Federal Review Blames Lack of Resources and Planning for L.A. Schools' Failed iPad Initiative

[SmileyBlast!]

This all seems like a Huge Missed Opportunity.
When you think of the Apple iBooks education event (2010)? you think about what Steve Jobs said:

1. Updatable EBooks
2. Light Weight Only 1 Device to carry
3. Keep Distracted Kids Engaged
4. American Kids falling behind in Education

should have been all over helping this to succeed.
There should have been Test Model Classrooms at HQ with Real Teachers and Students to work out the bugs. Videos of the whole thing for other teachers to learn from after.

If this had succeeded it could have gone all across the country.

Too bad...

 

[nutjob]

More evidence that Apple thinks it's above the law.

 

[Boomish69]

This is no surprise to me and I have been struggling to fight Apples corner in the schools I work in for some while. While the iPad might have some great education apps, the supporting infrastructure is hopeless. Administration and support form Apple is non-existent , while Goole have launched dedicated support teams, they give away Google Apps for education for free to UK teachers, and have been slowing building far easier admin tools for Android tablets.

Just yesterday a US Google rep phoned me from the US to see how one new application for google apps was, this was for a small UK primary school! He told me they have a new tablet launching this year that will auto configure itself by NFC, so you have 1 master then clone the others simply by touching it. Deploying apps is the biggest pain in any school, if they can pull this off well, I think they will capture the education market despite the majority of teachers loving their iPads..Apple would be insane to loose such huge market. Not only that children influence parents etc etc.

 

[yankinwaoz]

The crime was the financing

I've noticed that the article, and almost all of the comments miss the real crime here. That was how they were paid for (or were going to be paid for).

They floated school bonds to pay for iPads.

Yes that is right. They were going to pay interest for 30 years on an IOU to purchase a device with a life expectancy of two years, if they are lucky. That is insane.

Sure. They might have negotiated a nice discount on their bulk purchase. But that savings would no way make a dent in where the vast majority of the money would go, which is interest.

Would you buy your kid an iPad on a credit card planning to carry the balance for 30 years? Hell no. That would be stupid beyond belief. Yet no one is questioning this.

School bonds should be used to build schools and buy materials with a life span greater than the bond. Disposable assets should be paid for out of current revenue. Frankly, tablets in the hands of kids should be considered a disposable asset. God knows the kids are going to treat them as such.

I don't have an opinion on if tablets are the right tool for the job. And I don't have an opinion on which tablet best fits a school's needs. Those can debated in other areas. But once they have made the decision to use tablets, and have made a decision on what make and model, the question of how they plan to pay for it should be just as important.

 

[cmwade77]

I think everyone has missed the main point here, we are talking about a school district that claims it can't reduce class sizes to the state mandated levels because they don't have the money. They can't buy new books because they don't have the money. They can't fix their dilapidated buildings because they don't have the money. They can't provide proper lunches because they don't have the money. They can't provide teachers with the supplies they need because they don't have the money. The list of what they can't do because they don't have the money goes on and on.

So if they don't have the money for these basics, how do they have the money to buy an iPad for every student?

 

[ctone]

They floated school bonds to pay for iPads.

I think everyone has missed the main point here, we are talking about a school district that claims it can't reduce class sizes to the state mandated levels because they don't have the money. They can't buy new books because they don't have the money. They can't fix their dilapidated buildings because they don't have the money.

Right, except the bonds that the voters approved were supposed to go for school construction (to reduce class size) and to fix run down school buildings. The money was wrongfully diverted to this use.

This district has had so many massive and insanely expensive failures:

- LAUSD spent $130 million on a student information computer system that was a major disaster and led to students sitting around for weeks not being taught because they couldn't assign them classes
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-software-20141012-story.html#page=1

- LAUSD's $95 million payroll computer software disaster
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-software-20141012-story.html#page=1

- LAUSD spends $578 million to build the most expensive public high school in the US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Community_Schools

- LAUSD spends more than $400 million to build, tear down, then rebuild a school on a toxic site
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/10/local/me-belmont10

 

[rwagoner]

Hopefully this will all lead to John Deasy being placed in federal prison for a long time. The damage he did to LAUSD will take YEARS, maybe decades, to reverse.

 

[Swift]

If you are going to have a tablet, you should have an iPad .... they are more expensive, but they are best quality .... no one ever regretted buying quality.

However, people should buy their own god damned gear. Most tax-payers cannot afford an iPad of their own ... why should they buy them for the less motivated?

You mean, less wealthy, of course.

----------

More evidence that Apple thinks it's above the law.

They sold iPads. The district didn't know how to use them. Should have had a smaller program to figure out what the real use of iPads in schools. Work the bugs out.

 

[MacBH928]

I am not a believer in using technology in class, its more of a distraction, it always was. But if they must, then Apple (and others) should release some sort of a software that locks their iOS devices into specific functions.

If schools can show only specific apps and browsers that will only go to a specific group of sites (Wikipedia, Dictionary.com,...etc whatever the school wants them to access) it could work. It will not work if they can watch Youtube and talk on imessage

 

[rtfmoz]

Totally and utterly disagree 100% with this point.

.... Totally and utterly wrong to use Apple and iOS / iTunes / App Stores in Education.

If Apple was to become more open and not tie people in, then I would of course change my viewpoint.

LOL at this comment. The entire reason Apple's iPad is the most successful on the planet is because it is NOT open. It is rock solid and that is expressly because apps are locked down so they cannot screw up the operating system and impact hardware performance.

Failed deployment is not a fault of the product, its a fault of the deployment.

 

[Steve121178]

Why do kids need an iPad/tablet for education anyway?

It wasn't a prerequisite for kids before 2010/2011, so why now? Seems like a complete waste of money.

 

[quackers82]

Why do kids need an iPad/tablet for education anyway?

It wasn't a prerequisite for kids before 2010/2011, so why now? Seems like a complete waste of money.

To give one example,

Before 2010/2011 you could look things up in Encyclopedia Britannica, it was a big book collection. Thats what i had to do at school in the 90s. Thats NOT how the world today works, they don't make Encyclopedia Britannica anymore, you use the internet to find information. The tablet is an excellent internet tool.

Sometimes people forget just how much our lives have changed in just 10 years, its an internet driven world now, you don't go to the bank now, you do online banking.

Booking a holiday? Do you go to the travel agents or do you go and book online?

Visiting somewhere? Do you go to the Information Centre or get on the internet for information?

Tax your car? Do you go to the post office or do you go online?

The internet is full of information, and its a great educational tool and is relevant to the world we now live in. The tablet lets you access it. No more booking the IT room and moving your whole class, the IT is already in your hands.

 

[Steve121178]

To give one example,

Before 2010/2011 you could look things up in Encyclopedia Britannica, it was a big book collection. Thats what i had to do at school in the 90s. Thats NOT how the world today works, they don't make Encyclopedia Britannica anymore, you use the internet to find information. The tablet is an excellent internet tool.

Sometimes people forget just how much our lives have changed in just 10 years, its an internet driven world now, you don't go to the bank now, you do online banking.

Booking a holiday? Do you go to the travel agents or do you go and book online?

Visiting somewhere? Do you go to the Information Centre or get on the internet for information?

Tax your car? Do you go to the post office or do you go online?

The internet is full of information, and its a great educational tool and is relevant to the world we now live in. The tablet lets you access it. No more booking the IT room and moving your whole class, the IT is already in your hands.

You just validated my point. You don't specifically need an expensive iPad/tablet for any of that. And if a student does require the internet to do some research, just use a computer in the library. You shouldn't be messing around with a tablet in the classroom, you should be learning.

A computer is infinitely more useful and practical than an expensive tablet, especially of the Government was funding such a ridiculous scheme. It's a nonsense.

I don't know the full story here, but hopefully there will be some kind of investigation in to how those in power thought this was a good use of public money. These people should face charges for attempting to waste so much cash in times like we live in today.

 

[lowendlinux]

To give one example,

Before 2010/2011 you could look things up in Encyclopedia Britannica, it was a big book collection. Thats what i had to do at school in the 90s. Thats NOT how the world today works, they don't make Encyclopedia Britannica anymore, you use the internet to find information. The tablet is an excellent internet tool.

Sometimes people forget just how much our lives have changed in just 10 years, its an internet driven world now, you don't go to the bank now, you do online banking.

Booking a holiday? Do you go to the travel agents or do you go and book online?

Visiting somewhere? Do you go to the Information Centre or get on the internet for information?

Tax your car? Do you go to the post office or do you go online?

The internet is full of information, and its a great educational tool and is relevant to the world we now live in. The tablet lets you access it. No more booking the IT room and moving your whole class, the IT is already in your hands.

Britannica was being sold here the week before Christmas

Yes I still go to the travel agent she can always beat the deals I see on-line every time

Yes I still go to the bank depending on what I'm doing, I like the fact that the tellers know my name.

I get information about places by both the internet and that information center, the information center generally has hand outs and nicely printed maps and since I'm going to be there anyway I might as well stop in.

I don't pay taxes on my car so...

I do get what you mean you in many ways need to connected in education anymore and it saves the school system money and saves the trees but they don't NEED and iPad they need an internet connected device.

 

[XboxMySocks]

The problem with the iPad as an "educational tool" is that iOS lacks any sort of group policy-esque control of the individual devices. Give em to the kids, but there is no way to control what they do with them.

Um, are you serious? You know about profiles right?

 

[MasterRyu2011]

You need to sit down with a 6-10 year old today and actually see what they are doing and learning. If they are in a decent school, they're doing math and English at a higher level than I remember when I was a kid. And they need to be prepared for the work environment they'll face in 10 years, not what it is today. Even today, I can't think of the last time I had to deal with anything handwritten. From what I've seen of Common Core, the technique makes it easy to transition them to creating formulas and macros when they get older. Definitely a skill they will need.

I agree that LAUSD screwed up by going with iPads; they probably could have provided both a cheap Android tablet and a Chromebook for the same price. But whatever comes of this, those kids need computers and computer access at a young age.

I'm not against using computers in school. As long as they are also being taught (preferably first) handwriting and unassisted math, I think tablets and computers have their place. Indeed, programming and thinking in terms of algorithms are things that you normally can't effectively teach without a computer anyway.

 

[unplugme71]

Okay... I'm not sure if you believe what you just said but if you do "you're living in a world of make-believe. With flowers and bells and leprechauns, and magic frogs with funny little hats."

I'm shocked the sarcasm hadn't soaked in after the first sentence.