The schools are in New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, California, Arizona, and North Carolina. They are public and private, high- and low-income, college prep and 50% dropout. What they have in common are administrations that are embracing the iPad as an educational tool, and students who are learning in a new way as a result.
First, the objections:
- School budgets are already too tight, and teachers are underpaid and in short supply. Why spend money on gadgets before we take care of the fundamentals?
- Technology has not been proven to improve test scores or otherwise be more valuable than good teachers, good training, and good books.
- There are other devices that would accomplish the same thing that cost far less than an iPad.
And now, the responses:
- This objection is a logical fallacy, like “why give money to the National Symphony when there are homeless children starving?” It’s not an either-or, even with finite budgets. You have to approach any problem from multiple angles, and technological devices are not what’s standing between good teachers and their deserving salaries. PLUS, we think of books as inherently cheap, but any student or teacher will tell you that a semester’s worth of books for high school or college runs $500 and up, and buying used isn’t always an option, especially for science texts that are frequently updated. Daniel Brenner, the superintendent for a Long Island school with an iPad program, says the textbook and printing savings for two classes alone are $7,200 per year.
- Another fallacy – first of all, even if there wasn’t evidence that technology has great educational value, these iPad programs are perfect laboratories to test that very hypothesis. Secondly, there are mountains of data that actually indicate that very proposition, which is why countries like Uganda and Peru have committed to providing One Laptop Per Child for every one of its school-age citizens.
- Granted, the One Laptop Per Child program itself is an example of being able to do a lot with relatively inexpensive technology, but have you ever picked up OLPC’s computer, the XO-1? It feels like a $100 computer. I love the OLPC program; in fact my brother worked for them in Peru last summer and it was a life-changing experience. But they’re no more a reasonable replacement for an iPad than a bicycle is for a metro-transit system. Technically, they’ll both get you there…but seriously, folks. Yes, there are other tablets out there, and I’m sure schools will get on board with the new Android tablets being announced at CES this weekend. And I hope they do, because the schools don’t all have to go iPad. But the iPad has definite advantages – obviously, since regular people opt for them instead of cheaper Android and other options every day. We shouldn’t be criticizing schools for making a cost-benefit analysis that may favor a more expensive option. The pros and cons of paying more for a potentially more versatile iPad over another option can only be evaluated by each school. This objection just sounds like Apple backlash to me.
Let me just say that many students’ biggest excuse (consciously or subconsciously) for skipping homework is complaining about how much they have to carry home, and how heavy their backpacks are. Seriously – take a look at how many wheelie-bags are in your local middle school. So I see an advantage in just how un-daunting a slim little tablet is compared to stacks of scary-looking, giant textbooks and binders.
Any school’s decision to spend a large amount of money on a new program should be carefully considered, and no one should be jumping on any technology bandwagon just to feel cool. But we should be applauding schools that take risks in order to keep students engaged and excited, not attacking them. Even in the best college preparatory schools, some children get lost in the shuffle, or just don’t respond well to traditional textbooks and essay assignments. And of course, students at the highest-risk schools need every potential advantage they can get.
Additionally, these kinds of technology programs at schools are not only valuable for finding new ways to teach the old subjects. They have intrinsic value, because they get students familiar, from a very young age, with the power of technology to make their lives richer, more interconnected, and more exciting. Many people take skills about using email, search engines, online bargain-hunting, and other technology for granted; or they just assume that younger generations are “born knowing this stuff.” But of course they aren’t. The key is EXPOSURE, and if nothing else, pioneering schools offering iPad and other technology programs are giving their students that opportunity.
Via The New York Times.
