School District Buying iPad 2s for Kindergartners

[chronicbint]

This is a useful tool for children. There are vast amounts of educational games on the iPad and they are simple enough for kids to use. My 3 year old loves ours and in a controlled environment they can be exceptionally good learning tools.

 

[gruntlord6]

[citation][nom]vir_cotto[/nom]It might save the school district some money if they switch everything to electronic books.It would definitly save money if they made books for some colleges courses electronic, www.uspirg.org and www.studentpirgs.org say the average yearly cost of text books is $900. As for the replacement of damaged Ipad2's It would make sense to me that it would cost the parents, would definitely make the parents want to teach their kids responsibility(unless they spoil their children). Of course there are cheaper alternatives than an Ipad 2, but it's not our decision to make hopefully it works out well for them and maybe even help the kids become more tech saavy.[/citation]
are you dense?

 

[gruntlord6]

I specifically remember an comment on an article about how outside an elementry school someone found tons of cellphones everywhere, yet we can trust kids with ipad 2's.....

 

[Guest]

I live in Auburn, Maine. This is no April fools joke. I have a child in the first grade. Last year when she was in kindergarten they used no textbooks. She had 1 worksheet book. Innovation is one thing, but just like the apple laptops the high school students have, the parents have to sign a waiver to pay for whatever is broken. So i am sure their will be plenty of student not receiving ipads.

 

[annymmo]

This is horrible.

Giving kids these devices at such a young age is a terrible mistake.
They're saying they want to replace textbooks with it.
If they had done their homework they would seen that making textbooks available on iPads isn't very practical. (First Apple has to approve everything which can take days to weeks.)

 

[K2N hater]

[citation][nom]ericburnby[/nom]And you typed this on a computer where most of the parts came from the same place. Hypocrite.[/citation]
Is that the your best excuse to teach your kids to accept slavery? Or perhaps you choose Foxxcon for the sole reason an Apple product means more than human lives to you?

 

[cookoy]

"You begin to watch how young people jump on ..." - that says it all, watch these kids jump on the iPad2

 

[Guest]

I work for a school district and we have iPads, iPad 2s and iPod Touches spread out throughout K through 12. It has great educational apps for all ages, and is the best learning tool our school has. The camera, app installation, safari, in-app purchases, and nearly every other aspect of security, can be turned on or off. It is an invaluable tool, and you are either a bunch of jealous whiners, or android/winblows fanboys. Why not carry around all of your books on 1 device, rather than carry a book bag full? Why not learn intuitively than read a chapter and take a test? I know that if I had a tool like this when I was in school I would have been much more inclined to apply myself and take it in. Toms is just full of a bunch of trolls who would complain if they were given an iPad 2, or anything else for that matter, for free. By the way, our school district is among the highest achieving in our state thanks to this. Know your roles and shut your mouths.

 

[gm0n3y]

How will a tablet keep kids focussed on learning? They'll just go straight to playing games.

 

[growup]

[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]How will a tablet keep kids focussed on learning? They'll just go straight to playing games.[/citation]

it doesn't have flash, so the most supported websites wont be supported like:

youtube / redtube

 

[AdamB5000]

If you want to improve learning then take away the iPad. They'll just fill it with games.

No wonder all these schools are underwater.

 

[ucther]

Give children a piece of paper and pencil and the will play tic-tac-toe or some other game so we will not be able keep their attention.
No matter the tech kids will be kids. Spending an hour a day on a ipad, at a desk, with a structured program of learning should be great.

AssUme what they are going to do with the ipad at your own risk.

 

[ucther]

Give children a piece of paper and pencil and the will play tic-tac-toe or some other game so we will not be able keep their attention.
No matter the tech kids will be kids. Spending an hour a day on a ipad, at a desk, with a structured program of learning should be great.

AssUme what they are going to do with the ipad at your own risk.

 

[house70]

If teachers are concerned about the weight of the books, how about they collaborate with the publishers and convert the books to ePub or PDF or whatever format they prefer and then give students eReaders to use. The battery life is much better, they are cheaper to operate and replace and it achieves the same purpose. Besides, converting the textbooks could be an ongoing project for classes to do, not to mention getting the books in digital format would help preserve the content for future generations. Everybody wins... well, except Apple's bank account.
But no, we have to use the most expensive toys provided by whomever lobbied the most and to no substantial gains, as some other comment above noted, the cost of operating and replacing the ipads would prove too great and the idea will be dumped soon. How about paying the teachers a bit more money to educate out kids? Wanna be cheap, then be cheap with the material means, not with the intellectual capital.

 

[scuba dave]

90% of the comments on this.. Pure ignorance.

1. If you don't think a school that follows a budget doesn't plan for all asossiated costs of using anything they buy... lol. You're an idiot.
2. If you don't think a school would disable the ability to install apps on the iPads, like games, you're also an idiot.
3. If you think the school getting ipads for its students is a bad idea because they need to be outside.. You're an idiot. They obviously will not be on the device all day, but when they are in the classroom. Recess, still exists. Cool them jets.
4. If you said having all them textbooks made you a faster runner in school.. Your an idiot. Heavy textbooks also cause people to have back problems from the strain placed on ones back. And not all schools have 5 lockers per student.. Which, is also questionable in all honesty..
5. Random haters = Idiots.
6. Most Tom's Posters = Idiots.
7 And for my last point, thanks to those who actually put time into their statement, and presented a valid stance, even if it did not agree with my stance, or anyone else's. The point is, just because we don't like something, doesn't mean the newest upcoming generation isn't going to use that as the direction of life in general for the future. At any point of major change, there is always an archaic group of idiots, that detest and abhor change, because they just don't get it, don't want the new variable, are afraid of change.. Not to say that their can't be other reasons to. When computers first became widely available, many in the older generation, where very much against the idea, thought it was stupid, etc. They were wrong. Many people thought T.V's were a bad idea. Many thought the internet was a bad idea. Many have thought gay/lesbian marriage is a bad idea. Many have thought many different things. And in alot of those areas..alot of them were wrong... And so are you. I can't wait til you and I are in old folks homes, lol, and the generation of kids right now are running the world.. iPads/tablets and all.

 

[yrmoma]

As Robin Williams said, Cocaine is God's way of telling you you make too much money.

iPad 2's for Kindergartners is God's way of telling school districts they have too much way.

 

[lpedraja2002]

[citation][nom]Pyree[/nom]Shouldn't kindergartener play outside and learn from actual experience instead of from a touch screen interface. I mean they are so young, they haven't even finish exploring the real world.They should send a letter to home to learn about postal service and go to the park and look at plants and insects to learn science. Understand the reality before learning something new with an interface. I will definitely not allow my child to attend that kindergarten. It sounds like the staffs are lazy to educate the kids with real thing and allocate the resources to some tech that kids don't need.[/citation]

You can bet that the unanimous decision was made by all the teachers who wanted an iPad2 for themselves.

 

[razor512]

if they have a issue with textbooks then why not do this instead, don't make them take textbooks home, or get rid of them.

It is the teachers job to teach, not the textbooks

When I was in elementary school, the times when I had the highest test scores and learned the fastest was when I had classes when a teacher that almost never used the textbook. Ant the classes where I did the worst in was the classes where the teacher would do crap like have us read crap from the textbook, then answer a few questions at the end of the chapter, then hand the work in.

 

[Guest]

spoiled brats starting in kindergarten!!!!!!! what a shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck all apple and fuck jobs too.

 

[chaos133]

I hope these ipads will have some sort of parental controls enabled. I personally don't think Kindergartners are mature enough to take care of any tablet. I bet lots of these ipads will need to be replaced due to broken screens and being dropped, smashed etc.