[Year 12 IT Apps] What Schools Must Learn From LA’s iPad Debacle

[Roland Gesthuizen]

Odd how they locked down the iPad devices in Los Angeles, I suspect so it could ONLY be used for this application and seems a waste and lost opportunity. No wonder that the first thing that kids did was to hack the device to satisfy their curiosity .. but is this really hacking?
	http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/students-are-hacking-their-school-issued-ipads-good-for-them/280196/

I that in Victoria, in the last few years have done a better job of our huge 1:1 IT deployments that are mostly driven by clearer educational goals. we frown at anything that involve a single solution, contract, vendor, learning strategy or large bucket of money.  Whilst we may have stumbled, I admire DET educators who are prepared the ask the hard questions about good teaching and learning with digital technologies. Only last week I sat through an iPad VideoConference workshop with some staff and realised how far they had come over the past few years with some serious discussions about how to help inspire and unleash creativity with these devices rather than a mindless search for yet another magical learning bullet to do what we have just always done.

We want our students to have good access to computers and the Internet and most of us take the time to listen to what students think, observe their use and reflect upon their learning.

—
Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

> On 10 May 2015, at 1:56 pm, Mark <mark at vceit.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> "WHEN LOS ANGELES schools began handing out iPads in the fall of 2013, it looked like one of the country’s most ambitious rollouts of technology in the classroom. The city’s school district planned to spend $1.3 billion putting iPads, preloaded with the Pearson curriculum, in the hands of every student in every school.
> 
> "Less than two years later, that ambitious plan now looks like a spectacularly foolish one. In August, the Los Angeles Unified School District halted its contract with Apple, as rumors swirled that Apple and Pearson may have received preferential treatment in the district’s procurement process, something the FBI is investigating. Then, this spring, the district sent a letter to Apple seeking a refund, citing crippling technical issues with the Pearson platform and incomplete curriculum that made it nearly impossible for teachers to teach. If a deal can’t be reached, the district could take legal action...
> 
> "But while the the parties involved continue pointing the finger and picking up the pieces, the important question to ask now is what this fiasco means for the future of technology in the classroom. If one of the country’s largest school districts, one of the world’s largest tech companies, and one of the most established brands in education can’t make it work, can anyone?"
> 
> Read more at http://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/ <http://www.wired.com/2015/05/los-angeles-edtech/>
> 
> -- 
> 
> Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.
> 
> Mark Kelly
> mark AT vceit DOT com
> http://vceit.com <http://vceit.com/>
> 
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