L.A. Unified School District Suspends $1 Billion iPad Contract with Apple

patohi said:
Chromebooks
With google rolling things out like classroom it is very tempting for IT departments at school districts...
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So true. Very easy to administer. I don't like them at all but I can see their allure to schools.
 
I'd like to say I'm glad sanity took hold, but I'm certain they'll find another way to waste the $.

sputnikv said:
That seems like a tremendous amount of money for a school district to have.
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On average public schools have to spend about $15K per student. For a city the size of LA, $1B over several years isn't a tremendous amount of money. The question is, is it a wise expenditure and is there an actual plan of use behind the purchase. I didn't think so at the time, and this is vindication. BTW Private school tuition is large cities can easily cost 2-4x amount.
 
A school I used to work in purchased dozens of iPads and the teachers didn't have the first clue what to do with them. I'm all for getting technology in to the classroom but just throwing money at it and hoping it all works out is not the answer. It made me feel sick to see tens of thousands of dollars spent on iPads and they were primarily used as mediocre cameras.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
Um... you seem unaware of the cost of other things schools buy that they no longer need to buy, IE, textbooks (did you happen to go to college where you had to actually buy them yourself? One semester can easily go over $800 in books. I think one semester I ended up spending $1050 on books,) and computers.
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And you seem to be unaware of what a typical school environment is like and how quickly an glass and metal tablet will be broken or stolen. You're right, textbooks are a racket, big-time, but what we're seeing here is nothing more than the same old profiteers looking to cash in in a new way.
 
japanime said:
And yet nobody blinks twice when professional sports teams toss around hundreds of millions on a 25-man roster.
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Professional sports teams with money from seasons passes, tickets, accessories, toys, clothing, games, overpriced food/alcohol, etc and public schools that are paid for with taxes are two completely different things
 
octothorpe8 said:
Yeah, given that the bond measure was for school infrastructure and their buildings are crumbling, this is a good move. Also doesn't help that the devices were a trojan horse to get a specific educational publisher's products into the hands of students (at a great cost, of course).

They were also paying $800/iPad, which is just disgusting.
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Do you know what is included in that $800? Mine cost over $1100, with a company discount.
 
I still don't get it. To study successfully you don't need iPads or anything else similar. Just obedience, dedication & time management skills... As a teenager it may seem hard to balance social life with school work, but there's just no excuse. I'm speaking from a European viewpoint, I'm not too sure about the public American school systems, as it seems to have a bad reputation and that it may be a large contributor. But the responsibility is among the student.

It has been somewhat of a functioning system for the last decades.
 
Did Pearson offer good value ?

I suspect not and as a result the Pearson's side of this deal was the expensive part. Pearsons interactive books are generally poor and reflect, especially in the beginning, a poor appreciation of what the iBooks format offered. Harper Collins books mapped across to iPads well, but this is water under the bridge now. Lessons learned.
 
Apple has rested on their laurels with the iPad and it will soon bite them. Instead of continuously innovating, adding capability and value (IE Price), they simply shrunk it to give people a cheaper option without adding any capability. I enjoy my iPad, but I'm not going to pretend its nothing more than an internet browser and useful for reading the occasional book or magazine (which I still prefer paper copies of). There was no way it was ever going to takeoff in school systems.
 
Dilster3k said:
I still don't get it. To study successfully you don't need iPads or anything else similar. Just obedience, dedication & time management skills... As a teenager it may seem hard to balance social life with school work, but there's just no excuse. I'm speaking from a European viewpoint, I'm not too sure about the public American school systems, as it seems to have a bad reputation and that it may be a large contributor. But the responsibility is among the student.

It has been somewhat of a functioning system for the last decades.
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The public American school system is fairly laughable in many parts of the nation. Teachers are only able to do so much before they're blocked by the administration that signs their paychecks. It is not terrible everywhere, but it certainly could use a lot of improvement.
 
While there are plenty of arguments to be made, including the politics involved in the decision, the role of technology in the classroom, and the success of implementing such technology, one thing I don't believe anyone can argue with is the decision to go with Apple.

I wouldn't run any institution on Android, Galaxy Tabs, whatever it is Asus puts out, or my favorite, the Polaroid tablets found at Big Lots!
:cool:
 
Dilster3k said:
I still don't get it. To study successfully you don't need iPads or anything else similar. Just obedience, dedication & time management skills... As a teenager it may seem hard to balance social life with school work, but there's just no excuse.............. the responsibility ( lies with) the student.
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I'd add to this one caveat...if you do give them iPads....teach the students how to use the kit first to be productive , otherwise they simply be creative doing lots and producing little.
 
GuitarDTO said:
Apple has rested on their laurels with the iPad and it will soon bite them. Instead of continuously innovating, adding capability and value (IE Price), they simply shrunk it to give people a cheaper option without adding any capability. I enjoy my iPad, but I'm not going to pretend its nothing more than an internet browser and useful for reading the occasional book or magazine (which I still prefer paper copies of). There was no way it was ever going to takeoff in school systems.
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It seems that you don't know how to use your iPad. For what you are using it now, you should just have got a Kindle or an eReader.
 
Schools can get seduced by these tech purchases. But what is really needed is more and better teachers. The iPad is probably still too expensive for inclusion in schooling. Its inclusion is probably inevitable. But it is still several years down the road. The tablet needs to get more powerful and cheaper (kids are going to break them). But the tablet form factor will fairly obviously replace paper for most uses in the not too distant future. I think we can all agree that this is where things are going to go.

But at this stage, when iPads are really expensive and the educational software is pretty poor (and also in this case expensive), this was not a good deal for the schools.
 
ThisIsNotMe said:
A book has an 'infinent' lifespan. This software as well as an iPad maxes out at 3 to 5 years.
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No textbook has ever survived more than 3 years unless a student owns it and walks away with it. They are constantly updated or reprinted as things progress.
 
Dilster3k said:
To study successfully you don't need iPads or anything else similar. Just obedience, dedication & time management skills... As a teenager it may seem hard to balance social life with school work, but there's just no excuse. But the responsibility is among the student.
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Ahh yes, but that requires a person to actually WORK instead of just coast, eat overly processed food, look at Facebook, and stare at whatever cheaply produced reality show MTV is shoving in front of them.

And we wonder why all of the doctors have names we can't pronounce, and their children are always the valedictorians.

/rant.
 
wigby said:
No textbook has ever survived more than 3 years unless a student owns it and walks away with it. They are constantly updated or reprinted as things progress.
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Huh, I have a general education text book from the 1890s that is more or less still up to date in many concepts.


Unless you are doing a PhD (and a handful of masters), anything within the span of 3 years doesn't make a different at that point in your education. This is especially true of a K-12 school district.
 
TallManNY said:
But at this stage, when iPads are really expensive and the educational software is pretty poor (and also in this case expensive), this was not a good deal for the schools.
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I agree. At this point in time (and space!) iPads are just a toy, a way to show the parents that the school system is advanced and leading children to a bright new future.
As much as iPads are cool - I am surprised that there is no ePad by Apple - I think that a kid would learn more useful things from a Raspberry Pi rather than an iPad (or any other tablet).
 
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