My tax dollars being fucking wasted: LA spends $30M on iPads for schools.

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On the plus side, this will help fully illustrate how ironically computer illiterate Scotty from Start Trek became in the Voyage Home.
 
Fuck fanboy angle, I'm talking about teaching angle.

What the hell are you gonna teach them on iPads? How to use the apps that spoon feeds you some pre-dumped information? They can already do that shit without a teacher.

How about teaching them things like how to take proper notes, how to apply critical thing to a subject matter that are fed to you etc.?

For people who can't afford access to expensive technology, an iPad is good for familiarizing all public students and their families to a modern ecosystem.

---All public school students in Maine are also given an iPad. Initially the kids were given a laptop...a much better choice in my opinion.
 
Fuck fanboy angle, I'm talking about teaching angle.

What the hell are you gonna teach them on iPads? How to use the apps that spoon feeds you some pre-dumped information? They can already do that shit without a teacher.

How about teaching them things like how to take proper notes, how to apply critical thing to a subject matter that are fed to you etc.?

There's a ton of great audio production apps on the iPad. I'm constantly amazed at what I can make using mine.
 
This is how half of them will look within a month.

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This is McDonalds cashier approach to teaching. You know, click on pictures of food on a special cash register instead of one that makes you understand all that is required of being a cashier?

Instead of formulating and executing lessons tailored by the teacher, you just let them use some interactive apps and sit back. This will just end up further lowering quality of teachers and accelerate our path to living out scenes from Idiocracy in real life.

So now you're changing your argument to "educational apps will make people dumber?" This no longer has anything to do with technical spec superiority and cost effectiveness, which I believe was your original issue?

I can only speak from my own experience, but the elementary school teachers I've talked to who have iPads available at their school incorporate them into their curriculum as supplementary devices. They don't just hand the kids iPads and force them to play with apps all day.

Seriously, just do a couple of searches and you'll find plenty of interesting examples of iPads (and possibly other tablet devices) being used in schools.
 
This is McDonalds cashier approach to teaching. You know, click on pictures of food on a special cash register instead of one that makes you understand all that is required of being a cashier?

Instead of formulating and executing lessons tailored by the teacher, you just let them use some interactive apps and sit back. This will just end up further lowering quality of teachers and accelerate our path to living out scenes from Idiocracy in real life.

That's just bullshit. You're forcing the blame on a tool and not the person using the tool.

Technology needs to be introduced to kids. Yes ipad does initially seem like an odd and frivolous choice, but when you sit back and look at it, it's one of the best tools available on this aspect.
 
This is McDonalds cashier approach to teaching. You know, click on pictures of food on a special cash register instead of one that makes you understand all that is required of being a cashier?

Instead of formulating and executing lessons tailored by the teacher, you just let them use some interactive apps and sit back. This will just end up further lowering quality of teachers and accelerate our path to living out scenes from Idiocracy in real life.

I don't see why this wouldn't be the case with a Win8 or Android tablet, though. You'll always have teachers who'll be content to just let students read from the book or, now, play with the tablet. The good and/or creative teachers will find ways to better incorporate those tablets into their lessons.
At that point, it just becomes a question of "who has the best device and software for doing this?"
 
I wouldn't say waste—it's probably not maximizing the utility you can get out of 30m (education or not), but I think there's promise. personally, I'm not a fan of putting so much emphasis on technology in the classroom, especially when it's almost always distributed very poorly (and unequally). But... there are a lot of quality education apps being developed and I wouldn't be surprised if many of them were being developed for iOS. So I can't get too angry about this.

I'd much rather it be 30m "wasted" on eduction than any number of other ways LA could've pissed it away.
 
After years of reform, California education schools fall short on new ranking system.
http://hechingerreport.org/content/after-years-of-reform-california-education-schools-fall-short-on-new-ranking-system_12388/
http://www.edsource.org/today/2013/critical-report-on-teacher-preparation-programs-sparks-debate/33721/comment-page-1#.UcIAIvmsjK5

They should concentrate on getting better teachers. A lot of them are unprepared to teach in poorer neighborhoods and many don't have a grasp of their subjects. The better ones go to magnet schools or good schools.

LAUSD is a joke. They have been giving Apple money for years, so this is nothing new. Many of the Mac laptops in schools are never used or only lent to magnet students. Also you pretty much have to turn off the internet to get the kids to do anything. They are a distraction, not a learning tool. Unless they can get cheaper school books, but I doubt the big edu. publishers would allow it to happen.
 
Yeah... those school kids at the compulsory education level are all about emailing assignments to their teacher. What?
Why not? If you're handing out iPads like candy is it that unreasonable for certain things to be submitted and communicated electronically?

But from some above posts it seems like there is a custom system in place to facilitate that.
 
On the plus side, this will help fully illustrate how ironically computer illiterate Scotty from Start Trek became in the Voyage Home.

Not fair hombre. After talking into the mouse, he typed up the formula to transparent aluminum with the keyboard with accompanying 3D image in like 15 seconds of click clacking with god know what program, lol.
 
Fuck fanboy angle, I'm talking about teaching angle.

What the hell are you gonna teach them on iPads? How to use the apps that spoon feeds you some pre-dumped information? They can already do that shit without a teacher.

How about teaching them things like how to take proper notes, how to apply critical thing to a subject matter that are fed to you etc.?

Yeah they need to spend 1Billion on a useful fucking curriculum on the fucking tablets. Nowt just expecting them to be magical teaching machines that teleport information into the heads of children.
 
That's just bullshit. You're forcing the blame on a tool and not the person using the tool.

Technology needs to be introduced to kids. Yes ipad does initially seem like an odd and frivolous choice, but when you sit back and look at it, it's one of the best tools available on this aspect.


every classroom at my school was forced to have 2 computers per classroom. THEY WERE NEVER FUCKING USED.


they collected dust. This is not because of "technology needs to be introduced to kids" -- its because there is no room for anything to be taught because the teachers themselves don't even know how technology works let alone freaking iPads that will go unused and sitting in a drawer for 99% of the year.


if you dont have enough for every single kid in the classroom they will not be used. that's the truth.
 
This is McDonalds cashier approach to teaching. You know, click on pictures of food on a special cash register instead of one that makes you understand all that is required of being a cashier?

Instead of formulating and executing lessons tailored by the teacher, you just let them use some interactive apps and sit back. This will just end up further lowering quality of teachers and accelerate our path to living out scenes from Idiocracy in real life.

.


If this line of thinking is a product of 'proper teaching methods', maybe we do need to find a new way.
 
I don't know how they plan to do use them but interactive devices like the iPad are rapidly creating much more effective and innovative approaches to teaching and pedagogy. A lecturer standing in front of a group of students is actually not all that effective pedagogically; it's just that we've never really come up with anything better that's also cost-effective. Devices like these are going to completely rewrite the paradigm of how education and teaching works in the next 20 years.

Of course, that depends on how they're used and integrated into the classroom setting.
 
Not fair hombre. After talking into the mouse, he typed up the formula to transparent aluminum with the keyboard with accompanying 3D image in like 15 seconds of click clacking with god know what program, lol.

Don't fuck around with System 6 yo. Shit is amazing. He probably tunneled into DARPA with AppleTalk and Applescript and invented the Cloud.
 
every classroom at my school was forced to have 2 computers per classroom. THEY WERE NEVER FUCKING USED.


they collected dust. This is not because of "technology needs to be introduced to kids" -- its because there is no room for anything to be taught because the teachers themselves don't even know how technology works let alone freaking iPads that will go unused and sitting in a drawer for 99% of the year.


if you dont have enough for every single kid in the classroom they will not be used. that's the truth.

All I can say is I work at a technology department at a 30 school district. We did the Ipad rollout a couple years ago and I bitched and moaned about how it was wasted money.

2 years later, they're a pretty damn good success in classrooms and I'm having to eat crow.
 
every classroom at my school was forced to have 2 computers per classroom. THEY WERE NEVER FUCKING USED.


they collected dust. This is not because of "technology needs to be introduced to kids" -- its because there is no room for anything to be taught because the teachers themselves don't even know how technology works let alone freaking iPads that will go unused and sitting in a drawer for 99% of the year.


if you dont have enough for every single kid in the classroom they will not be used. that's the truth.

Or maybe the fact that there were only two computers per classroom meant that the teacher couldn't use them effectively since students would have to take turns while the others sat around doing something else?

Every example of iPads in the classroom I've seen is that each students gets their own device (to be used while in the classroom).
 
If somehow the students' overall performance rises after the introduction of these devices, would you still consider such endeavors to be a fiscal waste?
 
I don't see why this wouldn't be the case with a Win8 or Android tablet, though. You'll always have teachers who'll be content to just let students read from the book or, now, play with the tablet. The good and/or creative teachers will find ways to better incorporate those tablets into their lessons.
At that point, it just becomes a question of "who has the best device and software for doing this?"

The OSes themselves make no goddamn difference.

It's the use of a proper pen. Pen promotes usage of different areas of the brain then typing. It's something that's really lacking with students these days. They all clackity clack type, essentially becoming a secretary to the teacher without digesting the information.

Taking hand written notes forces you to digest and understand the information more.
 
Its not just LA unified that is doing this my son got an ipod on his first day of kinder not sure what they use it for but I know its locked from downloading games or apps that are not part of what they are being taught. I'm not a big fan of it because he already has plenty of devices at home to use my concern is if he looses it I have to shell out $200 for it.
 
The OSes themselves make no goddamn difference.

It's the use of a proper pen. Pen promotes usage of different areas of the brain then typing. It's something that's really lacking with students these days. They all clackity clack type, essentially becoming a secretary to the teacher without digesting the information.

Taking hand written notes forces you to digest and understand the information more.

Again, why do you think these tablets are for taking notes?
 
If somehow the students' overall performance rises after the introduction of these devices, would you still consider such endeavors to be a fiscal waste?
Yeah but only because there are cheaper platforms and hardware out there that surely could do a similar job performance wise.

There seems to be nothing about this that would require such an expensive device in the iPad.
 
Don't fuck around with System 6 yo. Shit is amazing. He probably tunneled into DARPA with AppleTalk and Applescript and invented the Cloud.

God... Appletalk... Don't bring back painful memories please. Wasted so much hours waiting for that to actually work back in the day.
 
Yeah but only because there are cheaper platforms and hardware out there that surely could do a similar job performance wise.

There seems to be nothing about this that would require such an expensive device in the iPad.

Because it has the best support and applications for the education sector. PERIOD.
 
Fuck fanboy angle, I'm talking about teaching angle.

What the hell are you gonna teach them on iPads? How to use the apps that spoon feeds you some pre-dumped information? They can already do that shit without a teacher.

How about teaching them things like how to take proper notes, how to apply critical thing to a subject matter that are fed to you etc.?

I think the purchase of the iPads may be related to the change in California's core standards. There is a bigger focus on developing critical thinking with the new standards. For example, in 2015 elementary school students, at least in my city, will no longer receive multiple choice standardized tests for English and other writing intensive courses. Instead they will be required to write their answer and explain how and why they go their.

The purchase of tablets, or other computers, is necessary because a lot of standardized tests are switching over to digital soon. There are some tests sites in the state that have had great success with iPads and other tablets so I'm looking forward to seeing how it does in a bigger district.
 
When I was in High School '95-'99 thank fuck most teachers didn't ask us to carry the curriculum books in our bags

The math books alone weighed a fucking ton, with science class book, it was a fucking back breaking affair

Most had a locker in the back of the class, when class started everyone jetted to grab the book at the top, last 2-3 at the bottom where always missing pages
If you got assed out, you had to share with someone =/, shit wasn't right

If the iPads replace all those problems and create new methods of teaching it's well worth it

Even in my public school days, books were a burden, thank fuck our teachers were given access to print most lessons on paper, for us to take home and do homework on
 
The OSes themselves make no goddamn difference.

It's the use of a proper pen. Pen promotes usage of different areas of the brain then typing. It's something that's really lacking with students these days. They all clackity clack type, essentially becoming a secretary to the teacher without digesting the information.

Taking hand written notes forces you to digest and understand the information more.
Honestly, I don't think I took any notes K-12. Maybe in my math classes, but it literally was copying the teacher's math problems. It was good enough to get into some pretty good colleges.
 
I would say the educators probably have a better sense of their needs for the classroom compared to a random outraged Angelino.

Anyways, my brother's school uses iPads and Macbook Airs for education. They actually have all the lectures available as podcasts, so the kids (or at least my brother) watches the lectures at 2x speed at home to enhance his notes.
 
Because it has the best support and applications for the education sector. PERIOD.
And with all that support they still have to write custom software anyway to handle things like assignment submissions and course integration?

But I guess there is iTunes U.

Edit: Apologies. I see iTunes U already includes it. Not bad then. Still bloated expensive on the hardware side, but not bad.
 
You were taking notes all wrong homie. Listen, digest, and only put down the key/core lesson.

Yeah no

When I was in school almost everyone and their mother wrote every single thing the teacher wrote

Shit even in college everybody and their mother had notes 2-3 pages long on a 2 hour class

Most of the time shit said was the same shit said in the book
Sometime the teacher would skip a paragraph or page and come back to it, "freshen it up"

Most teachers don't challenge their students to be better, I rather have the iPad and learn more through it than the teacher babbling on about it, then going back to the book every 2-3 minutes to get to the next part
 
I will say this now.

Students will not get these Ipad. They will be distributed among the education board and teachers. Of all the programs I have seen that wasted millions of dollars buying tablets, I have never seen a student get one.

Something else people should know is that in general, people running the education boards, are often absolute idiots. Many of them have no teaching credentials themselves. California and Texas are the two worst for this. There was a PBS special recently on the Texas school board. It blew my mind. Literally when they would take a break to get water, lobbyist would sprint up to and be all over the board members, to sway them on an upcoming vote.

I can't believe that shit is allowed.
 
The OSes themselves make no goddamn difference.

It's the use of a proper pen. Pen promotes usage of different areas of the brain then typing. It's something that's really lacking with students these days. They all clackity clack type, essentially becoming a secretary to the teacher without digesting the information.

Taking hand written notes forces you to digest and understand the information more.

It very much does, Apple has an eco-system built specifically for education. None of the others has this.
 
I would say the educators probably have a better sense of their needs for the classroom compared to a random outraged Angelino.

Anyways, my brother's school uses iPads and Macbook Airs for education. They actually have all the lectures available as podcasts, so the kids (or at least my brother) watches the lectures at 2x speed at home to enhance his notes.

I'm a teacher. Thanks for reading.
 
well, are all the content that comes preloaded with these ipads available on cheaper devices?

i still think schools should prioritize computers over tablets.
 
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