Local school gets 1:1 iPad student grant... Is this the future of teaching?

[Mooshi]

As much as I dislike Apple, this is kinda practical when you think about it. When I was that age, our books were outdated shit. Not gonna lie, America has a terrible education system. The more access children get to accurate up-to-date information, the better the future generation would be off. Wacom also has a digitized pen that would effectively transform the iPad into a low cost Cintiq alternative which is really really cool.

[Wulfgar]

I believe handing a bunch of kids Ipads isn't doing anything for their education. IMO, kids these days are going BACKWARDS on learning how to use tech. Sure, they hop on facebook and "kik" all day long but couldn't explain how it works.

 

If it's a private school, then that's on them. Public schools shouldn't be wasting so needlessly.

[Mooshi]

I believe handing a bunch of kids Ipads isn't doing anything for their education. IMO, kids these days are going BACKWARDS on learning how to use tech. Sure, they hop on facebook and "kik" all day long but couldn't explain how it works.

 

If it's a private school, then that's on them. Public schools shouldn't be wasting so needlessly.

 

"State History" courses are bigger waste of tax payer money than giving students iPads. At least it has some real world application after they graduate. State History courses should be banned..such a waste, especially for kids that move. It doesn't even compare to real history courses.

 

Pet peeve when it comes to public schools and wasting of tax payer money -- I loathe state history courses and find it to be the biggest waste of tax payer money for a class.

[revz]

Although I'm not denying technology does help education as information is spread more easily, I always believed the teacher themselves is the most important part of education. Through my education a good teacher and a bad teacher makes a huge difference in my enthusiasm about their respective subjects. That's why I believe money should be spent on teacher training first then technology or in general teaching resource. Ofcourse a minimum amount of teaching resource has to be given to the teacher but ipad does not constitute as "minimum" teaching resource. Also without a good teacher, all that is going to appear on those screens will be candy crush saga.

[TheDigitalRealm]

My college have recently implemented it into the "infrastructure" of their system. For the moment every member of staff has been brought either an ipad 3 or an ipad mini. There are plans within the next 5 years to subsidize the cost and make it a requirement for students. (We'd only have to pay, say £50-£100). I go to an academy college. (meaning it's given a lump sum by the state, after which it raises it's own income) so my college may be above average in terms of technology.) 

 

I just think an Android tablet like the new Transformer Infinity (the one with a Tegra 4 and 2K display) would be far more useful, considering the way you can lock android tablets down to just a select few apps. I have a lock app on my Nexus 7 that I use when young kids come over, that way they can only access the age appropriate games. 

 

We have an "open door" electronics policy so tablets and laptops are allowed in class. I think that even if it does go all digital, there will still be an emphasis on handwriting for decades. It's not something we will let go of easily.

 

It's also interesting to see Apple get a foothold in the education market here in the U.K. Every school I've been to now has iPads for at least all teaching staff, and some are now requiring that students buy one. (which is elitist and ridiculous). Our College has just brought around 40-ish Mac's for the editing suite, and from talking to their tech guy, they plan to replace the majority of windows PC's with Macs within the next 5 years. 

[R4STABAN]

I work in a school in the UK and we've just made an order for a couple of iPad 2s (not my recommendation) and a few iPad minis (my recommendation). They are for English teachers only as a pilot.

 

I don't personally think they would work if given to students. I view them as a presentation device, mobile visualiser etc.

 

As for the guy asking about getting cheaper android tablets - android has nothing like the education support ios has. Not to mention we can't get android devices out of our proxy server properly and it comes with a bespoke browser for ios devices (again - edu support).

[kuddlesworth9419]

Why do you need iPads to learn. You could just have gotten cheaper tablets and then you wouldn't have wasted all that money. Besides if you rally wanted to learn on a tablet it would have to be one of M$ tablets. But learning on a tablet is stupid to begin with.

[Profquast]

Some elementary school in the Netherlands became iPad only and the idea was that the kids learn independantly. The amount of hipsters who signed their kid up was unbelievable.

[Qpm5]

I really like the surface better with its keyboard thing much better than the ipad. My teachers all have macbook pros or something like that and all of them are hooked up to the projectors or smartboards with vga so everyone has an adaptor. None of them work perfectly and we get huge purple sections on things or color does not work. All the windows computers are old core 2 duo hps with xp. They recently updated all of them to windows 7. The laptop carts are old macbooks that are really slow and broken. Thats what my school has.

[MzCatieB]

schools in the UK get laptops to work on

[cnelson3225]

Wow thanks for the input everyone! I do think quality teachers would be a better investment. It is really about the teacher, there is no way you can hope to produce successful students without quality instructors.

 

It's such a difference between schools throughout the district. Con. Ball MS has the 1:1 iPads while the elementary across the road has the old dells with XP and Pentium 4, and I want to say I am sick of Pentium D's... Been working on them for years.

 

I feel it should even out between schools.

[JLCitadel]

I get tablets for schools but why are they buying the most expensive tablet you can buy for schools? Countries are already in debt and we are spending money pointlessly buying things that could be gotten for a cheaper price. What about a Nexus 10 or literally any other tablet on the market.

 

Because like the forum I just made shows, people who are ignorant of tech, are just ignorant period. Waste money and have no idea what they're doing yet they get in a position of power because of the amount of ignorant people who can blindly elect officials or through corrupt methods.

[cnelson3225]

Because like the forum I just made shows, people who are ignorant of tech, are just ignorant period. Waste money and have no idea what they're doing yet they get in a position of power because of the amount of ignorant people who can blindly elect officials or through corrupt methods.

 

Not sure where that came from... I talked to the decision makers, they had said its the management software. It can be directly implemented into the inventory and management system "Casper."

 

I had the same concerns and that is what they told me...

[SkilledRebuilds]

There are so many better alternatives...

 

 

Kids get handed Ipad... "Can it play minecraft?"

NO.

 

"Then who cares, thrown over shoulder, never to be used for schoolwork at home"