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RICHMOND
Several classrooms across Virginia are trading history books for computers with interactive media and digital content.
Selected elementary, middle and high school students in Arlington, Henry and Pulaski counties and the city of Newport News are participating in the state Department of Education's "Beyond Textbooks" program. The initiative announced Wednesday gives 230 iPads to several classrooms in an effort to utilize wireless technology and digital textbooks to help students learn history.
A grant from the Governor's Productivity Investment Fund is being used to buy the iPads, which typically retail at about $499 for the least expensive model. Textbook publishers and software companies have donated content, platforms and applications that are aligned with Virginia's history and social studies Standards of Learning.
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watching
I guess books just did not work for studying history.
Misplaced Spending.....
This is one of those educational ideas that sounds good on paper, but is not practical.
Yes technology is here to stay. But most school system's have a replacement cycle for computers as well as textbooks and I would imagine IT departments/school administrators would have the same plan for iPads.
If they lose it..someone suggested they replace them...many students can't afford to replace a library book much less a $500 iPad.
But more importantly...in a time when education reform depends on data...there is no evidence that shows the increase over the past 15 years in technology in the classroom has increased learning....as a matter of fact, during the time that we have focused much $$$ on technololgy, critics are complaining that student learning has decreased.
Could it be we are focusing on the wrong things in education today?
ipads for history
So is there an extreme shortage of history teachers in VA that its easier to go electronic than a regular run of the mill class setting? I could use a job maybe theyll call.
It's the medium people
It seems to me that the thrust here is for the knowledge to be delivered in something besides the 'book'. Perhaps the DoE and others are looking at what the Texas Board of Education is trying to do with curriculum, and force the text makers to acknowledge that there will be a different way to deliver content to the students.
Here come the Luddites
1) I would expect a quantity buy would reduce the cost, plus computer makers generally lower the cost for learning institutions. Check out Microsoft software student cost versus retail.
2) they are computers and as such limits can be put on them by the IT staff. They can be restricted to scholarly activities.
The aginners always use what I call the spaghetti model of debate. "Keep throwing stuff against the wal to see if something will stick."
Counterpoint
(1) A quantity buy would reduce the cost, plus computer makers generally lower the cost for learning institutions would likely hold true for a Kindle as well, meaning even more students would benefit.
(2) Limiting the functionality of the IPad by a school's systems IT Department would defeat the stated purpose of having the IPad to begin with. Why spend the extra money for a more capable tool, then dumb down the tool?
Functionality can be easily changed by the it department
Functionality could be limited to functions the schools deem appropriate, i.e. no games, no music, limited downloads, what ever is decided. The kindle will always be cheaper but also would have much more limited functionality.
Counterpoint
(1) A quantity buy would reduce the cost, plus computer makers generally lower the cost for learning institutions would likely hold true for a Kindle as well, meaning even more students would benefit.
(2) Limiting the functionality of the IPad by a school's systems IT Department would defeat the stated purpose of having the IPad to begin with. Why spend the extra money for a more capable tool, then dumb down the tool?
what an utter waste
its another attempt by apple to introduce its mind rotting totalitarian computer business model down the throats of gullible impressionable children and their not so much brighter instructors. Both Amazon and Barnes and Nobles have readers on the market that are a third of the price. When microsoft introduced the tablet PC it was considered pretty much a useless computer format. Then all of a sudden the cretins at apple take publicly available open source BSD and turn it into a proprietary totalitarian closed system using off the shelf 2 generation old intel processors and its shear genius. I'm sure apple threw in a swell grant to the teacher's association "picnic" fund for good measure. Next we will be hearing about McDonalds taking over the cafeterias to teach the children about cuisine and fine living.
I appreciate what they are trying to do. Being cutting edge
in educating our youth is good thing. But an IPad?
The cheapest Ipad costs about $500 each. A Kindle costs $139. Instead of 230 IPads they could have gotten 827 Kindles, (or a like reader). That is an additional 597 students who could have benefitted from an electronic book.
I am sure proponants of the program are citing the flexibility of the IPad as a positive. Students can read their assignment in the e-book, and then have the capability to dig deeper on the internet. It sounds good on the surface,
But sooner than later the kids are going to be loading these IPads with all kinds of Apps, and using it as much, or perhaps more as a toy.