Iowa high school equips students with 1,425 MacBook Airs in $1.4 million initiative

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Iowa's Ames High School has announced it will provide each student enrolled in 9th through 12th grade with an 11-inch MacBook Air for use during the 2013 school year.

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The program, approved by the Ames Community school board in May, is intended to enable the school to offer more personalized instruction to students. Tim Taylor, superintendent of schools in Ames, said the computers will allow teachers to reduce "one-size-fits all lecture formats and rote instruction in the classroom."

Students and parents are excited about the potential impact of the initiative, but district officials have been quick to caution that the devices themselves are only a tool.

"The magic is in giving students and teachers the tools they need to create, collaborate and communicate," said the district's Director of Technology Services, Karl Hehr.

Students will pay a $25 deposit when checking out the devices, and will not be allowed to modify their software configuration. In the event of damage or loss ? major concerns for 1:1 computing programs ? they will be charged maximum fees of $50 for the first incident and $150 for the second incident. If the event is deemed to be the result of "gross negligence," the students may find themselves liable for the full replacment cost ? more than $1,000.

Iowa State University will also be involved with the program, monitoring its progress and suggesting improvements.

As 1:1 initiatives gain popularity in high schools across the United States, Apple is readying a push to bring iPads - rather than laptops - to classrooms. The company recently revised the iTunes Store's terms and conditions to allow children under the age of 13 to open and manage their own accounts, as long as the Apple ID was requested by an "approved educational institution," making it easier to deploy the tablets in elementary and middle schools.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    pscooter63pscooter63 Posts: 1,080member


    B... b-b-but Windows RT!  For free!


    /s

  • Reply 2 of 29


    Impressive.

  • Reply 3 of 29
    Caching!!!
  • Reply 4 of 29


    wow.  wow.  (NB  I was in Ames yesterday... for a coffee break).


     


    MBAs.... in HS.   How much you wanna guess iPads will end up in 6-7-8 grade eventually (bookless classes).


     


    I do agree, if I'm tasking students to create 5 10 page papers every semesters, I'm gonna hate to read what comes off of an iPad keyboard.  


    My curiousity is the classroom ergometrics with laptops vs pads...  


     


    It also normalizes the low income kids who don't have parents who invest in home technology.   My guess is ISU is probably measuring that among other things, as well as engaging reluctant teachers to engage students.


     


    And how much you think iBooks on Mavericks was a bit of this...

  • Reply 5 of 29
    I remember when school computers were locked down in a lab.
  • Reply 6 of 29


    Schools equip with iPads haters claim they're useless and should be using laptops instead.


     


    Now what will they complain about when a school uses MacBooks? They're too expensive? Should be Windows instead?

  • Reply 7 of 29
    Oh, noes! All that money thrown away on Apple's overpriced MBA's. They could have bought 4X as many Chromebooks. Chromebooks are our children's future. It's all about The Cloud. I know for sure that whoever approved the purchase of those Apple products for the BOE own shares in the company. No righteous individual would ever have considered Apple computers.

    /s
  • Reply 8 of 29


    Off topic, but I only just found out and didn't see it anywhere on AI.......


     


    Apparently Groklaw is shutting down giving a lame excuse about NSA spying and privacy. I think the real reason is nobody was buying their biased opinions on cases (the Motorola/MS one and FRAND rates comes to mind).


     


    How will our resident shills take this news with one of their "sources" shutting down?

  • Reply 9 of 29
    adybadyb Posts: 205member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    I remember when school computers were locked down in a lab.


     


    I remember when the first calculator made it into my school with the bright red LED display (Texas Instruments?) - I was so jealous! How quickly technology has changed!

  • Reply 10 of 29


    Socialism! Not only are my tax dollars paying to educate these moochers, but they're providing them one of the best computers made, free of charge!


     


    Get a job, if you want an education!


     


    Heh...

  • Reply 11 of 29
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    I remember when school computers were locked down in a lab.

    Young pup.

    I remember when you couldn't even get to the school computers. Instead, you had to type at keypunch machines and submit your deck to the operator to have your project run - and then wait for the printout on a massive line printer.
  • Reply 12 of 29
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post


    Schools equip with iPads haters claim they're useless and should be using laptops instead.


     


    Now what will they complain about when a school uses MacBooks? They're too expensive? Should be Windows instead?



    The Windows users are getting desperate as are the Android users.  They feel threatened by a better product that prevents their mentality from spreading.  That's all.


     


    The Apple haters just want their kids to be just as dumb just like they are.  LOL.

  • Reply 13 of 29
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AdyB View Post


     


    I remember when the first calculator made it into my school with the bright red LED display (Texas Instruments?) - I was so jealous! How quickly technology has changed!



    my school used a teletype machine that was hooked up to a system at Stanford so we could do math problems when I was in third grade.  We thought THAT was cool.  Then the calculators came out, but I used the HP calculators, those were the most advanced ones back then.  Ah, the Good Ol Days.  I remember when 5.25 inch floppys were single sided, and then they went to double sided,  WHAT A technology leap, then 5MB hard drives came out and people thought their feces came out gift wrapped. Then 10MB hard drives, they were something like $5K for one of those, so anytime someone complains about the price of something, I just laugh.


     


    Heck, for the longest time, the average computer would be $5K, then it went down to $3.5K, now it's $1500.


     


    I remember when a word processor, spreadsheet app was $400 and thought THAT was outrageous.


     


    People need to quit complaining and look at how affordable computers are these days.

  • Reply 14 of 29


    Kentucky did that a couple of years ago, and on a larger scale. Catch up Iowa!


     


    http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/07/27/owensboro.first.to.get.macbook.air.in.schools/

  • Reply 15 of 29
    kevtkevt Posts: 195member
    Here's hoping they update their wifi network at the same time.
  • Reply 16 of 29
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member


    Nanny Bloomberg- the NYC school system need these!

  • Reply 17 of 29
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post



    ...with one of their "sources" shutting down?


     


    You assume they were a real source...  /s

  • Reply 18 of 29
    adyb wrote: »
    I remember when the first calculator made it into my school with the bright red LED display (Texas Instruments?) - I was so jealous! How quickly technology has changed!

    My dad showed me this mechanical analog calculator called a slide rule. It was used during the early Pleistocene era. It's how they built the pyramids. :)
  • Reply 19 of 29
    jragosta wrote: »
    Young pup.

    I remember when you couldn't even get to the school computers. Instead, you had to type at keypunch machines and submit your deck to the operator to have your project run - and then wait for the printout on a massive line printer.

    Line...printer? Dude, printers use lasers. The early civilizations used the 72dpi ImageWriter.
  • Reply 20 of 29

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by kevt View Post



    Here's hoping they update their wifi network at the same time.


    Why?  Do you have inside poop on their infrastructure?  


     


    No matter what a chrome book would have put more wifi demands on the internal infrastructure, and likely more demands on the Internet Uplink.  That said, everything I read about Ames' infrastructure tells me it's primarily in the cloud.


     


    It's interesting that they are more concerned about providing 'student friendly' WIFI outside of school.   And creating iOS and android apps for parents to 'tap into' school infrastructure to 'keep tabs' on their childrens' school progress.  http://amestrib.com/sections/news/ames-and-story-county/ames-district-looks-wifi-partners-putz-won%E2%80%99t-seek-re-election


     


    This isn't going away.   Like projectors replacing whiteboards replacing blackboards, paperless classrooms will be the norm.  


     


    Quote:

    Catch up Iowa!


    Err, the race isn't to get technology into the classroom... it's about a better prepared and competent graduate into our society... ..


     


    To paraphrase a aphorism:  "It's the Magician, and not the shiny wand, that makes the Magic."


     


    In Kentucky's own report*... it ranks 39th in graduation rate, and 7th in technology access (2007), compared to Iowa's 7th in graduation (33rd in Technology ranking).   In one true measure of education, Kentucky is the state that is pressured to 'catch up' ;-)


     


    *(http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/rr345.pdf )


     


    (disclaimer: Expat Iowegian)

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