Knoxville High School Makes iPads Mandatory

[Tesla1483]

Am I the only one who hates reading lengthy amounts of text on a computer screen (sorry..."tablet" screen)? I mean, a news article on cnn or something isn't bad, but if I had to read, say, 20 pages from a textbook on that damn screen, I would find a printer instead.

Not to mention how much use and abuse that battery would go through in a year. I don't know how much they cost to replace but knowing Apple I'm sure it's ridiculously expensive and not user-serviceable.

Just one more organization that got suckered in by what the media has declared to be the latest and most popular tech trend. Do you think they were ever required to buy Newtons?

 

[extremepcs]

"Facebook and Twitter will be blocked and we assume there will also be restrictions on what kind of websites the children can access."

And it will take the kids all of 15 seconds to find an open proxy server to bypass the content filter, or use Wi-Fi when not at school and have no restrictions at all.

 

[extremepcs]

[[citation][nom]ct1615[/nom]why do schools go with apple products when the entire business world rejects them?[/citation]

Because most teachers are Democrats and / or hippies.

 

[jfby]

I'm all for allowing students to have laptops or tablets to replace the textbooks: if this was introduced at Grade 5 and was used through grade 12, that is seven years of not carrying around book so that's good for the student, and the school could just issue a 10 month license for a software version of the book, which should save the school a lot of money. The saved money could be used to fund the tablets/netbooks for the parents who can't afford or don't want to pay, and then the savings beyond that can be used to help the school out, not to mention reduce tax burdens.

To force it to be a single solution is obscene regardless if it were an Android Tablet or iPad or Lenovo Netbook. To resist change however will be detrimental in the long run.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

I despise lawsuit happy people but I would gladly offer monetary assistance to any parent of a student at that school to grab a lawyer and file a lawsuit against this school.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

[citation][nom]ct1615[/nom]why do schools go with apple products when the entire business world rejects them?[/citation]

Because steve jobs is the devil. He understands quite well the art of brainwashing. Apple has been doing this for decades. Apple pushes their worthless hardware they call computers at schools at deep, deep discounts thinking that they will plant the seeds of familiarity with these brain dead sheep. Only issue is these morons use Apple products through their miserable public school years then step out in the real world unable to cope with what society actually uses which is an MS based machine.

I know of this all too well. I have a teenage daughter in high school. The first time I heard her utter the words "I want an Apple laptop" I threw a chair at her and whatever else was within reach. Once the bruises healed and she was able to step back outside, she had forgotten all about her silly idea of expecting me to purchase an Apple product.

steve jobs = the devil = poop

 

[noblerabbit]

What ever happened to simply leaving an apple on your teacher's desk? Oh wait...

 

[elbert]

Teachers may as well have a TV turned on because the ipad will be getting all the students attention. Next step is why have a teacher. Itunes store has many college courses were an instructor with a PHD is the better choice. All apple needs do is contract professors to make high school level courses.

The problem is young adults need supervision. I highly doubt teachers are capable of supervising tech gadgets while teaching. Teachers not within tech fields are in most cases far below the technical knowledge of their students. Using these gadgets are outside most teacher certification. Education system as well let students stay home and do their courses over wireless broadband.

Education is doomed as we know it during the 20th century. The teacher roll as supervisor may as well be mom or dad be that good or bad. On a side note this may do away with costly buildings and transportation of children. Schools should sale all buildings to business and cut costs were possible. School buses could then be used to pick up parents for work. 😉

 

[victomofreality]

I agree that a tablet does replace heavy textbooks in back packs, but if it HAS to be ab iPad thats just stupid! The people should be able to choose the tablet that they want.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]extremepcs[/nom][Because most teachers are Democrats and / or hippies.[/citation]
That has nothing to do with it and you know it, plenty of Republicans use Apple products too. Furthermore, I'd be willing to bet the administrators in a southern-ish state actually making the decisions don't have a -D after their name, not to mention a city school district with a high enough base income that the board figures all the parents can easily afford iPads is unlikely to be in a "blue" district.

That said, I think this is a total waste of money and the voters in that district should strongly reconsider their voting decisions. A lot of money could be saved with going with a cheap e-book reader, many of which will likely end up scratched, broken or otherwise damaged because, well you gave a sensitive piece of technology to a kid and cheaper tech means lower replacement costs. Also, the lack of multimedia on an e-reader is a good thing, make the kids READ their textbooks, not watch them, not everything in this world needs to be bright, shiny and entertaining. Finally, the 'compatible format issue' argument is nonsense, every e-textbook I've ever used has been in a format easily viewable by any basic e-reader.

 

[rwpritchett]

Why don't they commit to a universal format like pdf instead of a single piece of hardware? Then any e-reader, computer, netbook, tablet, hell... even a smartphone could render the virtual books for the kiddies.

 

[foogoo]

"Pricing for this be $200 per year" Yarrr matie tis a fair amount of booty compared to the books one must buy.

 

[Anomalyx]

This could be the dumbest decision any educational institution has made. First off, they state that they hope it will replace books. Last time I checked, in high school and below, books are provided by the school. If the iPad isn't provided for free by the school, they're basically running a scam here.
Secondly, if you're going to mandate an expensive electronic device, make it something that's actually useful! You can have ebooks etc on a netbook. Netbooks are half the price. Netbooks can be used outside of crApple's walled garden.
Trying to embrace tech is a good move for education. Trying to force poor families to purchase pure crap just proves that the wrong people are in charge of education.

 

[gogogadgetliver]

[citation][nom]inthere[/nom]The school is forcing the kids to all use the same brand because you don't want to run into a situation where a book is available on one tablet and unavailable on another........come on people, it's not rocket science. There may also be specific apps that they want run, with everyone having the same hardware that's no longer a problem. Why the iPad? Sure there may be a couple of superior specced tablets out there, but the iPad had a huge head start on the competition and has already been established as stable. Audiobooks and podcasts can also be easily obtained through iTunes, which is also more established than any competing tech.[/citation]

This is another reason why the iPad sucks really. People use "apps" and iOS and they forget what applications and a real OS are.

Either use a Kindle which is far cheaper and much better suited to the task OR buy a real tablet that can store books in ANY format, can run iTunes, can run the Kindle App, Google books, and any other of a bajillion methods. The "available on one service but not the other" problem vanishes.

You'll also find the whole "everyone must have the same hardware" problem suddenly vanishes too. The Windows world doesn't need the same hardware to maintain compatibility. That's what a REAL OS is for. Heck use Linux even. It's a REAL OS as well and what compatibility it may be lacking WINE can make up for.

 

[Guest]

It's amazing that half the comments missed the whole "it's a private school" statement. It's not your tax money, it's not a public school district making the decision and its not a rare occurrence to force one specific brand of anything on students, everything from specific book editions to graphing calculators to laptops.

Hell this situation it might be one of the few times to actually have an Apple machine, currently they have the most mature and successful tablet platform.

 

[thegreathuntingdolphin]

What every fails to realize is that this a PRIVATE school full of generally wealthy parents (I think it is the nicest or one of the top private schools in the city). They have wood fired pizzas in their cafeteria for crying out loud. The purchase of an iPad will have no affect on the parents.

I would point out that they probably chose the iPad because it is hip and cool and because most of the students use Apple products there anyways. I think they even have iMacs and macbooks there, so they probably did it for that reason.

 

[HalJordan]

So Facebook and other naughty website will be blocked? Sure, on the school's wifi. What about the kid's parents who can afford to get their kids the 3G version?

 

[f-14]

[citation][nom]kianteck[/nom]On the long run, i guess the rental is still cheaper than purchasing text books no?[/citation]
text books were already $50 back in the 70's 80's 90's i can't imagine it's gotten any cheaper since then.
you would think a laptop would be a good idea given the prices, but most people can't even fix their own computers and can screw up a brand new one in as little as 3 hours. probably a safer bet the school wouldn't have to invest in 6 full time techs with 2 at the elementary 2 at the middle school and 2 at the high school.

 

[PudgyChicken]

Well while I can understand some people's comments about needing the iPad for compatability, it would also be cheaper to just use nooks or Kindles. Because since they have no web browser or app store, you really wouldn't have anything to restrict access too. Saves time and money, and keeps that damn fruit company out of schools.

 

[thegreathuntingdolphin]

Apparently another reason they are using the iPad is for science labs. Currently, the school has some laptop policy and it isn't working well since students have to either make sure they bring theirs or schedule a rental.