"Disaster!" "Bad idea!" "No place being issued to every kid%u2026!" "I told you so!"
Wow, the cynicism here, of all places, regarding the advancements of tech in schools is unbelievable!
How about, "New technology rolling out, excellent potential for students and educators alike, but NEW, so naturally a few wrinkles to work out%u2026"?
I applaud LAUSD for being forward thinking, for recognizing both the potential and opportunities represented by giving an iPad to every student.
They'll work out the wrinkles. I'm all for giving iOS a greater role in our education system. It really is a no-brainer. Just fix these relatively minor issues and move forward. It's 99% upside when you look at the bigger picture.
Given the number of sale of iPads to the district it seems like Apple could provide someone to instruct them how to lock it down. However, at the end of the day it is the district's responsibility.
This is certainly issue with LA School District IT. But of course, media will take it to the other extreme. I can just see - The Wall Street will read too much into this and make a big (and obviously uneducated) deal tomorrow.
Why are they blocking those apps, that is the mistake.
The school district bought the iPads to replace books and provide additional methods of instruction. They aren't giving them toys to play with anyway they want to. People need to understand this and the ways the school district wants them used. This isn't a free for all. If the students don't feel like following instructions and acceptable use, they can buy their own devices and do whatever they want to with them. Otherwise follow the program.
I've never understood why we can't have a ".porn" URL address for everything that is not a "granite" breast sculpted in the 1st century and everything else be .com, org., etc.
With one simple setting all phones, tablets, PC's in all places of business, all libraries, schools and parents could stop their workers/patrons/students/children from viewing "bad" stuff.
YouTube/Google would have to comply. It would even help Android!
Most of these kids have six other ways to get to the same content. So how exactly are K-12 schools teaching students how to cope with the real world by pretending it doesn't exist? This is more about avoiding political embarrassment than preparing youth to cope with the digital world.
Given that there will be 650k iPads in the hands of kids and their parents I would say it's not political, but rather the district trying to not get sued for exposing kids to adult content. With that many families involved you can be assured that there will be several who are looking for a lawsuit payout any way they can get one. If there was no attempt to lock the iPads down there would have been a lawsuit from day one.
Unfortunately now that it has been shown the the district did an inadequate job of blocking access there will probably be a lawsuit anyway.
At least the school is trying. Where my relatives go to school they just give the iPads to the kids with no restrictions or supervision whatsoever. Talk about irresponsible. It creates tons of unnecessary headache for parents and teachers, not to mention lots of opportunity for immature students to get into trouble. But I suppose with the spirit of acceptance that is so prevalent today, most parents think it is fine for their children to be involved in sexting apps such as Snapchat. And don't tell me it's not a sexting app, it was inspired by the Anthony Wiener scandal. Hmmm.
Why are they blocking those apps, that is the mistake.
Kid takes school issued iPad home. Kid meets pedophile predator on Facebook or Google+ or some other social media site. Kid gets molested or goes missing. Parents sue school district. It's the American way.
If they are using a MDM suite of any value, then this is just a misconfiguration; easily remedied. I manage 2000 iPads with MobileIron and this type of bypass is not possible without triggering an alert, at which point they force the offending student to swap out the iPad for another one and apply appropriate disciplinary measures.
If this is a true "one laptop per student" type of program, there SHOULD be NO restrictions at all on the thing...I can understand having restrictions if this is a lab device, but from what it looks like, these were being distributed to many students who could not afford a home computer...and of course, they are going to want connectivity and social networking, etc...when they are at home. It just sounds ridiculous to try a take-home program like this and put restrictive access profiles and filters on the device.
Just my opinion. When I was that age I had a PowerMac and a PowerBook, and a fast cable modem to enjoy it all....in like 1997.
Except that if the kids do something inappropriate with them, the school gets blamed for not restricting them. Those are the conditions that schools have to work under.
Except that if the kids do something inappropriate with them, the school gets blamed for not restricting them. Those are the conditions that schools have to work under.
In this case the schools need to learn to manage their expectations. Supplying iPads but restricting their use is unreasonable for the simple reason that it is bound to fail.
Best evidence yet that this technology has no place being issued to every student. Keep a lid on it in the school lab. Not so much because it doesn't have a legitimate use but because the little bastards can't be trusted. And their parents are probably no better. Old dad probably would be on xhamster.com with the kid's iPad.
The blame is on the IT managers not the students. Proper configuration of an MDM system would have kept them out. The MDM has a separate admin password for all system changes. This is inexcusable. I'd bet the IT managers and techs (if they had any) never read the manuals.
What manual? I thought Apple devices were so simple that a 6 yr old could use them, so then a trained IT guy should've been a grand master at setting it correctly.
Comments
Wow, the cynicism here, of all places, regarding the advancements of tech in schools is unbelievable!
How about, "New technology rolling out, excellent potential for students and educators alike, but NEW, so naturally a few wrinkles to work out%u2026"?
I applaud LAUSD for being forward thinking, for recognizing both the potential and opportunities represented by giving an iPad to every student.
They'll work out the wrinkles. I'm all for giving iOS a greater role in our education system. It really is a no-brainer. Just fix these relatively minor issues and move forward. It's 99% upside when you look at the bigger picture.
However, at the end of the day it is the district's responsibility.
This is certainly issue with LA School District IT. But of course, media will take it to the other extreme. I can just see - The Wall Street will read too much into this and make a big (and obviously uneducated) deal tomorrow.
The school district bought the iPads to replace books and provide additional methods of instruction. They aren't giving them toys to play with anyway they want to. People need to understand this and the ways the school district wants them used. This isn't a free for all. If the students don't feel like following instructions and acceptable use, they can buy their own devices and do whatever they want to with them. Otherwise follow the program.
I've never understood why we can't have a ".porn" URL address for everything that is not a "granite" breast sculpted in the 1st century and everything else be .com, org., etc.
With one simple setting all phones, tablets, PC's in all places of business, all libraries, schools and parents could stop their workers/patrons/students/children from viewing "bad" stuff.
YouTube/Google would have to comply. It would even help Android!
Given the number of sale of iPads to the district it seems like Apple could provide someone to instruct them how to lock it down.
However, at the end of the day it is the district's responsibility.
Bingo! You said in two sentences what I tried to say in 27 sentences! Good show!
Perhaps an "under 18, Only" App store? Or an "Educational, Only" App Store?
Most of these kids have six other ways to get to the same content. So how exactly are K-12 schools teaching students how to cope with the real world by pretending it doesn't exist? This is more about avoiding political embarrassment than preparing youth to cope with the digital world.
Given that there will be 650k iPads in the hands of kids and their parents I would say it's not political, but rather the district trying to not get sued for exposing kids to adult content. With that many families involved you can be assured that there will be several who are looking for a lawsuit payout any way they can get one. If there was no attempt to lock the iPads down there would have been a lawsuit from day one.
Unfortunately now that it has been shown the the district did an inadequate job of blocking access there will probably be a lawsuit anyway.
But I suppose with the spirit of acceptance that is so prevalent today, most parents think it is fine for their children to be involved in sexting apps such as Snapchat. And don't tell me it's not a sexting app, it was inspired by the Anthony Wiener scandal. Hmmm.
Why are they blocking those apps, that is the mistake.
Kid takes school issued iPad home. Kid meets pedophile predator on Facebook or Google+ or some other social media site. Kid gets molested or goes missing. Parents sue school district. It's the American way.
At least that's a biology web site isn't it?
What manual? I thought Apple devices were so simple that a 6 yr old could use them, so then a trained IT guy should've been a grand master at setting it correctly.
This problem should've been thought of beforehand and a solution found. It's called scenario planning.