Parents V teachers over iPad

[Digby]

Put a PC on each desk and leave it there.
No problems no damage
Less teachers
(Just a security guard to take their place - should be cheaper than a whole lot of teachers and may be the kids would get stuck in to their work)

[Greven]

I would love to see Point England School & talk to them about how they made it work, but Auckland is a bit too far to travel just to satisfy my curiosity. The school I look after has a fairly forward thinking principal who is intrigued by the articles about schools moving to Ubuntu & Google Apps, but the school board, teachers and my boss are all dead set against the idea.

I have never really looked into using Ubuntu in a corporate environment. with the current windows setup I can redirect user folders to the server, manage browser settings, install & manage printers and allow teachers but not students to install software. That works really well for the windows PCs & Laptops, but not so good for the macbooks. Is it as easy to set that up using a Ubuntu server & Ubuntu desktops?
I wonder if Point England uses interactive whiteboards? I think the software is Windows & OSX only.

One more thing - the Point England website is UGLY! It must have been designed by a programmer.

[sahilcc7]

Spending $1000 to do what?

- Go on internet

- Take tiny little notes on some app

Don't see why they need internet, they can research at home if they have a project and the whole taking notes thing is bu**S***. Book and a pen would do this far better... what the school thinks..books take up too much space. Well how do the other 99% of schools in NZ use books?

[johcar]

Like schools would actually have the funding to support such approach! 500 students at say $1000 per device is $500,000. No state school that I know of has that sort of money lying around.Even leasing would be close to $200k per year assuming a life of three years for the device. Leasing companies are not altruistic organisations so will want a commercial return on their funds.And then there is the practicality of iPads vs Note/Netbooks.My wife has both a laptop and ipad. She primarily uses the iPad as a reference to look at documents and information created on her laptop.The on-screen keyboard is really only good for short notes and emails. Utterly impractical for essays and projects.And by the time people discover this they will be up for another $100-300 for a keyboard of some description, add shells or cases to protect the device there is another $25-200.my 2c worth!

My point was that if the business case was so compelling, the school could get government funding (they won't). But I was being sarcastic, because the school has clearly not written an RFP, and put it out in the market for technology suppliers to respond to. If they had done some research, the Apple product would not be in the picture at all.

[gary67]

you are right, the ipad isn't compulsory. parents cpold buy a $100 tablet if their wanted too. .

Sure they can if they want to help increase cases of bullying and put all that extra peer pressure on their kids

[plod]

Sure they can if they want to help increase cases of bullying and put all that extra peer pressure on their kids

Lucky for me my teenagers are a bit to smart to succumb to pair pressure. Anyway with the amount of apple hating people out there I'm sure the pair pressure might work in the opposite direction

[Billy T]

A school full of look-alike computing devices? That is a worry to start with, especially if somebody accidentally picks up the wrong one, but wait till the light-fingered types wise up. Kids can't carry them around or watch them all day so it will be like a shopping mall with an endless supply of freebies, and nobody will take any notice of a kid walking out with an iPad or similar device under their arm or in their bag.

Madness....

Cheers

Billy 8-{)

[Winston001]

I agree with the general sentiments that this is over the top - but it'll happen in all schools soon enough.

Couple of thoughts:

Apple are the most astute IT marketing company in the world. They have captured the imaginations of millions of teenagers who perceive iThings as sexy, slick, and cool.

Teachers find Apple machines easy to use and particularly capable with graphics and video. Apple in turn have done a stunning job capturing teachers as believers. You may recall 20 years ago the BBC computer also captured the teaching profession.

Teachers are under pressure to grasp technology because they are told it represents the future and parents believe their children must have it.

So...I think this school is wrong but I completely understand how they have become mislead.

[plod]

I agree with the general sentiments that this is over the top - but it'll happen in all schools soon enough.

Couple of thoughts:

Apple are the most astute IT marketing company in the world. They have captured the imaginations of millions of teenagers who perceive iThings as sexy, slick, and cool.

Teachers find Apple machines easy to use and particularly capable with graphics and video. Apple in turn have done a stunning job capturing teachers as believers. You may recall 20 years ago the BBC computer also captured the teaching profession.

Teachers are under pressure to grasp technology because they are told it represents the future and parents believe their children must have it.

So...I think this school is wrong but I completely understand how they have become mislead.

The funny thing is if it was all about advertising android should be the front runner as google is an advertising company after all.

[Metla]

The funny thing is if it was all about advertising android should be the front runner as google is an advertising company after all.

Advertising is just one aspect of marketing, they aren't the same thing.

And to say Google is an advertising company is akin to saying apple is a marketing company.