Schools and ipads

[FridgeMagnet]

If there were credible non-anecdotal results that showed that giving tablets to kids for learning was useful then maybe this would be worth it. Are there?

There are a number of what I think are reasonable examples around showing that tablets can be useful that go beyond theory. But that's actually not something that's an issue here - the article doesn't care about their use in education, apart from in programming. Electronic devices are not just there to teach programming. That's like something from the 50s.

 

[magneze]

There are a number of what I think are reasonable examples around showing that tablets can be useful that go beyond theory. But that's actually not something that's an issue here - the article doesn't care about their use in education, apart from in programming. Electronic devices are not just there to teach programming. That's like something from the 50s.

The article mentions both cost and the limited usefulness of the devices - both are problems in education I would say.

You're right, electronic devices are not just there to teach programming but once every student has a tablet, does a school continue to buy more general purpose computers too? So we're talking now more than one computing device per pupil? Interesting use of resources there. We then potentially end up in the situation where general purpose computers go out of education and the IT skills shortage continues to worsen.

It might not be happening yet, but without some questioning as to what's going on, I can see it going this way.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

The article uses a stereotype of teachers as dumb Apple-buying sheep to (try to) move to an assumption that iPads would become the only device for everything, including teaching programming. (Because it's a shitty factional Reg hit-piece.) There's no reason given for this at all. I can't see this happening at all and I can't see any reason to think it might. Even amongst people who are much more pro-iPad-for-teaching than I am, nobody ever says this.

Don't buy a photocopier, you can't teach PE with a photocopier, people who buy photocopiers have just been sucked in by the marketing and are too stupid to see that you can't teach PE with one and PE is really important.

 

[spanglechick]

which schools are buying sets of pphotocopiers for every student, then?

 

[DrRingDing]

It's fucking beardy fanbois spunking their budget on their bourgeois toys whilst pristinely ignoring their IT department.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

That really isn't the comparison that I was making there.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

It's fucking beardy fanbois spunking their budget on their bourgeois toys whilst pristinely ignoring their IT department.

BUILD THE INTERNET FROM STICKS AND LENTILS

 

[DrRingDing]

BUILD THE INTERNET FROM STICKS AND LENTILS

These 'ideas' come from budget holders who get swept up in Apples marketing not from IT.

 

[DrRingDing]

Not that I'm bitter at all.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

THE DEVIL'S WORK

I SAY, THE DEVIL, THE DEVIL WANTS YOU TO CONSUME NOT CREATE AND NOT PROGRAM IN BBC BASIC

 

[DrRingDing]

Now there's proper school computing BBC Micro

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Green screen? Disc drive? Luxury.

 

[equationgirl]

Didn't bluescreen though, did it?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

This is really interesting. How does the tablet and BYOD adoption - and the iOS/Android mix - break down by primary and secondary? Is there any discernible difference in what foundation schools buy?

BYOD is really only in secondaries right now - the back end infrastructure and esafety considerations are still costly and expensive, too much so for primaries. I can't comment on the mix levels of iOS vs Android unfortunately other than to repeat my earlier point that if you're looking for a handheld cloud accessing device a nexus 7 vs iPad will give you more bang for buck. No difference in what I know to what a foundation buys vs other schools, depends on the strategy of the HT and IT staff...there is a wide spectrum of ideas out there.

 

[Ich bin ein Mod]

Argh Edinburgh wants to do it too now

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-e...puter-plan-for-all-edinburgh-pupils-1-2850200

Not clear from the article who's paying for them though

edit, actually yes it is, looks like the council wants to pay for them well blow me down

They'll have some cash left over now that they've got rid of half their teachers.

 

[Giles]

They could, but tablets are lighter, more maneovarable (spelling?), easier to store, and dont need cable running across the floor to plug in all the time, more intuitive (we've had loads of laptops before, the batteries only ever seem to last about an hour). Believe it or not we still have students who refuse to use computers because they dont understand them, but are quite happy to do the research on their phones and write it into their books..... Tablets are just scaled up phones tbh.

And we'd get mega kudos with ofsted, parents and governers.

Why do Ipad's batteries last that much longer than, say, a small netbook?

If its the netbook's hard drive that uses a lot of power, couldn't you get netbook PCs with small cheap SSDs? Surely netbooks are easier to do actual work on, because they have a proper keyboard?

I'm sure you can do more stuff with a cheap no-brand netbook, for a lot less money than an Ipad.

Giles..

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Why do Ipad's batteries last that much longer than, say, a small netbook?

If its the netbook's hard drive that uses a lot of power, couldn't you get netbook PCs with small cheap SSDs? Surely netbooks are easier to do actual work on, because they have a proper keyboard?

I'm sure you can do more stuff with a cheap no-brand netbook, for a lot less money than an Ipad.

Giles..

Because it uses a far more energy efficient ARM chip, as opposed to x86 like you need to run windows.

 

[grit]

Financial concerns aside, when i was at school my bag weighed a.fucking stupidly heavy weight with all the books in it, to just have to carry around a tablet or laptop would have been bliss.