<p>Reiterating what GladGradDad wrote, why a $500 iPad instead of a $79 kindle, or a $200 nook tablet/kindle fire? The two $200 alternatives have many of the same capabilities of an iPad, just not the Apple name or the immense variety of apps available in the Apple appstore. </p>
<p>Some students will still prefer physical books, but many will like the e-book format. Personally, I love how easy it is to take notes and highlight text in e-books, and then return to those later to study without having to flip through the entire textbook. Also, the “look up” definition feature comes in handy when reading books with difficult (and obscure) vocabulary. </p>
<p>Getting iPads for every student would have many more potential problems than potential benefits. High schoolers are highly prone to distractions, and I can imagine having endless apps at your fingertips would decrease classroom productivity significantly. The ipads simply aren’t necessary for students. The tablet/ebook market seems better suited for college students.</p>
<p>^^ I think the $79 Kindle has ads displayed when one isn’t using it for reading in which case I say it’s a good compromise - especially when someone gets it free. If they don’t want that there’s always the $99 ad-free one which is still substantially less expensive than an iPad. The Kindle’s even lighter, a smaller form factor, and has a substantially longer battery life than the iPad so for reading it’s ideal - not so much for internet browsing where a color screen like a Kindle Fire has, would be better.</p>
<p>I prefer e-book reading to paper book reading. I’ve seen some who think they wouldn’t like it end up liking it after they give it a chance. I think for kids it’d be fine since they don’t always have the hang-ups of some who have been doing something one way for 50 years.</p>
<p>Thanks again to everyone for the input, ideas, and links.</p>
<p>The cost for this project is approximately $426,000, equating to approximately $568 per student. We have cut teaching staff and not replaced retiring teachers. We no longer offer basic classes such as physics, except through on-line study. Our AP pass rate is
~0. Scheduling is a nightmare due to the very limited number of classes. $426,000 would pay for an additional 8-9 teachers. We don’t need that many, but I feel that would certainly be a better use of educational funds than an Ipad, for all the reasons mentioned.</p>
<p>DD1’s college ran a test program where everyone in one dorm learning community got an iPad2. Profs adjusted some of the teaching to the iPad and/or created some unique and interesting free elective courses for it.</p>
<p>The results were excellent, but took a while getting used to. Gone were the Elements of Style and 5 paragraph page, their 2 semester writing course required lots of writing that was posted internally on a Wikipedia and externally on a blog. The profs who taught writing 1 and 2 are well respected and very demanding, and I did not think they ‘watered down’ their requirements at all. The end results were quite interesting and the process of creating professional-looking Wiki and blog entries was worth the extra effort. The students were able to type 4-5 page papers on the iPad2 without too much problem (and keyboards are available).</p>
<p>Other courses were more, ehem, entertaining due to the incredible collection of apps for the iPad. Overall the school was quite pleased with the results from what I hear. They even had a few electronic textbooks.</p>
<p>I think a lot of students who are against ebook textbooks have never actually used one. The quote kathiep mentioned sounds ridiculous to me, as many ereaders (nook color and tablet, kindle fire, ipad) do have a highlighting function, and turning a page isn’t completely unlike turning a physical page. Also, if the students buy the ebook, internet access shouldn’t matter. Carrying around a charger for the ereader is not that inconvenient, as a small cord is a ton smaller than a physical textbook. I’m also willing to bet that these same students who claim to be worried about the ereaders being too easy to break are carrying around incredibly fragile iphones with no complains. Right now, for college students, I think the biggest limiting factors in the growth of e-textbooks is price and availability. The shift away from physical textbooks can’t really be significant until there is a larger selection of e-textbooks available, and the prices are low enough to entice students. </p>
<p>Sorry for digression, I still believe that high schoolers truly do not need such devices. Too much of a distraction, too big of a possibility for theft, and a completely unnecessary expense. I understand that most times the money that would be spent to fund the ipads cannot be used to hire additional teachers.</p>
<p>The problem in the topic of this thread is that the school is spending the taxpayer dollars in the wrong place - if they’ve already cut basic courses, cut way back on teachers, have almost no AP kids, and have an under-performing school then handing everyone a distraction will only make it worse and use up money that should have been better spent.</p>
That’s not the question here. No one’s saying not to use new technology. The question is whether every single student should be handed gratis a new iPad and if they are, to what end? Many of these students likely already are using a laptop/desktop at home and wouldn’t need an iPad and there are lower cost and better alternatives to the iPad anyway for the purpose of a student’s use. I wonder if they’ve even figured out what they’re going to do with them yet other than hurriedly spend the windfall money they apparently have.</p>
<p>Exactly right. Of course kids have to be comfortable with technology so why not make them comfortable with technology that they can afford themselves and that they most likely already own? 80% of the world population owns PC’s. Get the kids laptops that are available when they need them and have desktops available in business classes. TEACH the teachers to become comfortable with that. It’s crazy that my son knew more about the computers/smart boards and programs then his teachers. It’s amazing that one of the arguments for Mac’s is that they are so easy that the teachers can use them…</p>
<p>I have had a Kindle for 3 years and love, love, love it. I do find it difficult to “flip” back to a previous page to reread or find a certain passage. Yes I can search for certain phrases or words, but then I have to either know exactly what that word or phrase is or search less precisely and get more hits. Much easier to flip the pages of a real book to find what I am looking for, imo. If I have highlighted it while reading it, much easier to find, but don’t always know what is important while initially reading it. But, I would never give up my Kindle for real books for that reason. Perhaps this is all easier to do on an iPad or real tablet.</p>
<p>OP - I agree that the money would be better spent hiring more teachers instead of wasting it on iPad. I think offering more after school programs would also be more beneficial, even more music, art or gym classes would be better.</p>