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

[Mark]

Indeed.

DET have been pretty good at not locking schools into corporate-content
straitjackets.

(Let us try to forget the Oracle/Ultranet débâcle for the moment.)

It is edifying, however, to remotely view the disasters suffered afar and
benefit from a cosy dose of smug *schadenfreude*.

On a similar theme, John Oliver recently tore corporate-created
standardised testing (e.g. from Pearson Education)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eEyRZVWHGs> a New Southern Orifice. It's
well worth watching the whole episode. There but for the grace of DET go we.

BTW - if you can't download Youtube clips because they're infuriatingly
locked to a region, try Chrome's plugin *Hola! <http://hola.org>*, or go
all the way and buy access to a proxy like *'Private Internet Access'
<https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/>*. Note - These are just tips, not
commercial endorsements!

Mark

On 11 May 2015 at 15:35, Roland Gesthuizen <rgesthuizen at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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/
>
> --
>
> Real_men_don't_need_spacebars.
>
> Mark Kelly
> mark AT vceit DOT com
> http://vceit.com
>
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> Teachers Association Inc <br>
> http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/schools - Swinburne University
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/infotech/itapplications3-4.html -
> Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority <br>
> http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology
> Teachers Association Inc <br>
> http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/schools - Swinburne University
>



-- 

>> Witty sig goes HERE <<

Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com
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