry Pi and every Linux application ever written.
I think I speak for quite a few people when I say we have fucking had it with the fucking iPad.
There is nothing that the education department might want to do that could not be done on an android tablet as well as the iPad. The big difference is there is competition for the public money when you select the open system. There is no competition when you pick the iPad. I agree there are other solutions other than the tablet format, and I think any education material should support open solutions to make them available to the wider industry accepted forms. However for 30 million dollars of public funds to be spent on an closed industry solution is just dead wrong. I would be open to a voucher solution where the student is provided with a fixed amount to get an approved solution of their own choice, and let the companies compete by bundling packages for the voucher amount.
i iPad = $650
30,000 * $650 = $19,500,000
$30,000,000 - $19,500,000 = OVER CHARGE of $10,500,000
Hell of a plan LA Unified.
There's a huge difference between being told why eclipses occur, and seeing them in a projected model. 3D might be a fantastic tool for STEM topics.
The difference is if a private company had 10 million staff to educate a year, they would make the rational business choice of developing their educational material in house, rather than paying royalties on every textbook they require. It's called amortization, when you have the scale that building is cheaper than buying, that's what you do.
Maybe rather than doing it in-house (maybe you don't have the expertise internally), it still makes more sense to contract out the development of the training material and retain copyright than to license 10 million copies every year.
You've got to be fucking kidding me if you're trying to tell me that it would cost even $100M to develop these texts, which is what $10/copy royalties equates to. I'm betting these royalties much higher than $10/copy too.
LAUSD is 640k not 10m. That being said having a bunch of districts get together to create their own texts and fund them works out. Texas does that. Ultimately the issue with multiple vendors is that it allows districts and often teachers to have more choice and freedom to choose books. An individual teacher can choose a book from dozens if not hundreds of vendors. So if you assume the publisher is at an 8% net margin, is it worth 8% so that teachers have choice?
Going to be unaccountable? They already are.
Here in NY, we have tons of Pearson-administered tests. Teachers aren't allowed to see the tests before giving them to the kids, but their jobs ride on the kids doing well. (Even if the teachers happen to have special needs students who might not test well.) The tests are high pressure affairs since they've raised the number of questions, difficulty of the questions, and dropped how much time the kids have. Pearson grades the tests and then destroys the originals. Want to contest a grade? Too bad. (Imagine if we counted votes like this. "The winner is Candidate A by a landslide! Candidate B wants to contest, but we've already burned all records of the votes.")
In addition, some questions can be very misleading. Remember how I said teachers can't look? I know of 4 teachers who glanced at a test and answered one of the questions themselves. It was a multiple choice test with four answers. They each got a different answer. If teachers (with masters degrees) can't answer a question, how are elementary school kids going to fare?
Of course, Pearson WANTS the kids to fail. They sell text books that might help kids do better on the tests. (In fact, passages from Pearson books appear on the tests so your kids will do better on Pearson tests if they use Pearson books. Leveraging monopoly much?) They sell courses for teachers/administrators to take to show them how to teach to the test better. They sell courses for students to help them out. If students flunk out of high school, they can get their GED by taking a Pearson test. At every turn, Pearson makes money at the expense of kids and teachers.
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