Auburn, Maine Superintendent Tom Morrill believes iPads are an essential tool for Kindergarden learning at a total cost of $200,000. Apple offered a special deal of $475 for each iPad and Superintendent Morrill will look at the budget and grants to fund this "essential to that is even more important than a book."
Not everyone agrees. Auburn school parent Nicole Fortin said: “It’s crazy! I look at all of the budgetary restraints we have. Our school system loses money every year to certain things. This is a lot to put in the hands of a 5-year-old.”
Watch the report here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2011/04/08/dnt.me.ipad.kindergarten.wgme.html
http://www.reviewsofelectronics.com/ipad-2-to-become-teaching-tool/228470/
I'm not generally teacher sympathic but;
ReplyDeleteDo we need to give kids $500.00 toys, so we can cry poverty when teachers want pay raises.....
Geezus
The drumbeat is that technology is the key. I noticed that cost-benefit was not mentioned. Is a $500 per Kindergardener investment going to help the students learn how to write and recognize their letters better than other means? These are after all 5 year olds. According to some news reports, the kids will be able to take the iPads home.
ReplyDeleteSo an 70-80% annual replacement rate, if you're lucky
ReplyDelete