iPads for everyone!
Someday in the not-so-distant future, all third- through sixth-graders at Encinitas Union School District schools could be using iPads instead of textbooks as part of the district's plan to upgrade technology.
The district recently bought 40 of the tablet computers for teachers and administrators to use to determine whether they're the best digital tool for the classroom, Superintendent Tim Baird said.
Even aside from the fast obsolescence of personal technology devices like iPads, what's the expected lifespan of an iPad that gets banged around in a kid's backpack every day? Those kids will still be burdened by the $44 million bond on their property taxes long after the last iPad has crashed and today's kindergarteners have long since graduated high school.
Contrast the investment in technology with Encinitas going full retard and putting up a Taj Majal library that will also be obsolete in a matter of years. It looks like the Cardiff library is just about finished also. Why do we need another library that is less than two miles away from the Taj Majal? Keep in mind that the Taj Majal was financed with debt that our kids will be paying for long after the library's useful life.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to have a library in Encinitas rather than Cardiff so that my kids would go to the library to read instead of Barnes and Noble.
DeleteMaybe Tim Baird can use the money from the Pacific View School site when it is fire-saled to the developer buddies of Stocks and Bondini. iPads - how ludicrous. There is nothing to be gained by going the electronic route. Let the kiddies thumb thru the pages - it has worked for a couple hundred years - why buck it?
ReplyDeleteMy kids all left EUSD for private school. There private school bolts the iPads to the desks so they don't get damaged. There is a lot of no homework related activities being done by kids who bring their iPads home from EUSD. It is a big video gaming toy. It is a distraction to completing homework.
DeleteWhat about the kids that have problems retaining books that they read online? This is a problem that has come up in society that some people cannot retain what the read unless is a physical book/paper. If 80% of businesses use PC's, then why would we go the route of an apple computer/device? Because it has fun games like garage band for the kids? IPADS are widely considered toys and not learning devices. How about a device that helps teach Reading, Writing and Arithmetic? This is a Superintendent and three Board Members (Skiljan, Strich and Andrade) that have no clue when it comes to reality. This would not be happening if any of the three parents had been elected, because it has no benefit for the students. What happened to the $11 Million in reserves that the district had before Dr. Baird came. I do not believe that any of the $5 Million plus that has been used has gone into the classroom. We need a businessman that has common sense heading this organization not an educator that has book smarts and no idea how to implement a technology program.
ReplyDelete@WC I seriously doubt they're going to give iPads to kids to take home, but that does make for a scary hypothetical, doesn't it? "WHAT IF...?" "Ooooo I dunno but assuming it were true it could potentially be bad!"
ReplyDelete@7:41 The Cardiff library was built first. Also, the Encinitas library is quite popular and will continue to thrive as long as people enjoy facilities for community enrichment.
@6:20 Nothing to be gained by going the electronic route, says the guy commenting on a blog? OK dude, turn off your computer now. Never mind that computers are more versatile and interactive than books, there can't possibly be any benefits to anything developed in the 500 years since the printing press, especially amid an information technology revolution. Right?
@9:41 *You* may widely consider iPads toys instead of learning devices, but that doesn't make it so. There are many educational apps. You know why businesses use Windows PCs? Because they're cheap and get the job done. You know why schools, consumers and creative types overwhelmingly choose Apple products? Because Apple drives innovation and has been producing some of the best technology for over 25 years. It's funny how you posit a societal problem with retaining digital information, and then cite reliance on physical books/paper as evidence of this. Oh and FYI, GarageBand isn't a game, it's for recording and editing music. But you know, whatever, crawl into your cave and scorn the modern world for passing you by. That's productive.
Basically, I call BS on these arguments.
@2:57,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you seriously doubt? That they'll get iPads at all or that they'll carry them home?
Because even if they leave them at school so they don't get banged up, they'll still be obsolete in 5 years, and we'll still be paying the debt off for 30 years.
And that would kind of defeat the idea of iPads replacing textbooks if they couldn't take them out of class, wouldn't it? No reading outside of class time?
This is the district staff talking about this stuff. Read what they're saying.
@2:57,
ReplyDeleteIt sure is nice that we have a community enrichment facility where you can sip your latte and relish the fact that the city doesn't have the funds to build a fire station in an area that has the worst response times in the entire county. So, the next time that you are out there enjoying the sunset on the library balcony only to be interrupted by the sirens of an ambulance whizzing by (beginning their 15 minute trip), you can thank the good people of Olivenhain for their tax dollars that subsidize your freakin latte.
The electronic route, as you so aptly paraphased it, has it's limited applications. The supposed versatility and interactivity doesn't necessarily always apply in a learning environment - it can be more of a distraction. Computers have their place, but hard texts should remain a feature in the classroom. Many kids are turning into lifeless droids, staring at a screen and living virtual realities.
ReplyDelete