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Los Angeles schools slow rollout of iPads amid security concerns

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R

Ripclawe

Banned
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/los-angeles-schools-slow-rollout-130000651.html

LOS ANGELES, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Los Angeles school district is putting the brakes on a project to give an iPad to each student, a $1 billion initiative that is the largest rollout of its kind in the nation and has been plagued by students hacking the devices' security features.

District officials have already provided their devices to over 25,000 students, and under their original plan would have finished distributing tablets to the last of its 650,000 students in late 2014.

Superintendent John Deasy has described the rollout as a civil rights initiative designed to give students in his district, mostly from low-income families, access to a 21st century tool common in middle-class households. Students are supposed to use it to take standardized tests, do homework, read curriculum, play learning games, capture video and more.

But they also want to use the devices for fun. In a high-profile setback, some 300 teenagers from three high schools found a way to bypass security protocols on their iPads earlier this year to access Twitter and other sites the district seeks to block.

Students have since been barred from taking the iPads home. Following that and other concerns from school board members, Deasy has proposed delaying by a year, to late 2015, the completion of the iPad rollout.

One board member, Monica Ratliff, has questioned whether a laptop and not an iPad was a better tool for high school students, and has sought a school board vote in mid-2014 on whether to go forward with the plan. The board, at a meeting on Tuesday, is set to consider the idea of a mid-year vote.

The Los Angeles rollout would be the largest distribution of mobile computers to schoolchildren attempted in the United States, and its efforts have gained widespread attention as districts across the nation experiment with ways to equip students with such devices.

"It is certainly ambitious and I have to credit them for that," said Richard Culatta, the U.S. Department of Education's director of the office of educational technology, adding that any such program was bound to experience "bumps along the road."



NOT ALONE

Los Angeles schools are not alone in choosing the iPad or mobile computing devices.

In a 2012 survey of over 364,000 U.S. students by Project Tomorrow, more than 28 percent of pupils in grades 3 to 12 said they had access to a school-provided laptop. Some 18 percent of third through fifth graders said they were given a tablet, with lower rates for older students.

Some school districts, such as in Virginia and Nevada, encourage students to bring their own devices to school for educational use, Culatta said.

The Los Angeles district, the second largest in the nation after New York, has struggled in recent years with declining enrollment and test scores that lag the California average.

Officials have said one reason for spending $1 billion on iPads, including $366 million to upgrade Wi-Fi networks and other technical infrastructure at schools, is to give students technology they can use to learn at their own pace.

In higher grades, they can use iPads with click-in keyboards to write and research essays.

At home, students will be able to access most of the Web including Wikipedia and news sites, but not social networking sites where cyber bullying is a concern, schools officials said.



Student Jayla Hill, 10, told the school board this month that the tablet lets students who may have missed a concept, like math division, to review on their own.

"I feel like the iPad helps me because sometimes the teacher pressures you to get the answer, but the iPad sits there and gives you all the time in the world," she said.

Officials have sought to reassure parents concerned about being held liable for the tablets by pledging to replace for free those that are lost or stolen.

"We're doing kind of a groundbreaking rollout, we all knew there would be attention paid to it and that's not a bad thing," Los Angeles school board member Tamar Galatzan said last month.

"If folks want to go back to the day of using a piece of stone and a chisel, we can," Galatzan said.
Click to expand...
 
jchap

jchap

Member
The notion that an iPad can actually help improve academics is laughable. It will have the opposite effect as a distraction. What a waste of money. You could hire 10k teachers and probably build new facilities with the same money.
 
R

RumblingRosco

Member
Technology in the hands of students is a great idea, but I'm just skeptical about something as easy to steal as an iPad. Not to mention that apparently even kids can out smart the security features they installed. Have they already purchased all the iPads? By the time they roll them out (if they push it back to late 2015) they'll probably be obsolete models anyway.
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
jchap said:
The notion that an iPad can actually help improve academics is laughable. It will have the opposite effect as a distraction. What a waste of money.
Click to expand...

eyup

Soka said:
Technology in the hands of students is a great idea, but I'm just skeptical about something as easy to steal as an iPad. Not to mention that apparently even kids can out smart the security features they installed. Have they already purchased all the iPads? By the time they roll them out (if they push it back to late 2015) they'll probably be obsolete models anyway.
Click to expand...

Teaching children how to make technology is one thing but tablets which are designed for instant ease of use consumption are of no benefit.
 
R

Ripclawe

Banned
Soka said:
Technology in the hands of students is a great idea, but I'm just skeptical about something as easy to steal as an iPad. Not to mention that apparently even kids can out smart the security features they installed. Have they already purchased all the iPads? By the time they roll them out (if they push it back to late 2015) they'll probably be obsolete models anyway.
Click to expand...

It wasn't really a "hack" all they did was delete the personal info on their tablet to get access to everything.
 
M

MIMIC

Banned
The same crap was going on in a district that I taught. All the kids had iPads and they were using Twitter/Facebook.

I was just a sub, so I don't know whether the kids were hacking the devices or simply that the there were no restrictions. But if the kids used social media while I was around, I just took it from them.

Regardless, the kids would have found a way. In a high school I taught at, the kids found a way to get around the district-wide block on the schools' PCs. It was kinda convoluted, so I was surprised when they explained it to me.
 
C

Cryolemon

Member
SJRB said:
I really wonder what they expected what was going to happen.
Click to expand...

This. It's pretty obvious that kids are going to find ways of bypassing whatever security you put on stuff like this. That isn't, in itself, a reason to not do it though.
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Seems hiring more teachers and reducing class sizes would have a greater effect.

I'm not Luddite, but I'm skeptical about the efficacy of computers in teaching. They're tools. It's better to focus on quality instruction.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
I think my district has started to rollout a log in screen on the iPads, but a lot of mischief has already been done and it will take a while to install that on every device already out there.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
jchap said:
The notion that an iPad can actually help improve academics is laughable. It will have the opposite effect as a distraction. What a waste of money. You could hire 10k teachers and probably build new facilities with the same money.
Click to expand...

Pretty fucking much.
 
B

bjork

Member
My ipad was stolen by hoodlums while I was on my way to deliver canned goods to the homeless. I didn't pawn it to get a PS4, honest.
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
They could have spent half as much money getting twice as many laptops. Laptops are much better suited to an academic environment and would be much cheaper to replace when they get stolen/broken. What a colossal waste of resources.
 
I

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Modern teaching of IT in a nutshell: Teaching actual coding & design... nah... here's some fancy tech and Microsoft Office instead.
 
P

Partial Gamification

Banned
Apple has given out a lot of money for educational grants developing lesson plans for tablets. I don't like the brand-imprinting that kids receive using iPads. I don't know how many times its been referred to as iPads in the classroom, and not tablets. Apple makes great products but they are a closed box. I personally feel giving kids acess to the rasberrypi/scratch platform would be of greater benefit to understanding technology. "The Kano computer is simple enough a monkey could use it." What do kids really need to use their tablets in a classroom for? Some of it is just gimmicky. Tablets will be replaced with flexible screens and wearable computers in the near future. Is around five-years of use worth a billion dollars? If I was a kid, I'd love to have access to one. I wonder if it could be cheaper on another platform and why there isn't a contest to design a rugged computer for the classroom. Servicing and assembling for the school's in the United States, maybe a network of hubs could be established to support individuals and small businesses as a jobs program. Its a client that isn't going away and could boost STEM activities in remote areas.

I'd like to see a rugged binder that could have hardware upgraded and was fairly open. There is no reason to be buying textbooks for many subjects, if not all.
call me crazy, I'm sure this could either be twice the size of a large textbook or very expensive:
binderq6po2.png


A: cover: seals -waterproof
B: Computer display
C: graphing calculator display/second screen(touchscreen-stylus capable)
D: calculator inputs
E: Spine (battery)
F: Inner cover flap for storage (keyboard mount/charger inside of flap -removable)
G: writing surface
H: Outer flap for storage: seals -waterproof
I: storage: mouse/stylus, crayons, small notebook, etc.
J: (not shown) - science instrument inputs

The whole think folds tight and is padded, vents and ports also are sealed when closed, and it can take a hell of an impact. Am I crazy?
edit: and its reversable for Righthand-lefthandness
 
M

Maxxan

Member
Even if a tablet would have been a great learning tool, why purchase the most overpriced brand out there? I mean, it looks great and is super sleek, but you're paying quite a lot for those external features..
 
P

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
portable personal computing is going to be a large portion of these childrens lives, familiarizing themselves with the technology and getting them accustomed to incorporating it into their day to day lives is important.

picking ipad's over laptops or an alternative tablet was probably not the best idea; [no name android devices have much lower resale potential] but the concept is solid. Don't be an old person frightened by change, gaf.
 
R

royalan

Member
jchap said:
The notion that an iPad can actually help improve academics is laughable. It will have the opposite effect as a distraction. What a waste of money. You could hire 10k teachers and probably build new facilities with the same money.
Click to expand...

Basically. And anybody with sense saw this coming a mile off.
 
B

biggersmaller

Banned
iPads are the worst educational return for the dollar there is. Give a kick-ass teacher a white board and you are doing 1000x the benefit of any iPad. The public school system obsession with technology has always blown my mind. The district my wife works in just passed a $50 million levy for technology capital expenditures (i.e. smart boards, iMac labs, and software). Hell, I loved the Apple II MECC games from my past - but I would be lying if I didn't think those hours repeatidly learning the same 10 things about The Oregon Trail could've been better spent.
 
N

N0VAM0D

Member
Oh, this reminds me of thing the similar thing which happened in Australia under the Rudd government in 2008, when high school students began to receive a laptop as a part of some "Digital Education Revolution" scheme. Something close to a million laptops were issued, but then whole thing ended pretty quietly in 2013.

I remember being issued one, and I swear all we ever used them for was emulating video games, internet browsing, and occasionally taking notes in class. Of course, we were urged by teachers to bring them to school because they were the "future tools of education", but in the end, the majority of students were just distracted by the machines.
 
D

Dicer

Banned
Why ipads, seems like waste of money...

Cheap android tablets integrate with Blackboard and call it a day...
 
R

royalan

Member
biggersmaller said:
iPads are the worst educational return for the dollar there is. Give a kick-ass teacher a white board and you are doing 1000x the benefit of any iPad. The public school system obsession with technology has always blown my mind. The district my wife works in just passed a $50 million levy for technology capital expenditures (i.e. smart boards, iMac labs, and software). Hell, I loved the Apple II MECC games from my past - but I would be lying if I didn't think those hours repeatidly learning the same 10 things about The Oregon Trail could've been better spent.
Click to expand...

Wanting to incorporate technology into the learning environment isn't a bad thing in itself. But, as a product of LAUSD, I can say that one of their classic problems is not really thinking it all through. They don't really consider sensible methods and alternatives to incorporating technology smartly. They usually just fall for the flashiest proposal and then waste their money.
 
NinjaBoiX

NinjaBoiX

Member
Dicer said:
Why ipads, seems like waste of money...

Cheap android tablets integrate with Blackboard and call it a day...
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was going to say.

My work is bringing in a automated system for paperwork, so the powers that be in their wisdom decided we all need top of the range iPads instead of a bum basic tablet that would do the job just fine.

It's smacks of "ooh, shiny thing!" to me.
 
C

clav

Member
Next, the school boards are going to use iPads as an excuse not to raise teacher salaries or hire more teachers.

BUT WE ALREADY GAVE THEM IPADS! JUST TEACH BETTER!!!
 
A

AlexMeloche

Member
Where I live, almost every private high schools started teaching with iPads this year, and A lot of public schools also started doing the same. It's still pretty new, but a lot of teachers agree that it's beneficial to the kids.

Also it's way cheaper for the schools, the parents have to pay for the iPads!
 
J

jman2050

Member
So school districts can pay millions of dollars on iPads or laptops but can't pay their teachers fair wages?

Frankly I feel standardized tech tools for the classroom should be tailor suited only to function in service of that environment and nowhere else. No, simple security blocks don't allow this, kids are generally clever enough that said security might as well not even be there.
 
P

Partial Gamification

Banned
claviertekky said:
Next, the school boards are going to use iPads as an excuse not to raise teacher salaries or hire more teachers.

BUT WE ALREADY GAVE THEM IPADS! JUST TEACH BETTER!!!
Click to expand...
Raise salries, but only need one teacher per grade/subject/language. iTeacher will be a revolution I tells yah. In a few years, the system will have colleected enough proprietary informaiton to deply Ms. Siri. Then we can not even bother with the whole building, a remote classroom for all! Education in a box teaching kids to think outside the box?
engkey3_610x337n1lx9.jpg

didn't want to bother pasting apple logo on there.
 
S

sky

Member
I think their intentions were probably good, but there's a new iPad every year. In 2-3 years it'll be considered outdated, a few more years and it won't even be able to run the newest software. So basically... the same problem as always, schools getting stuck with out-dated tech.
 
M

Marco1

Member
sky said:
I think their intentions were probably good, but there's a new iPad every year. In 2-3 years it'll be considered outdated, a few more years and it won't even be able to run the newest software. So basically... the same problem as always, schools getting stuck with out-dated tech.
Click to expand...
This!
The higher ups that authorise this shit are the same people that think saving a few pounds by buying cheap dell desktops are the way forward.
No wonder apple still keep the iPad 2, how else do they off load their outdated, overpriced shit.
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
We rolled out iPads at our school last year.

All it took was one Asian international student and the security filter was pretty much worthless.
 
Lamel

Lamel

Banned
What a waste of $1 billion.

Better, cheaper, and more useful ways to acquaint students with tech exist.
 
A

Admiral Bone to Pick

Banned
Back in my day, you didn't get iPads or laptops or anything in the classroom. You had worksheets and packets to fill out, and if you did go to the computer lab, it was rows upon rows of shitty Dell desktops. Maybe some iMacs there to look pretty.

Kids today...
 
E

EnderWiggles

Member
I just wanted to point out:

$1 billion - $366 million for WiFi upgrades = $634 million for the iPads

$634 million divided by 650,000 students = $975 per iPad per student

Even consider administration costs and likely training costs for students and teachers, that's a pretty terrible price. Does Apple not offer a bulk discount when you buy over half a million iPads?
 
N

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
They should have just gone with chrome books and written a custom script that locks the unit from connecting to any network that isn't the school network. This should work decently since chrome books are generally useless without a wi-fi connection (assuming they're not the 3G version).
 
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