San Diego District Buys $15M in iPads
From The Daily Tech:
The Unified School District in San Diego, California is receiving nearly 26,000 iPads as soon as this fall. The school district's commitment has been labeled the largest iPad deployment in K-12 schools in the United States.
The students will likely be using iBooks, which is an application that provides students with textbooks on the iPad as well as new study options like note-taking. Students can also use this app as well as others for writing and math without having to carry several heavy books to class. Overall, iBooks offers a more interactive learning experience that the district hopes will engage students.
They will be using them in 5th and 8th grades and some high school classes, about 340 classrooms.
How did they afford this?
The answer is Proposition S funding, which was passed in 2008 and offered money for classroom technology. Each iPad was purchased at $370 a piece (sic).
FYI, that per iPad cost is only $30 less than retail.
It is unclear if there was any teacher input on this idea. I think the district believes it will save money on books as well as make use of many applications.
Good idea or was there a better use for $15M?
The Unified School District in San Diego, California is receiving nearly 26,000 iPads as soon as this fall. The school district's commitment has been labeled the largest iPad deployment in K-12 schools in the United States.
The students will likely be using iBooks, which is an application that provides students with textbooks on the iPad as well as new study options like note-taking. Students can also use this app as well as others for writing and math without having to carry several heavy books to class. Overall, iBooks offers a more interactive learning experience that the district hopes will engage students.
They will be using them in 5th and 8th grades and some high school classes, about 340 classrooms.
How did they afford this?
The answer is Proposition S funding, which was passed in 2008 and offered money for classroom technology. Each iPad was purchased at $370 a piece (sic).
FYI, that per iPad cost is only $30 less than retail.
It is unclear if there was any teacher input on this idea. I think the district believes it will save money on books as well as make use of many applications.
Good idea or was there a better use for $15M?
Comments
1. Will the iPads be restricted as to what apps can be installed?
2. Will the teachers have any way to remotely view/control individual units while that unit is being used in their classroom?
3. How strict will the acceptable use rules be, and how supportive will the district be in enforcing those rules?
4. Will the teachers be trained in how to effectively use this technology? And not just a one-time class, but ongoing feedback and coaching.
5. Will the students be taught how to use this technology in an education setting?
And on a side note, I believe that studies have shown that people retain information better when notes are hand-written as opposed to typed. (I could be wrong and I'm AWFUL at remembering where I read stuff.)
Rachel
You can also imbed photos, charts and typed text in your notes.
You can access iTunes u and watch/listen to all kinds of lectures.
You can highlight and markup text.
They are awesome.
Yes, they can annotate over the pdfs if they purchase the correct apps, but really, there’s so much more potential - hence the reason Apple wants to do their own textbooks.
CT
SSD still hasnt mounted projectors in elementary schools, ony new schools or where individuals have gotten funding through grant writing have interactive white boards. Have. You seen the antiques students are still using with limited applications, still running Windows XP? With servers running at a snails pace!
There are next to zero professional development opportunities for people who want to do more integration offered, except for how to use a document camera or Outlook.
Sorry about any typos. This darn iPad :)
FHP
Two years to go
"The Laptops are coming! The laptops are coming!" http://www.rethinkingschools.org/restrict.asp?path=archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml
(sorry I don't know how to do the link thing)
A few years have gone by. I hope there'll be a follow - up article.
--Old School Music
FHP