“Apple Computer will pay to study a plan to provide 15,800 Apple laptops to Cobb County students and teachers, a school spokesman said Tuesday amid questions over whether it’s a conflict of interest for the company to fund the study,” The Associated Press reports. “‘Apple is writing the check,’ said Cobb County schools spokesman Jay Dillon, but ‘this evaluation wouldn’t happen if we weren’t paying Apple for it.'”
“The school board has approved the first phase of a three-phase plan to put laptops in the hands of all the system’s students and teachers. The initial phase involves providing laptops to 8,700 students at four pilot high schools and all 7,100 of the system’s teachers,” AP reports. “Before moving to the second or third phases, the school system thought it was necessary to study the effectiveness of the first phase, Dillon said. Bids from Dell, IBM and Apple all included proposals for who would conduct a study on the program’s effectiveness.”
“Based on the number of computers provided, Apple agreed to pay $214,540 for the University of Georgia to study the program, Dillon said, but he emphasized that it would’ve been the company’s responsibility to pay for the study regardless of which computer company the school system chose to provide the laptops. ‘We asked all vendors to provide a solution,’ he said. ‘The evaluation would not happen otherwise.’ The school board voted 4-2 on April 13 to buy the Apple G4 iBooks for the $25 million pilot program, but refused to move forward with other phases until the study was conducted, Dillon said,” AP reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “It would’ve been the company’s responsibility to pay for the study regardless of which computer company the school system chose to provide the laptops.” So much for manufactured controversy.
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