West Virginia school system gears up to switch from Chromebooks to iPads

Posted:
in iPad
A West Virginia Board of educators has unanimously voted to switch from Chromebooks to iPad for its staff as part of a pilot program to bring Apple products to the secondary level over the next few years.




The proposal was brought before the Berkeley County Board of Education on July 5 and included 180 iPads, Apple Pencils, iPad cases, and Apple TVs for teachers at pilot schools. The purchase was quoted at $110,000 and will come from grant funding.

The pilot schools included Martinsburg High School, South Middle School, and Musselman Middle School.

Previously, the school district had been using Chromebooks, but several staff members had approached the school board asking for alternatives.

Eventually, the goal is to bring iPads and Apple devices to students, though the process will likely take a few years.

"Instead of jumping all in, we want to make this a slow process," Assistant Director of instructional technology Maranda Ralph said. "At the end of the day, it's really not about a device; it's about improving instruction."

In April, Scotland pledged to give every student in Edinburg an iPad as part of the "Edinburgh Learns for Life" initiative. Currently, that program seeks to purchase 39,000 iPads for students and staff.

Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    Anilu_777Anilu_777 Posts: 521member
    Good. Students need to learn on something that isn’t going to spy on them. As an example, my workplace banned YouTube as a threat. Not a workplace diversion but the IT pop up said it was a threat and would be disabled. 
    Dogpersonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 9
    cashxxcashxx Posts: 114member
    Both Chromebook's and iPads are garbage and too locked down and not as intuitive as macOS or Windows.  Get MacBook Air's or something.
    pjohnt
  • Reply 3 of 9
    iOS_Guy80iOS_Guy80 Posts: 809member
    At the end of the day it better be about the device.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 9
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    cashxx said:
    Both Chromebook's and iPads are garbage and too locked down and not as intuitive as macOS or Windows.  Get MacBook Air's or something.

    For education, my experience is that neither a MacBook nor an iPad will cut it.   You need both.
    I assisted my 8th grade grandson through 8th grade cyberschool and we needed both:   a tablet & pencil for solving algebra problems, drawing diagrams and graphs as well as a laptop for typing essay questions and doing research papers.  In theory a tablet could do it all -- but in practice, even with a keyboard and trackpad, the iPad was too limited.  It could physically do it (say if somebody else was using his MacBook), but it was a pain the ass and made school work even more obnoxious than it inherently is.

    But, in this case, the iPads are initially being rolled out to teachers and they say that they'll go slow.  And, Apple is constantly (but slowly) enhancing the iPad.   So, maybe it will be up to the task by the time they roll it out to students.   That would be good.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    cashxx said:
    Both Chromebook's and iPads are garbage and too locked down and not as intuitive as macOS or Windows.  Get MacBook Air's or something.
    Says the guy who can't correctly spell the names of two out of the three products he mentions.
    No education for you!
    FileMakerFellerDogpersonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 9
    65026502 Posts: 380member
    Anilu_777 said:
    Good. Students need to learn on something that isn’t going to spy on them. As an example, my workplace banned YouTube as a threat. Not a workplace diversion but the IT pop up said it was a threat and would be disabled. 
    If you want to stay totally secure, I guess you would never use the internet. I've never heard of YouTube being a threat. I find it to be a fantastic instructional resource; I've probably learned more useful stuff on YouTube than in college. That's too bad for your company.
    pjohnt
  • Reply 7 of 9
    65026502 Posts: 380member
    My kids used chromebooks and google docs last school year and I found them to be quite excellent. By the time you get a stand and good keyboard for an iPad, you're triple the price of a chromebook and it is clunkier to take around.
  • Reply 8 of 9
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Anilu_777 said:
    Good. Students need to learn on something that isn’t going to spy on them. As an example, my workplace banned YouTube as a threat. Not a workplace diversion but the IT pop up said it was a threat and would be disabled. 
    Some folks just say silly things, not interested enough to even look before commenting but still wanting their uninformed say anyway.

    If Google for Education spied on the students the service wouldn't get the stamp of approval from
    • FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

    • COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998

    • Student Privacy Pledge introduced by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF)

    FYI: There are no ads in Google Workspace for Education, and K-12 students’ personal school information is not used for ad targeting at all, even when away from school. It's like Vegas, what happens at school stays at school.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 9 of 9
    iOS_Guy80 said:
    At the end of the day it better be about the device.
    Strongly disagree. The end goal is young citizens who have received an education that enables them to make decisions in the face of uncertainty and to discern possible sources of bias in their information. Tool use is important but should be subservient to the goal.
    Dogpersonmuthuk_vanalingamGeorgeBMac
Sign In or Register to comment.