Scottish city providing 52,000 iPads to students and teachers
A project between Glasgow City Council and CGI will provide nearly 50,000 school children in the city with an iPad, as part of a 300 million pound ($369 million) project to help modernize and improve the educational prospects for Scottish schoolchildren.
Under the scheme, 47,100 student iPads will be handed out, with another 4,900 provided to teachers. The full rollout for the scheme, which has already been tested in some primary and secondary schools, should be completed across Glasgow by 2021.
Current estimates suggest approximately 70,000 children will benefit from the scheme, which is believed to be the biggest Apple education project in Europe, reports the BBC. The deal between the council and CGI, a Canadian IT firm, will last for seven years, and will also provide faster internet connections and Wi-Fi in every classroom.
Glasgow joins a number of other local governments to offer more digital prospects to its students, with similar initiatives to provide secondary pupils iPads already operating in Edinburgh, Perth and Kinross, and the Scottish Borders.
While the project is claimed to be worth more than $369 million, the cost for the iPad element of the scheme was not revealed. The cost is likely to include a service contract for the iPads, plus remote management facilitating council monitoring of the program. The iPads will be locked down to prevent pupils from accessing social media or inappropriate websites, among other restrictions.
"We want our children and young people to be equipped with the skills that will make them shine as digital citizens both now and later in their working lives," said Glasgow City Councillor Chris Cunningham. "We are aware that 90% of jobs in Scotland involve digital work and so our pupils will be well equipped for the workplace."
Under the scheme, 47,100 student iPads will be handed out, with another 4,900 provided to teachers. The full rollout for the scheme, which has already been tested in some primary and secondary schools, should be completed across Glasgow by 2021.
Current estimates suggest approximately 70,000 children will benefit from the scheme, which is believed to be the biggest Apple education project in Europe, reports the BBC. The deal between the council and CGI, a Canadian IT firm, will last for seven years, and will also provide faster internet connections and Wi-Fi in every classroom.
Glasgow joins a number of other local governments to offer more digital prospects to its students, with similar initiatives to provide secondary pupils iPads already operating in Edinburgh, Perth and Kinross, and the Scottish Borders.
While the project is claimed to be worth more than $369 million, the cost for the iPad element of the scheme was not revealed. The cost is likely to include a service contract for the iPads, plus remote management facilitating council monitoring of the program. The iPads will be locked down to prevent pupils from accessing social media or inappropriate websites, among other restrictions.
"We want our children and young people to be equipped with the skills that will make them shine as digital citizens both now and later in their working lives," said Glasgow City Councillor Chris Cunningham. "We are aware that 90% of jobs in Scotland involve digital work and so our pupils will be well equipped for the workplace."
Comments
I have been an educator for 21 years. I tend to be someone who embraces technology in my personal and professional life. At school, I am often known as one of people to come to for help with various tech at the user level. I use two laptops, an iPad, a Smart Board, my phone and what is now legacy tech (CD, DVD, etc) for instruction. Technology has made my teaching more efficient. I have an extensive website that is used for flipped (home) and blended (home/school) instruction. Our older elementary students all have school-provided iPads and have access to netbooks. From my observation, it does allow them to complete certain tasks and interactive lessons more easily
If you're waiting for the "however," look no further: There is no evidence of which I'm aware that shows improved student learning because of the mass deployment of iPads. In fact, my personal observations are that students aren't using the technology at all to develop useful skills. I have seen zero increase or even a reduction in their executive functioning and organization abilities. My students refuse to even use the Calendar and Reminders apps to develop homework/practice schedules. This is after I take them through a mini lesson on exactly those apps and their uses. Sure, they can record themselves, submit projects through Learning Management System apps, etc. The teacher can push things to their iPads and they can be used for collaborative activities. But real skills in research, analysis, prediction, problem-solving, resiliency, etc? Not from my experience. If anything, these skills are atrophying at an alarming rate in the general population.
Of course, there is also the concern about the effect of "screen time" on our children's brains. Recent brain research shows that children and adolescents are having their brains rewired. 90% of the adult population (whose brains are less susceptible) cannot perform 2 or more tasks simultaneously without a huge reduction in efficiency. Children are far more prone to the negative effects of attempting to multitask. Sleep issues, anxiety, lack of focus, and depression are all major concerns. Anecdotally, we often hear from parents that they believe their children are getting too much screen time. As it stands, children are spending most of their school day looking at some version of a glowing rectangle.
The bottom line is I am not at all convinced that the mass deployment of devices for school children is a good thing. Technology has the ability to make our lives easier, work more efficient, and even more interesting. Right now, it seems that we are giving out massive quantities of a sort of digital drug (the iPad), figuring out what it does later, and hoping for the best. We've gone from using tech from increased efficiency, novelty and organization to getting on the iPad Train because of the 21st century, maaaannnnn.
I don’t know if there is a good educational or classroom app flow for iPads yet. If not, Apple has to double time to support these types of projects. Namely, classroom texts, Pencil driven worksheets, Pencil driven exams, grade books, etc.
The iPad is good enough such that a student really doesn’t need anything else, except for another iPad. It’s got the writing surface and displaying content parts down. It’s all the classroom workflow that is the impediment. Apple really needs to provide that to penetrate into educational institutions better.
I would also be concerned about people using tablets all day, from a display screen equipment(DSE)/eyestrain point of view. They are not comfortable for all day use.
Its just another example of the education sector living in their own bubble. Teachers need to get in to corporations more, and see how the outside world works. I suspect the teachers think they are being "progressive" by using shiny new tech.
I bet the teachers love their free, taxpayer funded ipads. Hate to see government employees getting taxpayer funded perks like this. They should pay benefit in kind tax on the ipads.
As every adult knows and tries to avoid at all costs, learning is a though job. What we can expect from tech is nothing more than making the school life of those young brains a bit more tolerable. Educating is the job of you, the teacher, not the job of some miraculous computing device.
The college halted the study but then instituted training students on how to use computers/ipads for studying and learning.
When the college then restarted the evaluations, they showed that all students benefited from the appropriate use of computers/ipads.
The cowboy mentality in the US is to dump tech on to teachers and have them try to make good use of tech, with little or no guidance or support -- vague promises and advertising the US has mastered, doing stuff right is an accident (they refer this as "market forces").
I recall that the Japan education establishment spent 7 years designing and teaching effective blackboard techniques before rolling it out to the classroom. They don't throw teachers under the bus, but support them in their important tasks. That doesn't happen in the US and likely never will.
Will Glasgow succeed? That depends on whether they know what their doing or they're just throwing tech at the problem and expecting more than failure.
There is an increased awareness that sitting at a desk all day is causing a range of health problems that can be avoided by engaging in more physical activity. I'm guessing that in the future, desk jobs will be a lower percentage of work activities.
Right now, there exist many jobs that are not desk work. A lot of these involve situations where a laptop cannot practically be set up and used. I've used a laptop with one hand substituting for the resting surface and the other hand for manipulation - that's a clumsy setup. An iPad is better than that configuration and an iPhone is better still. I have built software solutions for iPads covering situations where one-handed use is required, or where the device is fixed to a wall, or handed around between collaborators working jointly on a given task. In these situations, laptops were not the best tool for the job.
I also remember reading (multiple times, over the last few decades) that the majority of employment comes not from large corporations but from the far larger number of smaller businesses. So it's possible that the situation you encounter constantly is a function of your involvement with a (large) minority of total business activity.
I prefer evidence from wider studies carried out by people who are experienced in how to carry out wider studies.
For technology to shine and add to the educational experience it will need to better exploit its innate advantages:
For one, electronic text books that are updated cheaply and automatically as needed. But so far, publishers are resisting this and charging the same or more for an electronic version of a paper text. And, that is ridiculous -- simple profit mongering.
For another, tech can enhance learning without materially impacting operational costs at a school. For example: Kahn Academy is a free but high quality educational program available to all via the internet. All you need is a cheap computer. With that, core curricula can be taught and reinforced at a student's own pace which would free the teacher up to not only service additional students, but to provide more individual attention as needed.
In my own life I have seen two examples of that:
1) Back in the early 60's I learned algebra via a "teaching machine" called TeMac. It was a book with slider built in that provided both basic instruction as well as practice. The students worked through the book at their own pace in the class room while the teacher was there to assist any student as needed as well as to administer the tests as each student completed a chapter. It worked great! It was essentially a computer before there were computers -- at least beyond NASA and defense industry.
2) My grandson much prefers doing his math homework on a computer rather than pencil and paper. The computerized homework he does right away. The paper and pencil version he fights.
We need to look at ALL of the evidence. And, personal experience, anecdotes, and epidemiologic studies are part of that.