L.A. School District Cancels iPad Pearson Curriculum, Asks Apple for Refund

[SteveW928]

Chromebooks seem like a much better choice for the classroom than iPads for many reasons, not the least of which is that you can get 3 for the price of the $768 they spent for each iPad. They also have a keyboard already, another money-saving measure. Almost as important: they are very easy to manage on a large scale. Apple has failed miserably in this area and Google could begin to really reap the benefits.

It depends on what they are using them for, I guess. Something I learned almost 25-years ago when I started my IT career (and it applies to most of life)**... saving money isn't much good if you didn't get the right thing or good quality. It actually ends up costing more in the long-run.

If they are just taking Web-based courses or exams, I suppose that's good enough. If they are also using real-world apps and such, it's better to have a real-world type device.

The big problem here though isn't the hardware they picked, but the program itself. It's like Common Core too. It's just a way for these companies to come in and get a bunch of money (i.e.: Pearson), maybe even with good intentions by the teachers and schools, but then it all falls apart after the sale because the implementation wasn't thought through or funded well enough. I've seen it happen bunches of times over the years.

** I saw this back in the early 90s when companies all tried to go from brand-name equipment to built systems. They 'saved' lots of money, only to cost a lot more. Or, currently, the company my wife works for issued Dell brick laptops to all the reps that travel... except that hardly anyone takes them with them because they are so cruddy and heavy. Instead, they take iPads or other devices with them and have found 'work-arounds' in their workflow (which their lousy IT department probably wouldn't be too thrilled about). Maybe they saved a few bucks? I don't know. But I do know they've killed productivity, morale, and their image in front of their clients. Yea... that's worth it!

 

[pad1986]

Pilot scheme!!!

Considering these were for schools, and this is a letter from the school district, it really shows their lack of intelligence.

This is/was a PILOT scheme...this means it is the first and is likely to have problems...This would be like using a BETA version and complaining that it doesn't fully work...It would be like testing a game in development and complaining that the graphics are not great or it's not fully rendered...

They signed for a 3 year contract and it has only been a year... plus this isn't all down to Apple...this is also relating to Pearsons!
Again, there is not only a huge discount from apple who have held up their end of the bargain by providing new tech, that for most of the students and schools in the program will be considered as 'state of the art' in itself... there is the licensing agreement with Pearsons - to break the contract and licensing agreement they will have to pay a fee, which will probably be more than the cost to use them for a further 2 years as agreed...

But it makes me wonder whether this school district actually spent time working the ipad into their teaching system, or if teachers were able to adapt to a modern why of teaching and just didnt use it...

Accessing Pearson also requires the schools to provide internet access - if the school is not equipped to do so, then it is the school at fault...

the textbooks themselves all for more vivid and interactive self study, but they are only useful if the teachers put them to good use...

 

[iisdan]

This sounds more like the school not trying to get it to work and blaming apple for their own stupidity to me.

 

[pad1986]

This project was a joke from the start.

I worked at Pearson here in the Bay Area building a lot of the classroom content for the app.

Things were rushed to the point that we didn't have time to polish almost anything, and a lot of this b grade material ended up in the hands of students.

.....

On the day they launched with LAUSD, I could literally crash the app on demand in over 10 different ways by simply tapping in certain areas.

LAUSD got played hard.

You are basically owning up to your own mistake... All the text is supposed to be available in digital format to print hard copies - the text just needed updating...
So the fact that a textbook making company couldnt cope with spelling checking, and checking that the work was correct, was a big fail in itself.

To admit that a lot of b grade material ended up in the ipad textbooks shows that you are not a company capable of producing a grade textbooks.

All you needed to do was add videos, multimedia, better pics etc... there was no reason for it to crash...
And if you were able to crash it 10 different ways, then you didnt do your job...

i'm sorry but this just shows the shoddy work the company is capable of, the lack of professionalism, and how you are not a team because you easily point fingers and make excuses...

you could easily have released the product and then provided updates to rectify problems!!!... many problems havent even be tackled since launch!!

 

[SteveW928]

But it makes me wonder whether this school district actually spent time working the ipad into their teaching system, or if teachers were able to adapt to a modern why of teaching and just didnt use it...

Accessing Pearson also requires the schools to provide internet access - if the school is not equipped to do so, then it is the school at fault...

If this was much like back in the 90s when many of the schools were put on-line, probably not. A lot of money was spent to wire and hook things up, but there wasn't much of an actual usage or integration plan. It kind of depended on the abilities and motivation of each teacher on whether it was put to use.

From what I've heard, the government set out a bandwidth target (i.e.: x amount of bandwidth per student) and billions upon billions are being spent to upgrade Internet access. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is wasteful if it isn't put to good use.

But, this stuff usually just ends up being a money-grab for the companies involved... if it ever all really works and helps the kids is an afterthought. That looks to me what we have here, once again. Sad, but not overly surprising.

----------

To admit that a lot of b grade material ended up in the ipad textbooks shows that you are not a company capable of producing a grade textbooks.

It probably wasn't so much to do with capability, but with resources. Once they (Pearson) had the money, they probably didn't put an appropriate team and resources into getting it done. That's just a guess, but I've seen stuff like that happen before.

 

[pad1986]

Spot on. Wake up Apple, sack Cook and Ive and get back to being a good computer maker.

If you know anything about Apple you will know that this was a project of Steve Jobs...it was his 'dream' to be able to allow textbooks for all that are of good quality, rather than out of date hand-me-downs...
Apple as a company continued to honor what he was trying to set up...although they probably weren't keen on it

so don't blame Cook or Ive...

Ive also has had very little to do with this project, and in fact he was mostly on the same mindset as Steve

 

[jedifaka]

Selling Hardware

Apple's job is to sell hardware. And they did.

But this project was only a more visible example of what I see in my industry all the time. An executive falls in love with an iPad. Through the fog of amor, he imagines the best thing that could happen in life would be that there are more iPads. His organization buys iPads. Sometimes lots of them.

But he never imagines the next step. Not in any detail, anyway. The IT department is swimming in boxes of iPads. "What are we going to do with these things?" In most enterprises for whom I've consulted, iPads end up being Exchange clients and little more. $700 for a device that can only supplement a laptop.

People love iPads. But to be valuable in enterprise (and education, too, apparently), you need more than hardware. If sales are slipping it's because no one's figured out what business-y stuff to do with the hardware everyone craves. It might be an opportunity for a big and clever third party. But it also might be the case that, to continue to sell to organizations (enterprise, education, maybe government), Apple might need to lead the way.

Selling to individuals isn't the same as selling in bulk.

 

[Digital Skunk]

This doesn't reflect the LAUSD student population. LAUSD has about 640,000 students (source) and about 405,000 of them (over 60%) are from low-income families. I got that figure from the LAUSD Comparative Title I School Data report issued January 28, 2015. The numbers change from year to year, but my point is that most students can't bring their own tablets because they don't own one.

* * *

I'm not sure whether this is good news or just more of the same, but LAUSD has just convened an Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force, under the direction of the current superintendent, to spend the next few months planning a revised approach.

You're right, not every kid can afford one, but that's why LAUSD should've allowed some (and by that I mean not iPads) to be on hand for the ones that can't bring their own.

Even in Baltimore, where many families are low income and qualify for free breakfast and lunch, there are many that can still afford to bring even the most rudimentary device. And i'll mention again, that in most third world countries, grade school students are required to pay for and bring/rent their own textbooks.

I'm not saying that situation would be idea by any stretch, just that in retrospect the district shouldn't have been so eager to put expensive tech in the hands of kids that don't necessarily need it. An android tablet accessing the web or an ebook would have worked just as well.

So I think ... I appreciate the link by the way. I know my comments aren't backed up by any sources.

As for the later part, i think the task force is a path in the right direction. I am sure they thought hard and long about the initiative at first, but buying 600,000+ iPads and designing proprietary software is just . . . . . just no.

 

[Doctor Q]

But it makes me wonder whether this school district actually spent time working the ipad into their teaching system, or if teachers were able to adapt to a modern why of teaching and just didnt use it...

At the pilot schools that received iPads, the teachers each got one too, and they had a bit of a headstart on the students, but not enough. They were given some professional development training, to cover the practical aspects of using iPads, but they didn't have enough time to really learn to teach with them. I think teachers learned more from each other than from district training. Many teachers were left to discover the best software, websites, or techniques for teaching their particular academic subjects. Progress would have been made, with everyone involved as a guinea pig.

There are several chicken-and-egg problems. Teachers aren't likely to learn much about teaching with new technology until they have it in their hands, so you have to decide what to give them before you get their feedback. And teachers may not take teaching with tablets seriously until the students in front of them have tablets too. The way out is to lean on the experiences of schools and school districts that have already taken these steps.

Accessing Pearson also requires the schools to provide internet access - if the school is not equipped to do so, then it is the school at fault...

LAUSD did in fact do several rounds of network upgrades, including establishing wireless networks and tweaking their capacity based on feedback from schools that tried to take last year's standardized tests using laptops or tablets.

 

[AppStoreNerd]

It depends on what they are using them for, I guess. Something I learned almost 25-years ago when I started my IT career (and it applies to most of life)**... saving money isn't much good if you didn't get the right thing or good quality. It actually ends up costing more in the long-run.

If they are just taking Web-based courses or exams, I suppose that's good enough. If they are also using real-world apps and such, it's better to have a real-world type device.

The big problem here though isn't the hardware they picked, but the program itself. It's like Common Core too. It's just a way for these companies to come in and get a bunch of money (i.e.: Pearson), maybe even with good intentions by the teachers and schools, but then it all falls apart after the sale because the implementation wasn't thought through or funded well enough. I've seen it happen bunches of times over the years.

** I saw this back in the early 90s when companies all tried to go from brand-name equipment to built systems. They 'saved' lots of money, only to cost a lot more. Or, currently, the company my wife works for issued Dell brick laptops to all the reps that travel... except that hardly anyone takes them with them because they are so cruddy and heavy. Instead, they take iPads or other devices with them and have found 'work-arounds' in their workflow (which their lousy IT department probably wouldn't be too thrilled about). Maybe they saved a few bucks? I don't know. But I do know they've killed productivity, morale, and their image in front of their clients. Yea... that's worth it!

we are talking about school kids here. they dont need powerful computer or applications for edition video or coding tools.
All they need is a web browser and collaboration tool which chromebook is more that enough.
and what real world app are you talking about?? educational apps? those apps are better on the web.

the big problem here is not what they picked but HOW they picked. they didnt even consider other option that are better for kids.if they have done that they would even have picked an ipad

 

[greenmeanie]

They couldn't say NO to the deal?

That was an awful deal for LASD

----------

More like Teachers want the device at home and never plan on using it to teach. At least in the areas I have seen and worked at.

In theory this program should have been a hit. Poor software and technical support are to blame. Apple need to focus more in this area if they want a program like this to succeed. Education has taken a back seat to gold watches and bling.

----------

You can buy or rent most textbooks from amazon.

The amount I pay for textbooks every year add up to more than a cost of an iPad anyway.

----------

#3 is so true!!!! When you ask for them back at the end of the year they tell you "But this is mine". I say NO they are the Tax Payers.

I'm a teacher and this has happened to me:

1. My smartboard bulb died and never got replaced -- school never bothered to call the repairmen and also ran out of money

2. School internet crapped out multiple times in one day. Later found out it was because someone in the front office was streaming Netflix too much and overburdened the wifi.

3. Ipads the schools gave us were ordered returned because (this is true) teachers started fighting over who got an Ipad 2 and who got an Ipad 4.

You live and learn. Nowadays if I want students to do something web-based I use the chromebook cart. Cheap, easy, and I can monitor as they have to put the chromebooks on the desk and I can walk around and make sure they're actually doing their work.

 

[greenmeanie]

What about the bad? They don't tell you that do they. Kids/Teachers surfing PORN, Teachers face booking all day about how they deserve raises, streaming pandora all day, games being played, people filming each other in the locker rooms. You can see that part on youtube! having to have the COPS come in for Cyber Bullying almost daily. Naked Selfies become the Schools fault for some reason ETC ETC.

This is really interesting to me.

Our school district uses iPads extensively, without the Pearson software. In fact, our town was featured in a film on the Apple website about iPads in Education.

https://www.apple.com/education/real-stories/burlington/

The first year (2011 I think), we had a limited roll out - high school kids and a few grades in elementary. The next year, a bigger roll out to middle school. Now every kid in our town has a dedicated iPad at school. The high school kids get to take them home, and the other kids store them at school in charging carts.

The first year was really rocky to be honest. My kids were in elementary at the time. Most teachers didn't know what to use them for or how to use them. There were a lot of technical glitches with the network. But there were still some neat projects done with the iPads. The kids made movies and presentations with them, and used some of the math games to learn math facts. Was it necessary? Not at all. But the kids enjoyed using them and it provided a level of learning engagement that they didn't have before.

My daughter is in middle school now and uses hers mostly for taking notes and looking up stuff on the internet. Each school now has a dedicated IT person to handle everything, which makes things smoother and I haven't heard much about any problems or issues in a long time.

They are still using paper textbooks for some reason (at least in elementary and middle school), maybe because the software is just not up to par yet.

It sounds like the LA situation was a case of too much too soon with an unrealistic expectation of how the launch of this type of technology would go. If they had done it in stages, like our school did, they would have had a chance to iron out the wrinkles and perhaps things would not have gone so catastrophically wrong.

Tl;dr: iPads can definitely be a great educational tool, and are really the right form factor for schools if implemented properly.

 

[SteveW928]

we are talking about school kids here. they dont need powerful computer or applications for edition video or coding tools.
All they need is a web browser and collaboration tool which chromebook is more that enough.
and what real world app are you talking about?? educational apps? those apps are better on the web.

That's why I said it depends on what they intended to do with them. Yes, if all they needed to do is access dynamic Web based content, then sure, just about any device with a reasonably modern browser would work.

My understanding was that they were going to run interactive text-books primarily. I guess that's something that could be done via a browser, but probably a lot richer experience on via a well-desinged app.

But, I guess my point is that base Web-browsing is about all Chromebooks do. If you want to do anything more than that, you've got to have a more real-world type device... as in, how many people do you see out in the real-world using Chromebooks?

----------

What about the bad? They don't tell you that do they. Kids/Teachers surfing PORN, Teachers face booking all day about how they deserve raises, streaming pandora all day, games being played, people filming each other in the locker rooms. You can see that part on youtube! having to have the COPS come in for Cyber Bullying almost daily. Naked Selfies become the Schools fault for some reason ETC ETC.

They didn't lock them down at all?

 

[gorkt]

The junior high and elementary ones are locked down. I "think" the high school ones aren't but I am not sure TBH.

Are you saying we shouldn't use a new technology ever since it might be abused by kids?

 

[s2mikey]

What else is new? A public school squandering money that belongs to taxpayers with some pie in the sky program. A compete joke, much like public education in general. We spend more than anywhere on Earth on education and continually come in WAY down the ladder as far as results go versus other countries.

Maybe Apple and Pearson are partially responsible or whatever but ultimately it comes down the fact that school districts spend money like drunk sailors because its NOT their money so accountability never enters the equation. It's the bloated and untouchable unions that cause much of the grief but that's for another argument.

As others have noted....why does little Johnny need an iPad to learn? Get them a few workstations for the classroom and stop trying to pamper them with tech gadgets. Ugh.

 

[PracticalMac]

In theory this program should have been a hit. Poor software and technical support are to blame. Apple need to focus more in this area if they want a program like this to succeed. Education has taken a back seat to gold watches and bling.

Completely agree.

This was a far better goose egg than gold watches, but instead of investing in the future (customers ) they put all trust in a 3ed party and as is iOS (limited admin tools).
(I was following my SD who spent millions on iPad's, but there was little planning and support and a few idiots resulting in exploding train wreck that really hurt local perception of Apple).

Apple is missing a lot of huge opportunities.

----------

Apple's job is to sell hardware. And they did.

Why is selling music, movies, TV, books, and other non-hardware stuff?

 

[PracticalMac]

This project was a joke from the start.

I worked at Pearson here in the Bay Area building a lot of the classroom content for the app.

Things were rushed to the point that we didn't have time to polish almost anything, and a lot of this b grade material ended up in the hands of students.

Project managers were pushed by their superiors higher up the ladder to adapt a quantity over quality approach to content creation and delivery. It made it a hard environment to work in, as if you were to point out flaws or inconsistencies to anyone your cry would go unnoticed.

They were rushing because they over sold the scope of the product then tried to cover it up by overloading the school district with an over delivery of sub par content. It smelled a lot like a premeditated scheme in the sense that they were getting very large checks written for concepts and products that didn't even exist yet.

On the day they launched with LAUSD, I could literally crash the app on demand in over 10 different ways by simply tapping in certain areas.

LAUSD got played hard.

Thanks for the report (your not the only company with serious management issues).

Apple made a huge mistake by not being directly involved in quality control, the result is this.
I hope Apple will step up and force better quality service and products. This is how Apple will gain the superior educational reputation. This is new territory and will take huge efforts to succeed.

 

[960design]

This is interesting, I wonder what was wrong with the eBooks? I loved the demo one and the eBooks I bought were fantastic.

Companies, like Pearson, seem to want ebooks to fail.

I don't know why, but it reminds me of the newspapers ignorance over the rise of the internet. Had newspapers embraced the technology with adds in a sidebar, they would have been the goto for our news. Their resistance has taught us to look elsewhere for our news, they will never get that opportunity again.

Subscription based books DO NOT work. I've done several surveys and the book must be on the device. I wish groups like CK12.org would gain more traction and put the textbook companies out of business. Carrying 7 $100 textbooks around these days is silly. Digital books can be updated almost immediately, we don't kill trees and they don't add any weight to your tablet.

I've been working over the last three years to get digital textbooks integrated into education, but it will just take time. Most educators simply don't understand how our students learn today. They continue to push the 'god on a podium' model and continually get in the way of our students' learning. Teachers today should be facilitators; they should state the standards and let the students do the research, guide them when necessary, assist in looking up answers when two facts seem to collide.

 

[bumblebritches5]

Considering these were for schools, and this is a letter from the school district, it really shows their lack of intelligence.

This is/was a PILOT scheme...this means it is the first and is likely to have problems...This would be like using a BETA version and complaining that it doesn't fully work...It would be like testing a game in development and complaining that the graphics are not great or it's not fully rendered...

They signed for a 3 year contract and it has only been a year... plus this isn't all down to Apple...this is also relating to Pearsons!
Again, there is not only a huge discount from apple who have held up their end of the bargain by providing new tech, that for most of the students and schools in the program will be considered as 'state of the art' in itself... there is the licensing agreement with Pearsons - to break the contract and licensing agreement they will have to pay a fee, which will probably be more than the cost to use them for a further 2 years as agreed...

But it makes me wonder whether this school district actually spent time working the ipad into their teaching system, or if teachers were able to adapt to a modern why of teaching and just didnt use it...

Accessing Pearson also requires the schools to provide internet access - if the school is not equipped to do so, then it is the school at fault...

the textbooks themselves all for more vivid and interactive self study, but they are only useful if the teachers put them to good use...

No, a pilot test goes on in one or two classrooms, not an entire district.

Stop defending Apple, they ****ed up. it's ok, the world's not going to end, but they did **** up...

 

[greenmeanie]

Locked Down LOL I can break any security you put on them along with the Students and Teachers.
Please EXPLAIN what you use to LOCK them down I would love to know.

Here is a REMINDER:
Almost immediately after receiving their new school-issued iPads this fall, students in Indiana and in California (and probably elsewhere) managed to bypass the security on the devices, “hacking” them for “non-schoolwork” purposes: listening to music, checking Facebook, surfing the web. [See the rest of the October 2013 article at theatlantic.com.]

The junior high and elementary ones are locked down. I "think" the high school ones aren't but I am not sure TBH.

Are you saying we shouldn't use a new technology ever since it might be abused by kids?

 

[Spectrum]

Oh yes, my mistake. I forgot that humans magically become faultless when putting things down in a book instead of on a website. If only I had written a letter to the editor instead of a forum post here it might have been faultless.

Come on!

My point was that websites don't have to be moderated nor is their a requirement for the content to have be critically appraised/corrected by anyone with the appropriate skills or knowledge. If a mistake is publicised, who is to blame? Even if corrected at some point, is that correction made visible? Would users be aware the content changed?

Peer-review books and articles are certainly not infallible, but they have been through a regulated process.

 

[960design]

Locked Down LOL I can break any security you put on them along with the Students and Teachers.
Please EXPLAIN what you use to LOCK them down I would love to know.

You have no idea what you are talking about. You CANNOT break the iPad security I've placed on the devices. I'm more than happy to show you: $5000 / day plus airfare and hotel.

The devices are placed in DEP before they even arrive. This locks our supervisory profile and MDM to the device. Once I turn it on, I log into individually created accounts for each device ( each iPad gets its own AppleID ). An MDM profile prevents iCloud settings access and changing the iTunes account. A final step it to turn restrictions on using a passcode.

The best you can do is to disable the device after multiple attempts at guessing the passcode. This can quickly be restored, faster than you would get out of in school suspension.

Please explain to all of us how you would bypass ( I say laughing out loud - hack ) this.

The reason LA school iPads were 'hacked', is partly because Apple is not listening to us. Apple hasn't fully thought out education / enterprise use of the devices. They are certainly getting better, but have a ways to go. Fortunately, I have a meeting in Cupertino in the next couple of weeks with their engineers to overcome some of the shortcomings. Hopefully we can make it a little easier to manage for the overworked teacher.

 

[pjamieson]

Time For Google Education to step in ...

It's taking school teaching by storm ..
https://www.google.com/edu/

 

[960design]

It's taking school teaching by storm ..
https://www.google.com/edu/

I've REALLY tried to like the Google platform, but it just doesn't get the job done for me. Chromebooks are a three year ago tech. We are considering ( currently testing ) HP Stream Pro 11" for 1 to 1. We have some old school techs that fear the 2GB Ram, but IMHO the SSD more than makes up for it. The small drive space prevents users from installing hacking software like Kali, Coffee, ect and we can remotely manage them. All for about $225 each. If we could get curriculum and the State to adopt free digital textbooks we would save the county millions. Lofty goals, on deaf ears.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Come on!

My point was that websites don't have to be moderated nor is their a requirement for the content to have be critically appraised/corrected by anyone with the appropriate skills or knowledge. If a mistake is publicised, who is to blame? Even if corrected at some point, is that correction made visible? Would users be aware the content changed?

Peer-review books and articles are certainly not infallible, but they have been through a regulated process.

The only difference guaranteed when you choose to publish a book instead of a website is that it will definitely cost you far more money to publish the book. As a result, you'll have to charge people if you publish a book, whereas you could distribute the same information through a website supported only by ads. You're not guaranteed to produce higher quality work. The same exact checks and balances you could do when publishing a book, you could do when publishing a website.

Such checks are not required by either books or websites.

I used to be in the same boat as you, thinking books were somehow magically better, until I discovered two things:

1 - Crappy books full of mistakes. The specific one in my case was "Teach Yourself Java in 24 Hours". I paid $30 for it at B&N.

2 - Stack Overflow (and the rest of the Stack Exchange network). Plus Learn <programming languages> the Hard Way. These websites made me realize that it's absolutely possible l to have high quality information freely available on the web.