They Never Follow Up On These Stories

Did you read where the Socorro school district just sunk $200 large into iPads for kids?  Read it HERE.

There are many problems here and I'm sure you could list ten for every ten I list.  It starts with the fact that Albert Einstein didn't have an iPad and neither did anyone else fifty years ago when American students were the smartest kids on the planet.  It ends with - what happens when they inevitably break all of them?

You never hear the follow up story on these type of these technological purchases.  You only hear the initial story about inner city kids getting shiny new laptops that are guaranteed to make them lawyers and doctors... because that's the difference someone who is a lawyer and who isn't - a laptop. 

I hear all the follow up you ever want to hear from teachers, administrators and parents. Because I have a blog and I have an email address and I've been known to say things here other people won't say other places, I get reports on stuff like this all the time.  Occasionally you'll see some expose in the main stream media about technology waste in classrooms, but it's not often that it happens.

If I gather my notes from years past I can say that out of 320 iPads, there will be roughly five or six functioning ones left at the end of the year.  And let's not forget - a good 20 percent or so will get "stolen" and never be returned. 

Do you want to know why?  Of course you do.

1. The district clearly states there's no penalty for using the iPad as a frisbee.  Kids are hard on electronic devices to begin with - give them something nice they didn't have to earn, or their parents didn't directly pay for and you kiss them goodbye by Thanksgiving.

2.  You can't go after a family that claims someone "stole" (or in El Paso the past tense of Stolen is "stolded") the laptop.  The school district is not in the business of determining the veracity or truthfulness of a family's claim of theft.  And you better believe these things will disappear in a heartbeat on the border.  You can get good money for those iPads and there's a whole black market out there that knows how to wipe them clean and sell them as "lightly used."

Both of those scenarios have played out in emails to me about school district issuedlaptops in El Paso.  One teacher told me that 50 percent of the laptops given to one class were gone or not working within on month of issuance. 

Other emails - even ones I've gotten today from SISD teachers - have asked "have you seen what they do to text books?!?!?!?"  Apparently they don't fare well either.

All of that doesn't matter - you'll never hear of it again.  On top of the six iPads given to teachers, there were more than likely a dozen "demo models" distributed to administration officials before the purchase was made - it's customary, you know... so they know what they're getting, right? (I'm winking as I write that)

The good news is that when all the iPads disappear they'll still have good 'ol chalk boards and text books to fall back on.  Hell, we sent a man to the moon before they even invented the iPad... we might be able to get some kids to figure out how to use y=mx+b using the basic teaching skills NASA scientists were exposed to. 

It should be noted that one quote in the article shows that at least one kid at the school is failing math terribly. He said "It's a one in a million chance," when referring to his luck of being one of the 320 students in ninght grade to get an iPad.  Really?  There are a million children in ninth grade in the SISD?  I hope he isn't hoping to be a statistician when he grows up.  However, he'll make a fine politician with that kind of estimating talent.

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I know some of you are going to read this and say "David K,  you're a real asshole."  My answer to that - well I may an asshole, but I'm not going to be an asshole who is out $200,000 in iPads this year.  Because if I was - I'd be an asshole and an idiot.

Comments

[Tim Holt]

My response:

http://tinyurl.com/44nqbpg

[David K]

Tim,

You did a good job putting up strawmen and knocking them down, but you failed to prove me wrong on anything. And Anthony ISD is where I've received most of the complaints about broken, stolen or lost laptops!

Please tell me you don't teach children - your reading comprehension is terrible. Your understanding of the program is as bad. You seem to invent things in order to make your argument make sense.

Also, I libeled nobody - that was my guess. I didn't say it happend - I gave my opinion of what may have happened and I opined that demo models may have been made available to the peopel purchasing the equipment - does that not happen? These companies don't have demo models to go along with their presentations? I guess you can't guess in America anymore?

If they sue me at your direction, I'll force the school to open every file on every procurement for the last ten years and I'll make sure an FBI agent sits next to my lawyer as they review the entire load of documents. Then I'll depose every single board member, every single administrator and every single principal in the district.

Maybe I should sue you since you have falsely accused me of violating someone's civil rights. How about that Mr. Smarty Pants? You like threatening to sue people? How about you go through one and see what happens.

Pull your head out of your ass and stop drinking the teacher union juice, or stop bothering the smart people who read this blog. If you want to link to your own site from blog, you better have something of quality following that link.

[TIm Holt]

Follow up on continued success in 1:1 initiatives:

http://www.k12blueprint.com/k12/blueprint/story_henrico.php

[TIm Holt]

David, if I am not mistaken, which I am sure you think I am, Anthony requires parents to buy insurance for the devices.

By the way, how can I "prove you wrong" for something that you expect to not happen in the future, which is the media NOT reporting on the pilot program?

As you say "Keep El Paso Backward!"

That you for leading that particular charge!

[David K]

So you admit that anthony's policy is different than SISD which means there is no back-up means of replacing them or accountability put on parents and student? I was right.

And yes, the Anthony teachers and other staff do tell me all the time about how many laptops are lost - covered or not.

[not sold on techno in schools]

Tim: I can tell you lots of true stories about young professional employees that were educated using "technology". They are so attached to technology they have absolutely NO IDEA what to do if technology doesn't work! So these IPADS are going to help them with Algebra - in the old days - you went to tutoring and worked out the problems with a human being that actually could teach Algebra and showed it on paper. I had an incident a few years ago with a college educated, high performer employee that didn't understand that when e-mail doesn't work there are other ways to communicate an important message - a FAX! a Phone Call! It was amazing to me that this person had no idea what to do when the e-mail wouldn't work. So technology in schools just teaches our children that there is only one way to learn something, one way to communicate. In the last 20 years I have seen high school and college graduates that didn't possess any critical thinking skills - because they were educated using technology that told them what to do, how to do it and when to do it via the InterNet or a calculator. How many kids working in retail can count change - they can't. The computer tells them what the change is. Do you know math and science students are no longer required to learn how to use a Slide Rule? So Tim - before you toot your horn about technology in the school system come work in the private sector world where me, as an employer, has to put up with younger employees that have ZERO ability to think outside the box when technology doesn't work. God forbid we have a major electricity event that kills all the power across the U.S. No one will have any idea how to fix it because they can't "google" the solution on the computer.

[Tim Holt]

I rest my case.
sigh.

[not sold on techno in schools]

You rested your case because you realize that individuals we have educated in the last 30 years are not nearly as smart or capable than the previous generations. They are not prepared to work in the real world. There is a disconnect between how we educate and then transferring that to being a productive contributing member in the workplace.

[Tim Holt]

"individuals we have educated in the last 30 years are not nearly as smart or capable than the previous generations..."

Yeah, all of that and they can't use slide rules...
So I guess that list of uneducated includes Michelle Bachman, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart right?

By the way Not Sold, why hide behind a pseudonym?

[not sold on techno in schools]

Ahhh - a hater of all things and people that might be Republican or conservative. Typical - can't win an argument then you start picking on the conservatives. State your case and leave the politics and finger pointing out of it. Or is that what they taught you in school?

[Diana]

Tim, you are dead wrong. I resent my tax money being used for such nonsense. I cannot afford to buy my children such fancy gadgets but because I work hard enough not to be considered totally poor, my tax money pays for other children to get nice things. So, according to your statements, these children will now have an advantage over my children because I work and many of their parents do not and half of their mothers probably have no clue who fathered them. It is not the children's fault but it is not my fault nor my children's fault either. When does it stop? Until people are made to face the consequences for their actions instead of believing they have the RIGHT to government assistance will they learn to take care of themselves. When one takes care of themselves and their families, they develop pride and respect for themselves and become more productive citizens.

[dot]

I have seen the "demo" ipads in the hands of administrators who had a great time showing off their game skills in vendor meetings. Similar disasters include issuing a very expensive pre-printed planner to every student that is never used and then there was an entire campus worth of Blackberries that no one ever saw again.

I'm not opposed to using tech in class. It's a tool and learning to use tools is a part of the big picture. However, investing in proprietary programs is just dumb. The Khan Academy is one of the most widely recognized programs for providing video and online tutorials for ALL levels of math programs, not just one grade. http://www.khanacademy.org/

At the end of the day, the program has been set up for failure because the only one with skin in the game is the taxpayer. I don't think ALL of the kids who were issued iPads are bad kids or will deliberately abuse them, however, it won't take long for them to be victims of those who will steal or abuse them. As a parent of kids who have had items (including clothing, shoes and jackets) stolen from bags that were stored in locked classrooms, closets, and locker rooms - SISD Security has a "could care less" attitude towards student theft or recovery of stolen items.

Further, the district has placed one group of students above the others. If a parent chose to purchase an iPad for their child, they don't get to participate. Only this group of students has access to the online program.

[not sold on techno in schools]

Once again - entitlement. They selected a group of kids to "entitle" and left the rest to "eat cake". What happened to the self esteem way of doing things - everyone gets a trophy or a passing grade so no one feels bad.