“Recently, several school districts decided to take the plunge and institute a 1-to-1 distribution of tablets,” Jen Bosier reports for Forbes. “You might be thinking education’s old buddy, Apple, came out ahead, but you’d be wrong. This year, Dell Latitude 10 tablet, which runs on Windows 8, was the clear winner.”
“How was this decision made? Well, in the case of Clear Creek Independent School District, CTO Kevin Schwartz said the best way was to put the tablets in the hands of students,” Bosier reports. “Several students were asked to handle a variety of tablets and judge them on a number of factors. The catch was that none of the students were briefed on how to use the tablets before entering the room. Schwartz said they wanted to see which tablet would have the easiest learning curve.”
Bosier reports, “Of all the tablets offered, the students preferred the Latitude 10 because of its ease of use and accessibility. Additionally, students specifically noted they felt the Latitude 10 would best prepare them for college and the work force.”
“Clear Creek is set to distribute 30,000 tablets once the school year starts,” Bosier reports. “With endorsements like this and a surprisingly low price point, the Latitude 10 could be looking at a handy sales boom come August. Right now, depending on model and options, the Latitude 10 is priced between $579 and $849.”
Full piece here.
MacDailyNews Take: There is so much wrong with this, from Bosier’s piece sounding like a Dell press release to a clueless CTO to a handful of kids being allowed to choose something that they most certainly will not ever even see when they enter the workforce (unless they’ll be working at some tech history museum deep within in the dead-end tech wing) that we’re not even going to bother beyond a simple “Stupid is as stupid does.”
Our sympathies to the students and teachers of Clear Creek Independent School District League City in eastern Texas.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ian” for the heads up.]
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For all of you who don’t live in Texas or know where League City is and what the population does for a living:
League City is where a sizable group of the highly educated and well-paid NASA employees live and raise their families. This is not a country bumpkin “East Texas” town near the border of northern Louisiana where dentists can’t keep a practice open and welfare checks are celebrated when they arrive. The homes are typically 3000-5000 square feet and Clear Creek ISD has excellent scholastics. If you can find it on the maps app on your iphone (debatable) you’ll see it’s a bedroom community of Houston near the ocean and even more affluent areas in which to live and raise one’s kids. In our budget-strapped world, being able to purchase 20,000 tablets of any brand is a big deal. Shows just how much tax revenue is coming in from this wealthy suburb.
I believe Schwartz (the superintendent) wanted to get as much technology into the hands of the students as possible, meaning he wanted the cheapest tablet he could find that wasn’t absolute crap. It’s debatable about the build quality of the Dell tablet, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the iPad. So his spin saying the students preferred it is probably bogus.
So what you’ve got here is a superintendent who wants as many tablets as possible so he goes for the cheaper unit. My guess is that a majority of the students of the Clear Creek ISD have iPads already… they all drive BMWs to school!
The school district I work for has switched to Dell computers after decades of being a Mac district. (The IT guys have been salivating to make the switch for years, since the windows computers will allow them more total control over each workstation.) Having worked with the Dell’s for an entire school year, now, I miss the Macs more than ever. Even students want to know why we got rid of the other computers. Internet Explorer freezes constantly, and if our server goes down, the computers are useless. (The Macs would, at least, let us log on and use applications, even if we couldn’t save our work—something very handy when dealing with primary students…)
How do you make the Windblows Dell a clear winner over the iPad when 99% of the students picked the iPad. So 1% somehow is more in this idiots mind then 99%. Obviously works for Dell whomever wrote this piece. And is obviously delirious and out of touch with reality when he wrote this garbage. Those students that were pushed to use the Dell will be begging for an iPad within weeks of trying to use that Dell crap.
The NY school district in which I reside (and to which I pay $8000+ per year in taxes) is also planning to equip students with Dell tablets.
(Sigh…)
Maybe they didn’t want a tablet with a crippled file system, where the files are hidden with the app and can only be moved 1 at a time to a limited number of apps.
Just maybe!
Each one of them was given a bag of weed from the Dell Dude for choose the Dell.
Straight from CCISD’s web site:
“The Dell Latitude 10 is a Windows-based tablet, which is the existing software used in CCISD. “Having Microsoft Office on these tablets is the perfect blend of something teachers already know with a new opportunity for anytime, anywhere access,” said Kelly Lane, Technology Integration Specialist. “It makes for a natural progression. Now, we can focus on the integration and learning, rather than the workarounds.”
Teachers will also take advantage of professional learning to best integrate the technology into their curriculum. The Microsoft Shape the Future program allowed CCISD to purchase the devices at a discounted rate. Teachers will also be equipped with tools and resources to help them integrate technology into their curriculum. As part of its Partners in Learning Program, Microsoft will provide 10 days of professional development training so teachers can learn more about the newest software and how Windows 8 can extend learning times, inspire students to build real-world skills and improve educational outcomes.”
Note the following:
1. It’s a Windows tablet running Office. That’s a notebook with a detachable keyboard.
2. The cost is subsidized. Is Microsoft/Dell selling these “tablets” at severe discounts?
3. Entire decision is based on the myth that only Windows/Office matters in the business world.
I would be interested to see how the question was worded to these students that said the Dell was the best choice.. I’m willing to wager the question was not “Which tablet did you like the most?”
I thought the staff of the school were the ones with the knowledge and credentials to make decisions. So, all the money spent on years of higher education and real world experience leads them to give a bunch of kids tablets and they conclude which is better for them?!
Really? I say replace the staff. Obviously they all wasted their money on education to allow a bunch of kids to choose what will work better in the workforce. Oh, they have never worked. Texas has loser schools just like the rest of the states.
I believe I read that 25% of Texans think dinosaurs and humans walked the planet at the same time. So this article isno surprise. In Texas, stupid is pretty cool.
Texas, what else can you say. Probably comes with a semi automatic gun and one years free Ammunition, for personal safety of course.
That dell thingy is it running Windows or Goodroid?
Ahh ye. Win8, missed that.
But it’s strange that a Win8 tablet came out ahead. I have heard almost only bad things about the operating system and how different it is from normal windows and thus harder to learn. Everyone should already be familiar with iOS. But strange things happen all the time. I occasionally hear people discuss their smart phones and what they prefer, in the store, on the buss or train and it seems that allot of “normal” people are thinking highly of Goosung’s phones. It seems like they are the cool thing now and Apple has become too main stream. They might enjoy the bigger screen but I believe and see it all around me, iOS users are more engaged. It’s not just calling and texting and the occasional browsing.