Georgia state senator hopes to replace schoolbooks with iPads
The state of Georgia is reportedly considering a plan to get rid of conventional textbooks and shift middle school classrooms in the state to wireless iPads built by Apple, following positive iPad trials in place by schools around the US.
Republican Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams told the press earlier this week that the Georgia legislature and educators are considering a proposal by Apple to replace printed books, according to a report by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Last week we met with Apple Computers," Williams said, "and they have a really promising program where they come in and their [sic] recommending to middle schools ? for $500 per child per year, they will furnish every child with an iPad, wi-fi the system, provide all the books on the system, all the upgrades, all the teacher training ? and the results they?re getting from these kids is phenomenal."
The senator added, "we?re currently spending about $40 million a year on books. And they last about seven years. We have books that don?t even have 9/11. This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction.?
Biggest thing since the overhead projector
A report by the New York Times last month described a pilot program at Roslyn High School on Long Island which started with 47 iPads. The school hopes to expand the program to include all of its 1,100 students.
It noted that the iPads "allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios," citing teacher Larry Reiiff as saying, "It allows us to extend the classroom beyond these four walls."
The school described its initial purchase, which used 32GB iPads combined with a case and a stylus at a $750 each, was a part of an effort to go paperless and cut spending. In addition to just serving as electronic textbooks, the iPads are also described as running math games, being used to study world maps and interactive sky charting of constellations, and to simulate the keys of a piano.
Roslyn school superintendent Daniel Brenner said Apple's iPad would save money in the long run by reducing printing and textbook costs; estimating that the two iPad classes save $7,200 a year.
"I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector," added school principal Scott Wolfe.
Schools around the country go iPad
The report stated that New York's public schools had ordered 2,000 iPads, 300 of which went to Kingsbridge International High School in the Bronx. It also noted that 200 public schools in Chicago have applied for iPad grants.
Apple points out that Chicago public schools, the third largest district in the US, are ecstatically supporting iPad as a learning tool. John Connolly, the technology director for Chicago Public Schools, states in a promotional video that "being able to outfit so many our kids with such a low cost machine could be a real advantage for our district."
The Virginia Department of Education is managing a $150,000 iPad initiative to replace history and Advanced placement biology textbooks at 11 of its schools.
The report also noted the Pinnacle Peak School in Scottsdale, Arizona, which "converted an empty classroom into a lab with 36 iPads ? named the iMaginarium," while the private Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey bought 60 iPads for $36,000 and is considering providing iPads to all students next fall.
A number of eduction initiatives related to iPad are taking advantage of President Obama's competitive Race to the Top program designed to back the best ideas in education with federal support.
There's an app for that
Apple lists about 5,400 eduction apps for iPad, about a thousand of which are free. Textbook publishers are eyeing the potential for moving their content to the digital world, enabling them to update material rapidly and include interactivity.
Six middle schools in San Francisco, Long Beach, Fresno and Riverside, California are now teaching the first iPad-only algebra course, developed by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is studying the results of students using its digital program compared to those using conventional textbooks.
In addition to third party apps, Apple's iPad education page touts its own iWorks apps for iPad, which it says "help students and teachers put together professional-looking documents, presentations, and spreadsheets no matter where they are," and "when you finish what you?ve been working on, just tap the AirPrint icon to print it out directly from your iPad."
The company also highlights iTunes U, its listing of more than 350,000 free lectures, videos and other content from institutions including Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Beijing Open University and The University of Tokyo.
Critics complain that tablet-shaped devices using Android can be sold for $100 and supply basic ebook reader features. However, low priced ereaders are failing to rival iPad in the marketplace, with numbers from IDC indicating that Apple's iPad, starting at $500, continues to outsell low end ereader devices available for as little as $130.
Republican Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams told the press earlier this week that the Georgia legislature and educators are considering a proposal by Apple to replace printed books, according to a report by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Last week we met with Apple Computers," Williams said, "and they have a really promising program where they come in and their [sic] recommending to middle schools ? for $500 per child per year, they will furnish every child with an iPad, wi-fi the system, provide all the books on the system, all the upgrades, all the teacher training ? and the results they?re getting from these kids is phenomenal."
The senator added, "we?re currently spending about $40 million a year on books. And they last about seven years. We have books that don?t even have 9/11. This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction.?
Biggest thing since the overhead projector
A report by the New York Times last month described a pilot program at Roslyn High School on Long Island which started with 47 iPads. The school hopes to expand the program to include all of its 1,100 students.
It noted that the iPads "allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios," citing teacher Larry Reiiff as saying, "It allows us to extend the classroom beyond these four walls."
The school described its initial purchase, which used 32GB iPads combined with a case and a stylus at a $750 each, was a part of an effort to go paperless and cut spending. In addition to just serving as electronic textbooks, the iPads are also described as running math games, being used to study world maps and interactive sky charting of constellations, and to simulate the keys of a piano.
Roslyn school superintendent Daniel Brenner said Apple's iPad would save money in the long run by reducing printing and textbook costs; estimating that the two iPad classes save $7,200 a year.
"I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector," added school principal Scott Wolfe.
Schools around the country go iPad
The report stated that New York's public schools had ordered 2,000 iPads, 300 of which went to Kingsbridge International High School in the Bronx. It also noted that 200 public schools in Chicago have applied for iPad grants.
Apple points out that Chicago public schools, the third largest district in the US, are ecstatically supporting iPad as a learning tool. John Connolly, the technology director for Chicago Public Schools, states in a promotional video that "being able to outfit so many our kids with such a low cost machine could be a real advantage for our district."
The Virginia Department of Education is managing a $150,000 iPad initiative to replace history and Advanced placement biology textbooks at 11 of its schools.
The report also noted the Pinnacle Peak School in Scottsdale, Arizona, which "converted an empty classroom into a lab with 36 iPads ? named the iMaginarium," while the private Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey bought 60 iPads for $36,000 and is considering providing iPads to all students next fall.
A number of eduction initiatives related to iPad are taking advantage of President Obama's competitive Race to the Top program designed to back the best ideas in education with federal support.
There's an app for that
Apple lists about 5,400 eduction apps for iPad, about a thousand of which are free. Textbook publishers are eyeing the potential for moving their content to the digital world, enabling them to update material rapidly and include interactivity.
Six middle schools in San Francisco, Long Beach, Fresno and Riverside, California are now teaching the first iPad-only algebra course, developed by publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is studying the results of students using its digital program compared to those using conventional textbooks.
In addition to third party apps, Apple's iPad education page touts its own iWorks apps for iPad, which it says "help students and teachers put together professional-looking documents, presentations, and spreadsheets no matter where they are," and "when you finish what you?ve been working on, just tap the AirPrint icon to print it out directly from your iPad."
The company also highlights iTunes U, its listing of more than 350,000 free lectures, videos and other content from institutions including Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Beijing Open University and The University of Tokyo.
Critics complain that tablet-shaped devices using Android can be sold for $100 and supply basic ebook reader features. However, low priced ereaders are failing to rival iPad in the marketplace, with numbers from IDC indicating that Apple's iPad, starting at $500, continues to outsell low end ereader devices available for as little as $130.
Comments
"I couldn't do my homework because the battery for my school book was dead."
"My dog ate my iPad."
Deer Vally High School
Antioch, CA
Policy: Students can bring no electronic computing devices to the classroom.
Distance From Apple: 77.1 miles
Distance from reality: Ages
Those poor children's eyes.
No, those poor children's backs.
The amount of books they give out in Australian high schools is ridiculous.
They can't all fit in the locker, so have to be lugged home then to school next day. Which genius decided this ?
When I was at high school we hardly had any books.
I am all for the iPad, yes, there is an issue with looking at the screen for long durations, I don't have an answer for this.
Apple began the introduction of IT in schools, and it's likely to to end it too.
Astounding. Just astounding.
Children, you all know that there are 12 broken iPads in our class. I have a solution - fund rising competition! Please take your envelops and bring them back tomorrow - with money! Whoever brings in the most money will get a brand new iPad! The losers will will be stack with these old scratched iPads. Good luck!
Wow an Apple hater, love it when you guys crawl out from under your rocks to disparage anything Apple. The iPad is very robust compared to Laptops, especially Dell crap, made out of plastic, the Apple laptops will fare much better.
What about the crappy windoze pcs at all Australian schools that are either not working at all, takes 10 minutes to boot up, cannot get a network connection, crappy UI, even crappier software that one is forced to use? Yes my children suffer this on a daily basis, you know what ? Bring yourself or if you have them, your children so that they can enjoy/suffer the same experience. So before making fun of Apple products look at you own wonderful thingies, not so good are they ?
The iPad will do quite well much better than the traditional laptop/desktops, which are so 19th century, or should I say, the M$ century. We are now in the Apple century, I suggest you grow a brain.
"I couldn't do my homework because the battery for my school book was dead."
You get dropped a grade if you can't figure out how to plug in your 11 hour iPad.
This is indeed a revolution...
Apple began the introduction of IT in schools, and it's likely to to end it too.
Astounding. Just astounding.
They started it then it was hijacked by school administrators trying to save a buck here and there. I am afaid they will go for android or m$ crap, as it's cheaper, who cares if they work well or give joy to the children? Schools are all about saving money and silly me I thought they were about learning. Sigh ...
Those poor children's eyes.
The issue of eyestrain on a computer monitor is a myth that hasn't been true since the very early days of CRT screens. People who believe it's true however usually base it on "well, it happens to me," which is both subjective and un-provable so it continues to hang around and be believed.
Scientific tests have proven innumerable times that this just isn't true however. Eye strain is eye strain, it has nothing to do with computers vs. books per se. You can get eyestrain from reading in too dark an environment, or from squinting too much at a screen or from following rabidly moving action. In the bad old days you could get eyestrain from computer screens because the refresh rates on CRT's were very low and the sharpness wasn't very good either, leading people to lean in close to fuzzy screens with flickering electron beams, which of course caused eyestrain.
There is no evidence at all that computer screens (at least today's computer screens), as a category cause any more eyestrain than reading a paper book for the same amount of time under the same lighting conditions. What's happening is that people are selectively remembering the eyestrain caused by the "evil computer," but selectively forgetting the last time it happened when they were reading their favourite paper book.
It's a myth.
I teach middle schoolers. They need to be stimulated and interested in their subject and in each other, not some silly device (however "magical") that will look like a doorstop before they graduate from high school. Think about it: Books were around when we were in school, and when our parents and their parents went to school. If too many are being hauled back and forth, solve that problem - don't introduce a different one. Bad books? Get good ones, preferably those unpolluted by criminally insane concepts such as intelligent design. Books aren't up to date? The lesson is that not all knowledge can be found inside a book. What if students never wondered what existed outside of their little touchscreen?
I am not some luddite or flippant apple hater as has been hinted at in the above comments. I love Macs and iOS as much as the next guy. However, we should always question the way we use tools and technology, including books, to educate our children. Children go to school not to learn facts or information - they go to school to learn how to learn from each other and directly from the world, not mitigated by a touchscreen and some programmer's idea of what is important. Can an iPad help them do this? Not in middle school. And after all, when they want to look up a "fact", iPads will still be around, as will books.
If somebody asked the students what they wanted to use and they said they wanted to use iPads, some jackass will come along and say that Android tablets are cheaper and that's what we're giving you. That's some damn twisted force-feeding if you ask me. People talk about choice and yet they're trying to take choice away for something less expensive.
I am extremely skeptical about the potential uses of an iPad in a middle school classroom. These devices are extremely compelling with respect to sensory stimulation and physical input. The last thing a middle school student needs is another distraction.
I teach middle schoolers. They need to be stimulated and interested in their subject and in each other, not some silly device (however "magical") that will look like a doorstop before they graduate from high school. Think about it: Books were around when we were in school, and when our parents and their parents went to school. If too many are being hauled back and forth, solve that problem - don't introduce a different one. Bad books? Get good ones, preferably those unpolluted by criminally insane concepts such as intelligent design. Books aren't up to date? The lesson is that not all knowledge can be found inside a book. What if students never wondered what existed outside of their little touchscreen?
I am not some luddite or flippant apple hater as has been hinted at in the above comments. I love Macs and iOS as much as the next guy. However, we should always question the way we use tools and technology, including books, to educate our children. Children go to school not to learn facts or information - they go to school to learn how to learn from each other and directly from the world, not mitigated by a touchscreen and some programmer's idea of what is important. Can an iPad help them do this? Not in middle school. And after all, when they want to look up a "fact", iPads will still be around, as will books.
Whether or not children learn at school depends on these factors:
1. Parents.
2. Teachers.
3. Curriculum.
In that order. If the parents are educated and involved, the teachers are competent teachers and not repeaters, and the curriculum is factual instead of biased unreality, the kids stand a chance.
iPads are irrelevant to the learning process. They could simplify a childs organization, eliminate the insanity of carrying heavy books of which 6 pages are used, and remove the evil and unnecessary extortion known as the publishing of text books. Good things.
They are no more of a distraction than the pretty girl or handsome boy sitting next to you.
It staggers me how many "things" get blamed for poor education, when in reality it only comes down to the faults of the adults involved.
...and as far as your comment re: intelligent design. the only "criminally insane concept" being taught in school is the one that excludes critical thinking. If you've not taught students that the only thing in the world that matters is their ability to make up their own mind....then you haven't done your job at all.
"I couldn't do my homework because the battery for my school book was dead."
Don't you mean my Dog ate my iPad replacement battery ??
...
I am not some luddite or flippant apple hater as has been hinted at in the above comments. I love Macs and iOS as much as the next guy. However, we should always question the way we use tools and technology, including books, to educate our children. Children go to school not to learn facts or information - they go to school to learn how to learn from each other and directly from the world, not mitigated by a touchscreen and some programmer's idea of what is important. Can an iPad help them do this? Not in middle school. And after all, when they want to look up a "fact", iPads will still be around, as will books.
This is your first post. It is therefore an unimpeachable fact that no one was talking about you. Just like the nonsense you wrote about the "hints" above, virtually everything else you wrote is also nonsense:
- Children are sent to school to learn from their teachers in a controlled environment, not from the World. Otherwise, we would send them to the farm field, factory floor, office tower, or into the street to form roving bands of feral youth.
- The iPad touchscreen is not more limiting than the printed page and "some programmer's" judgement is no less valid than the arbitrary printer's.
- There is much more to learning than looking-up facts. Personally, I revere books. However, up-to-the-minute, even up-to-the-second information is readily at hand on an iPad.
Make no mistake. My personal skepticism for technology is as healthy as my respect for its potential. The most important thing is the content, not the technology. We all know the limits of textbooks. This is why many textbooks today include a CD and/or links to online material. OTOH, the iPad is a newborn. Future versions will be more powerful with many more resources dedicated to them.