I have the solution to all of educations problems! Its easy! Just buy an iPad (or whatever flavor of tablet you like) for every child in the school!
If only it was that easy.
For those of you out there running down this road spending millions of taxpayer dollars on something you have ZERO (and yes you have ZERO) proof will change anything, where is the accountability? Are you putting your job on the line for this? When you get five years down the road and this has changed nothing who do you answer to? What happened to all the “research this” and “research that” stuff to prove that what you were going to spend millions on will actually work? Oh, I forgot that all that changes when it comes to cool new toys that are purchased to make a school look like they are at the top of the technology game!
If you haven’t faced the facts yet you need to come to a realization that tablets are a secondary device for many people and game playing devices for the most (it only takes a quick look to the top downloads on any app store to figure this one out)! I have multiple tablets (iOS and Android) and they have far from become my primary device. Percentage used on them: maybe 5%. My primary use is to take notes at meetings, surf the web and check email. Fact: tablets are consumption devices not content creation devices! Do I think I am going to do some software engineering on a tablet? No. How about create a spreadsheet? No. If tablets are going to replace laptops then why is the first thing tablet purchasers get as an accessory is a keyboard? Wow, I now have a laptop, oh that’s right we have had these for years. Yes, I know the touch interface is awesome and you will get no argument from me on this.
Now you may take my post as an all out attack on tablets in education but it isn’t. Tablets have a place in education just like graphing calculators did but as with everything balance and common sense are needed. In education there is always something out there that sales people want everyone to think will change the world and they are going to use every tactic (including making you feel inferior) to get you to purchase. Guess what folks, math is hard, calculus is hard, and an iPad and Facebook aren’t going to make them any easier! Dedication and hard work are the only solutions to these problems.
So all of that said where are tablets in education. First and foremost to truly revolutionize education these devices must be accompanied by software that allows everything to be tailored to the child. I want a textbook application that adapts to where the child is at and gears content based upon assessment scores. I want an assessment application that allows quick snapshots of where children are at on given skills. I want all of this wrapped up into a learning management system that allows every stakeholder in the educational process to be able to see the information they need to make decisions that are best for our children. Guess what folks, we are a very long way from this! Running Wheres My Water on an iPad gives you zero feedback as a teacher. Are you going to sit and watch each student work on the iPad? How do you assess what they have done with these applications? So everyone out there is running out buying systems that they have ZERO (and again you have ZERO) way to be able to test their effectiveness. Now that is accountability at its best.
Finally I would just like to mention how completely disappointed in Apple I am from this weeks BIG announcement regarding e-textbooks. Apple, can you make it any more obvious that all you care about is the bottom line? This big announcement had to do with one thing, iPad sales. Want to really help education Apple? Make open applications that can be used in any operating system on any device.
Apple again has shown that they care about education dollars going to their bottom line, not the kids themselves. If Apple wants to revolutionize education, they should put their money into the development of a CMS that is not platform specific and then go one step further and cut the price of their equipment in half so schools can then purchase their equipment. A $10 discount on an iPad is not an education discount, that’s a slap in the face.
IT leaders have fought tooth and nail for years to create managed systems all to have Apple take technology back in time with unmanaged devices which uneducated educators are deciding to sink millions of taxpayer money into with exactly as you said, no statistical backing. There are very few schools that are truly prepared to implement 1:1 computing in any platform, let alone iPads.
Take a look at many district budgets and you’ll see the priorities. Slashed staff development budgets and inflated technology budgets for unproven technologies all to “Keep Up with the Jones’” yet we’re touted as “lifelong learners” I’ll believe it when I see it.
It’s all really quite embarrassing.
I think schools should take a look at this article (even though it’s on Wikipedia it’s still a good read).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle
They need to determine, are you at the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” or are you on the “Plateau of Productivity” I think many would be surprised where their ideas really lie.