640,000 students in L.A. to get free iPads

Thanks to a new $30 million program, 640,000 kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District will receive free iPads.

The first 31,000 will be given to kids this year, with the full rollout planned before September 2014. The goal of the program is to give students technological skills they may not have, and a better way to learn.

Adds Mark Hovatter, the chief facilities executive for the LAUSD: "The most important thing is to try to prepare the kids for the technology they are going to face when they are going to graduate. This is phase one, a mix of high school, middle school, and elementary students. We're targeting kids who most likely don't have their own computers or laptops or iPads. Their only exposure to computers now is going to be in their schools."

Every iPad will be pre-loaded with educational applications, as well as a few other apps that will help students with their studies.

The district has 1,124 schools (K-12), and the first deployment is hitting the first 49 of those schools.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2013 22:47

shortybob

cuz that's what kids need is iPads. Glad that's what we decided to spend $30 million dollars on. I was afraid it would be for learning instead of Facebook for a second there.

27.7.2013 00:45 #1

KillerBug

There was an interesting experiment done in India. Computer terminals were installed in remote villages where the kids had never seen computers before, and where none of them spoke english or went to anything resembling what the west would call school. The systems were setup in english only, and had only mice...no keyboards. They were given no instructions whatsoever. Upon return a few months later, the children had taught themselves basic english and were using the computers at the level higher than that of the typical 40-year-old in the west...they were even typing, using the character map. No one taught them how to do any of this. Next the computers were loaded with information on the human genome. Again, the children were given no instructions...they just loaded the information and left. When they returned, the kids all complained that they could only get so far, and they didn't understand anything after that point. The point they were referring to was the same point that the best minds in the west were stuck on, and performing massive, expensive experiments on live subjects in order to try to overcome. It is quite amazing what kids can do with the most basic, rudimentary system if left alone with it. It seems like a waste of good future minds to give them iPads. Netbooks loaded with linux would be much more valuable to their education, and would cost far less, plus they wouldn't get destroyed as easily in backpacks. If this was a donation from Apple, and it was iPads or nothing then I would be happy to see these kids getting anything at all...but it makes me sick to think that only half as many kids are getting devices due to the higher cost, and that half are getting devices that won't serve them near as much educationally.

27.7.2013 10:28 #2

bobiroc

Well I hope they actually use them for learning something because in my experience working in education IT support for the past 11 years is that most teachers get these for their students and do nothing but screw around with them. They rarely have a curriculum to go with the iPads and almost expect the students to figure out what to do with them. I am always being asked to remove games and other apps from the devices that if the teachers were even trying to use them productively would never get on there in the first place.

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27.7.2013 11:34 #3

DarthMopar

Meanwhile in Detroit....

27.7.2013 12:58 #4

xtago

Killerbug, Linux sucks as a home OS, Even the 1 head dev guy (who isn't a programmer by trade) who was the only person trying to make the OS usable for home users, ended up leaving Linux as the other head devs didn't care if people wanted to use Linux for a home OS.

Darthmor, lol yeah but that's a whole different story or problem.

27.7.2013 23:24 #5

skeil909

Originally posted by DarthMopar: Meanwhile in Detroit.... It gets even worse.

"This is phase 1 of a $500 million plan to equip every kid in the district with a device." -Hack Education Weekly

"Florida�s Miami-Dade County School District approved a $63 million plan to lease computing devices to its students, part of its plan to go entirely make sure every student in the district has a laptop or tablet by 2015."

Why? Having iPad's or laptops isn't going to make them better students. If anything it's going to make things even worse. IMO.

Most of those students would be better off going back to crayons and coloring books! :)

28.7.2013 01:24 #6

bobiroc

Originally posted by skeil909: Originally posted by DarthMopar: Meanwhile in Detroit.... It gets even worse.

"This is phase 1 of a $500 million plan to equip every kid in the district with a device." -Hack Education Weekly

"Florida�s Miami-Dade County School District approved a $63 million plan to lease computing devices to its students, part of its plan to go entirely make sure every student in the district has a laptop or tablet by 2015."

Why? Having iPad's or laptops isn't going to make them better students. If anything it's going to make things even worse. IMO.
I agree.. I work in education IT and as much as I love technology and think it can be a valuable tool I see too many times that the teachers dive these kids into using the technology without teaching them the fundamentals of what they are working on. They become a bunch of monkeys clicking the buttons based on memorization and have no idea on why they are doing it. Our whole education system is messed up. I wish they would focus more on some of the old school teaching methods to make kids learn why they do things a certain way and then once they get that use the technology as a tool to make it easier and faster.

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28.7.2013 01:28 #7

skeil909

Originally posted by bobiroc: Originally posted by skeil909: Originally posted by DarthMopar: Meanwhile in Detroit.... It gets even worse.

"This is phase 1 of a $500 million plan to equip every kid in the district with a device." -Hack Education Weekly

"Florida�s Miami-Dade County School District approved a $63 million plan to lease computing devices to its students, part of its plan to go entirely make sure every student in the district has a laptop or tablet by 2015."

Why? Having iPad's or laptops isn't going to make them better students. If anything it's going to make things even worse. IMO.
I agree.. I work in education IT and as much as I love technology and think it can be a valuable tool I see too many times that the teachers dive these kids into using the technology without teaching them the fundamentals of what they are working on. They become a bunch of monkeys clicking the buttons based on memorization and have no idea on why they are doing it. Our whole education system is messed up. I wish they would focus more on some of the old school teaching methods to make kids learn why they do things a certain way and then once they get that use the technology as a tool to make it easier and faster. Definitely. I'm trying to figure out what they're going to do when a percentage of them never make it back to school. Whose going to be responsible for that $678 iPad when it goes missing? How many times will they just hand them another? I don't think they've thought this through in the least.

28.7.2013 01:41 #8

bobiroc

Originally posted by skeil909: Originally posted by bobiroc: Originally posted by skeil909: Originally posted by DarthMopar: Meanwhile in Detroit.... It gets even worse.

"This is phase 1 of a $500 million plan to equip every kid in the district with a device." -Hack Education Weekly

"Florida�s Miami-Dade County School District approved a $63 million plan to lease computing devices to its students, part of its plan to go entirely make sure every student in the district has a laptop or tablet by 2015."

Why? Having iPad's or laptops isn't going to make them better students. If anything it's going to make things even worse. IMO.
I agree.. I work in education IT and as much as I love technology and think it can be a valuable tool I see too many times that the teachers dive these kids into using the technology without teaching them the fundamentals of what they are working on. They become a bunch of monkeys clicking the buttons based on memorization and have no idea on why they are doing it. Our whole education system is messed up. I wish they would focus more on some of the old school teaching methods to make kids learn why they do things a certain way and then once they get that use the technology as a tool to make it easier and faster. Definitely. I'm trying to figure out what they're going to do when a percentage of them never make it back to school. Whose going to be responsible for that $678 iPad when it goes missing? How many times will they just hand them another? I don't think they've thought this through in the least. Going through this all now with BYOD and this whole one to one thing where some feel the school district should provide each kid with a $600 device to learn on. To me they are catering to these kids and enabling more A.D.D tendencies. I think the parents of these children need to take a step back and give a shit about their kids and be a part of their lives.. There are some parents that do this today and within 5-10 minutes of being with the kids I can tell which kids have parents that give a shit. Too many are too concerned with their daily lives and feel the education of their children is the sole responsibility of the school. To me I think too many people rely on the technology to do it for them and lose the ability to do things for themselves. So if that means learning math the old way with paper and pencil or writing out a term paper by hand before you start to type it up then so be it. Heck maybe learn to make a presentation without diving right into PowerPoint where all I see is kids stealing pictures and videos off the internet to give the presentation for them. Oh and learn to spell and type correctly.. I am sick of kids these days with their text speak on everything they do. Maybe if they wrote out words by hand instead of relying on Autocorrect and spell check to correct the words for them they would understand more of what they are doing.

These are just a few things I observe in today's education system and this is coming from a kid that grew up as a geek and loves technology but was taught how to do things for myself and had parents involved in my education.

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28.7.2013 01:55 #9

buddyleem

I have to disagree with u guys. Students need a long batt life and reliability. They don't need Linux or windows or OSX . U realize how much tech support those would require !

Hack a bit, invest a bit, work a bit, jerk a bit

28.7.2013 18:57 #10

xboxdvl2

Kids need to know how to read and write on paper and basic maths skills. I dont write as much as i use to and my handwritting is sloppy but I can, I actually do maths on paper sometimes working out my budget.
Didn't have ipads when i was in school ,didn't have 1 at home I still learnt.

i have the big screen tv,a ps3 and 5.1 channel surround sound.car still runs smooth and computer still works but its a bit outdated.

29.7.2013 04:53 #11

dEwMe

So how much crack can ya get for an ipad? I foresee dealers sitting on stacks of them.

Just my $0.02,

dEwMe

2.8.2013 14:30 #12

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