British MP urges schools to confiscate iPads, says children use tablet to bully
A British Conservative Party politician is calling on educators to prohibit the use of, and if necessary confiscate, iPads during daily lessons in a bid to keep students focused on academic pursuits.
Edward Timpson, Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families at Department for Education, called for a reduction in iPad use during classes in response to recent concerns that students are using the device to bully one another, reports The Telegraph.
Timpson outlined his plan to fellow Parliament members in a session with the House of Lords Communications Committee. The MP appears to refer to "iPad" as an interchangeable term for any tablet device.
"A problem in a number of schools which we've sought to address is the iPad or the tablet coming into schools and it forming far too much of the school day's activities of children and it being used inappropriately for some of the bullying and harassment that we know sadly goes on the back of it," Timpson said. "That's why we've strengthen the powers of headteachers to confiscate and remove material and so on."
The UK currently lacks regulations on the use of portable devices in educational settings, instead leaving the creation and execution of rules to individual schools. Ongoing studies, including government-funded inquiries, are looking into the effect such devices have on students, the report says.
For example, a study conducted by the London School of Economics suggested schools that banned mobile phones saw test scores increase an average of 6 percent.
For Apple, iPad has in many ways replaced the Mac in the company's quest for a piece of the education market pie. Apple courts public and private institutions in the U.S. by offering bulk device purchase discounts, while at the same time marketing low-cost backend services to easily manage mass deployments.
Most recently, Apple in March launched the Classroom app to help teachers manage, monitor and connect shared student iPads.
A major contender for marketshare in the U.S., Apple's iPad in Education initiative has in large part floundered in other countries. Apple first expanded iBooks Textbooks and the iTunes U Course Manager app to international markets including Europe in 2014, but governments have been slow to adopt the larger holistic iPad hardware/software platform.
Edward Timpson, Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families at Department for Education, called for a reduction in iPad use during classes in response to recent concerns that students are using the device to bully one another, reports The Telegraph.
Timpson outlined his plan to fellow Parliament members in a session with the House of Lords Communications Committee. The MP appears to refer to "iPad" as an interchangeable term for any tablet device.
"A problem in a number of schools which we've sought to address is the iPad or the tablet coming into schools and it forming far too much of the school day's activities of children and it being used inappropriately for some of the bullying and harassment that we know sadly goes on the back of it," Timpson said. "That's why we've strengthen the powers of headteachers to confiscate and remove material and so on."
The UK currently lacks regulations on the use of portable devices in educational settings, instead leaving the creation and execution of rules to individual schools. Ongoing studies, including government-funded inquiries, are looking into the effect such devices have on students, the report says.
For example, a study conducted by the London School of Economics suggested schools that banned mobile phones saw test scores increase an average of 6 percent.
For Apple, iPad has in many ways replaced the Mac in the company's quest for a piece of the education market pie. Apple courts public and private institutions in the U.S. by offering bulk device purchase discounts, while at the same time marketing low-cost backend services to easily manage mass deployments.
Most recently, Apple in March launched the Classroom app to help teachers manage, monitor and connect shared student iPads.
A major contender for marketshare in the U.S., Apple's iPad in Education initiative has in large part floundered in other countries. Apple first expanded iBooks Textbooks and the iTunes U Course Manager app to international markets including Europe in 2014, but governments have been slow to adopt the larger holistic iPad hardware/software platform.
Comments
You can tell from that photo; that while Mr. lefty liberal pinko CA hipster teacher is trying to teach about flowers (oops, gay also); clearly, the young student is busy starring at pictures of giant ta-ta's. (just look at his face)
We all should realize that no amount of regulations or restrictions will make people "good." It's up to each of us to simply treat others with respect and kindness.
Devices such as iPads are far more beneficial than "bad."
Today, the blame is place on everything and anything except where it belongs...the bully.
They hold hour long assemblies in school on bullying, playing up nothing but victim suffering.
Victim culture is a disease.
Today's kids 'are' running everything.
I'd just ban all mobile devices in schools except for those provided by the school. Then the schools network could block access to sites like Facebook etc where the bullying takes place.
My Grandaughters school has banned all mobile devices from being used. After a few weeks she got used to it and now supports the move.
Anyone caught using a device in school hours gets an automatic detention and extra homework. This isn't a state school but a fee paying one so policies like this might be harder to implement elsewhere.
This is Tory modus operandi. And without an opposition party in government right now this will continue.
But we are living in a post-factual world, where evidence and experts count for nothing, and dogma and hunches are all that matter.
Not sure that banning them is the best response (though the 6% test score improvement when mobile phones are banned is an interesting fact in the discussion), but maybe proposing it will get a more insightful conversation started and a coordinated response across schools.