Democrats talked about bringing technology to education during a press conference with House Speaker Andy Dillon last week. In that discussion, the idea of buying iPods or mp3 players for students came up.
But quickly, the question "How can the state afford to buy iPods for students when there isn't enough money to go around right now?" was asked.
In reality, there was never a plan to buy all students iPods. There is a $38 million line item to pay for technology, far less than it would take to buy mp3 players for 1.65 million students."
Let's take a look at that last sentence. $38 million divided by 1.65 million students = $23 apiece. Even assuming that the entire $38 million went towards nothing but iPods (as opposed to other technology purchases), even the lowest-priced iPod (the Shuffle) costs $79 apiece. Granted, Apple would certainly give a large bulk purchase discount, but I can't imagine that they would've cut the price by over 70% on hardware (software is different, of course).
Of course, once the meme gets into the public eye, it becomes ideal fodder for the the media to rip into, true or not.
The Democratic leadership evidently DIDN'T propose to buy $36 million (or was it $38 million? The Free Press somehow lost $2 million between the first story and the second one...) worth of Apple products.
My guess is that it actually played out something like this:
"Hey, I read something about Duke University running a test program where they gave iPods to every student to record & listen to lectures, language classes, that sort of thing...what about putting some money towards that?"
"Nah, for one thing, the results at Duke are still inconclusive; besides, thanks to the Republicans cutting the SBT without anything to replace it, we don't have enough money in the budget to buy a friggin' SONG off of iTunes, much less a whole iPod. Forget about it.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. OK, what other technology initiatives are worth looking at?"
The larger point? DISCUSSING an idea (even if it's a bad one) is hardly the same thing as making that idea part of a FORMAL PROPOSAL, and the Free Press ought to know better.
Good post.
Now, Apple Insider, how about updating that story on the home page?
$36,000,000 down the toilet, + replacement cost for accidents and abuse.
I am not sure that after a kid spends 6 to 8 hours in school, that they are going to go home to listen to 2 to 3 more hours of lectures on their iPods. These are kids, they should go out and play, next thing they know they have to go to work and never had a childhood. Besides not many kids are going to use it for studying.
Sorry guys, but other than buying votes for a free iPod, I see very little value here.
How about 36,000 iMacs instead? I'd vote for that.
Actually, drop that number down to 25,000 so the schools can get proper networking in place.
Yes. Heartily.
But how about Apple offers it at half the price..... school districts all over this country are struggling with budgets, and Apple's prices (relative to PCs, which offer less, admittedly) have become unholy (comparatively).
But how about Apple offers it at half the price..... school districts all over this country are struggling with budgets, and Apple's prices (relative to PCs, which offer less, admittedly) have become unholy (comparatively).
$36,000,000 down the toilet, + replacement cost for accidents and abuse.
I am not sure that after a kid spends 6 to 8 hours in school, that they are going to go home to listen to 2 to 3 more hours of lectures on their iPods. These are kids, they should go out and play, next thing they know they have to go to work and never had a childhood. Besides not many kids are going to use it for studying.
Sorry guys, but other than buying votes for a free iPod, I see very little value here.
I see a lazy post and don't think someone actually read the rest of the thread.
What, you mean the media might make up a false story for everybody to get into a rampage about? Might this be the same b.s. as Nancy Pelosi "demanding" a "luxury plane", when the Sergeant at Arms made a request for the third in the succession for president to travel to her home district? No, couldn't be!
To Apple Insider staff: in America, we generally capitalize the names of political parties, to distinguish them from regular nouns. Thus, Democratic party, not democratic. Republican, not republican. Discuss. "The Republican party, increasingly, is monarchical, not republican."
I believe it's capitalized democRATS. Also, the name of our country is the United States, not "America".
This is where something that's like an iPhone, but not a phone, might come in handy. But an iPod, with no: voice recorder, scheduler/planner, way to store/view/edit other content (like eBooks) would be pretty useless. Bacially a PDA, but based on OS X would be the big plus. Anyhow, sounds like this has been debunked as more fiction than fact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewpmk
Buying iPods for schoolchildren with public funds is a complete waste of money. iPods have almost no educational use; they are almost entirely for entertainment.
I strongly disagree.
Ipods can be great educational tools and are in fact being used as such. I have several audiobooks obtained from my local library on my Ipod. The range of audiobook categories are actually quite broad at many urban/suburban libraries ranging from classic fiction a la Dickens, Melville, Shakespeare, etc. to " "textbook" titles ein history, english, language learning, civics, etc. My library on Long Island NY has a great program wherby popular adolescent fiction like Harry Potter books are lent out on Ipod shuttles. That's right, you check out a shuttle from the library with "Goblet of Fire" on it. There is needless to to say a long waiting list for the shuttles but my library has been increasing the numbers and titles rapidly due to the popularity of the program with teens. On a higher educational level, iTunes U is a great source of audio and video University lectures from places like Stanford and Harvard.
Comments
This has already been debunked.
It's a short article, but it gets straight to the point:
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6345567 Let's take a look at that last sentence. $38 million divided by 1.65 million students = $23 apiece. Even assuming that the entire $38 million went towards nothing but iPods (as opposed to other technology purchases), even the lowest-priced iPod (the Shuffle) costs $79 apiece. Granted, Apple would certainly give a large bulk purchase discount, but I can't imagine that they would've cut the price by over 70% on hardware (software is different, of course).
Of course, once the meme gets into the public eye, it becomes ideal fodder for the the media to rip into, true or not.
The Democratic leadership evidently DIDN'T propose to buy $36 million (or was it $38 million? The Free Press somehow lost $2 million between the first story and the second one...) worth of Apple products.
My guess is that it actually played out something like this: The larger point? DISCUSSING an idea (even if it's a bad one) is hardly the same thing as making that idea part of a FORMAL PROPOSAL, and the Free Press ought to know better.
Good post.
Now, Apple Insider, how about updating that story on the home page?
I am not sure that after a kid spends 6 to 8 hours in school, that they are going to go home to listen to 2 to 3 more hours of lectures on their iPods. These are kids, they should go out and play, next thing they know they have to go to work and never had a childhood. Besides not many kids are going to use it for studying.
Sorry guys, but other than buying votes for a free iPod, I see very little value here.
How about 36,000 iMacs instead? I'd vote for that.
Actually, drop that number down to 25,000 so the schools can get proper networking in place.
Yes. Heartily.
But how about Apple offers it at half the price..... school districts all over this country are struggling with budgets, and Apple's prices (relative to PCs, which offer less, admittedly) have become unholy (comparatively).
Yes. Heartily.
But how about Apple offers it at half the price..... school districts all over this country are struggling with budgets, and Apple's prices (relative to PCs, which offer less, admittedly) have become unholy (comparatively).
At cost not half, they have stockholders.
$36,000,000 down the toilet, + replacement cost for accidents and abuse.
I am not sure that after a kid spends 6 to 8 hours in school, that they are going to go home to listen to 2 to 3 more hours of lectures on their iPods. These are kids, they should go out and play, next thing they know they have to go to work and never had a childhood. Besides not many kids are going to use it for studying.
Sorry guys, but other than buying votes for a free iPod, I see very little value here.
I see a lazy post and don't think someone actually read the rest of the thread.
Internet standard behavior.
What, you mean the media might make up a false story for everybody to get into a rampage about? Might this be the same b.s. as Nancy Pelosi "demanding" a "luxury plane", when the Sergeant at Arms made a request for the third in the succession for president to travel to her home district? No, couldn't be!
To Apple Insider staff: in America, we generally capitalize the names of political parties, to distinguish them from regular nouns. Thus, Democratic party, not democratic. Republican, not republican. Discuss. "The Republican party, increasingly, is monarchical, not republican."
I believe it's capitalized democRATS. Also, the name of our country is the United States, not "America".
This is where something that's like an iPhone, but not a phone, might come in handy. But an iPod, with no: voice recorder, scheduler/planner, way to store/view/edit other content (like eBooks) would be pretty useless. Bacially a PDA, but based on OS X would be the big plus. Anyhow, sounds like this has been debunked as more fiction than fact.
Buying iPods for schoolchildren with public funds is a complete waste of money. iPods have almost no educational use; they are almost entirely for entertainment.
I strongly disagree.
Ipods can be great educational tools and are in fact being used as such. I have several audiobooks obtained from my local library on my Ipod. The range of audiobook categories are actually quite broad at many urban/suburban libraries ranging from classic fiction a la Dickens, Melville, Shakespeare, etc. to " "textbook" titles ein history, english, language learning, civics, etc. My library on Long Island NY has a great program wherby popular adolescent fiction like Harry Potter books are lent out on Ipod shuttles. That's right, you check out a shuttle from the library with "Goblet of Fire" on it. There is needless to to say a long waiting list for the shuttles but my library has been increasing the numbers and titles rapidly due to the popularity of the program with teens. On a higher educational level, iTunes U is a great source of audio and video University lectures from places like Stanford and Harvard.