There is more at stake than test scores in the effort to provide iPads to 600,000 Los Angeles Unified students in time for the state’s upcoming switch to online achievement exams.
If my inbox is a measure of public opinion, the district’s credibility is on the line in ways that may haunt the school system for years to come.
My column last week on the glitch-plagued iPad rollout drew criticism from readers who said I unfairly blamed class warfare for resistance to Supt. John Deasy’s plan to give every student in the predominantly poor and minority district a $ 678 tablet.
Opposition to the billion-dollar project is based not on the color or income level of students, they said, but on a lack of confidence in both the district and the device.
“Taking my money, which was supposed to go to improving schools’ infrastructure, to buy the iPads completely broke my trust in the LAUSD,” wrote Sara Aboulhosn, a Westchester parent who is angry that construction bonds are funding the technology project and that less expensive laptop options weren’t considered.
“As a result, Supt. Deasy has completely lost my vote the next time teachers need a raise or the schools being fixed.”
That was a common complaint.
Readers also weighed in with concerns that iPads will expose Web-surfing youngsters to predators online and amount to little more in the classroom than fragile and expensive toys.
“Much less expensive and more suitable products exist to bring technology contact, exposure, skills and productivity to students,” wrote DePaul University computer expert James Janossy.
He suggested the Raspberry Pi, a $ 25 credit-card-sized computer board that can be equipped for school or home use for about $ 100. “Or a PC/Windows 8 laptop sells for less than $ 300 retail… get two for the price of one iPad,” Janossy said.
What’s wrong with laptops? was the question embedded in many readers’ comments. They were the gold standard in classroom technology until iPads grabbed the spotlight.
“What evidence or research does LAUSD have to show that giving an iPad to a kid, rich or poor, increases learning?” asked Meena Rao, a middle school math teacher for 25 years. “These devices are so new that no studies have been done yet to know the answer.”
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Any project this big, expensive and groundbreaking is bound to court controversy.
Give the district credit, at least, for getting out in front of the education pack. Only a handful of districts have embraced iPads-for-all and none on the scale of L.A. Unified.
In Manhattan Beach, private funds help provide iPads for every middle school pupil. The devices were supposed to lighten backpacks by replacing textbooks, said Patricia Dulong, the mother of two tablet-toting students.
But her children’s textbooks aren’t yet online, the iPads’ education apps aren’t advanced enough and teachers haven’t figured out how to build lessons around the devices, said Dulong, a former computer programmer.
She blames preoccupation with technology for a slide this year in the high-achieving district’s middle school scores on state exams. “Confusion in the classroom. Too much time spent playing games on the iPad instead of studying,” she wrote.
Maybe those are just the growing pains that innovation requires.
But I’d be less cynical about iPads for class work if educators could explain their advantage without waxing all rhapsodic about tech integration or accessing content.
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