[plug] WA Govenment iPads for year 1 and 2 students

[Chris Hoy Poy]

Hi all, 

+1, and I'm sending something similiar to my kids school as well (starting to bug me that my kids are using "ipad" even when they are referencing the android based webpad at home). 

I do think this is a school/teacher driven issue as well, Apple's marketing efforts in the education sector is amazing. Most of the teacher/educational staff I speak to appear to be very firmly entrenched in the ipad/iphone department, in some cases seemingly unaware of other options. (I hear teachers responding to "what's a smartphone?" with "iphone only"). 

Admittedly *some* of the current software (particularly the recent ebook authoring application?) - seems to have really impressed teachers. 

This discussion needs to include teachers and schools imho :) 

//chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Van Delft" <michael at hybr.id.au>
To: plug at plug.org.au
Sent: Thursday, 9 February, 2012 11:04:31 AM
Subject: [plug] WA Govenment iPads for year 1 and 2 students

Hi everyone,

At the LCA Bid meeting Luke mentioned that some people have been
kicking around the idea of putting together a formal letter to send to
Premier Colin Barnett and Education Minister Liz Constable about the
“nearly 900 iPads” for year 1 and 2s that the WA State Government is
spending “$1million”[1] on. I would be very interested in getting
something like an open letter or partition going. I personally believe
that this is atrocious, educating young children about technology is a
step in the right direction but iPads are not the right tool for the
job. Some of the points made were:

*Cost of the device ($1,000,000 / <900) is more than $1,110 per
device. OLPC laptops are arround $400 I think and
*Vendor Lock-in - Need iTunes
*Suitability of the Device - vs OLPC laptops that are *designed* for
education or even just of the shelf netbooks
*Open-ness of the device software - what if a parent wants to write
software like a maths quiz for their child?
*Setting a standard - will parents of kids that don't get iPads
through this program feel presured to buy iPads for their children?

I've started typing up a document last night on Google Docs that I
intend to flesh out and make into a formal letter over the next few
days. I'd appreciate any input that people may have and I've made the
document publicly editable to anyone with the link so feel free to go
and add/edit anything you think should be in there.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rcVJL11Hp4LOGZ50MuIJGKPKzCKc_EZQ6CCu55wRxMI/edit


Regards,
Michael

[1] www.premier.wa.gov.au/Ministers/Colin-Barnett/Pages/video.aspx
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