“In January, according to the New York Times, the NYC public school system — the largest in the U.S. — joined the latest educational technology bandwagon and spent $1.3 million to buy 2,000 iPads for classroom use,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “On Nov 10., the Department of Education’s IT department slammed on the brakes.”
“In a memo addressed to all the city’s principals, deputy CTO Tom Kambouras warned that due to the proliferation of iPads, iPod touches and Android devices, the department’s wireless network — a Microsoft (MSFT) Exchange system running ActiveSync — was approaching its resource limits,” P.E.D. reports. “Drastic action was required. ‘As of Thursday, November 10th,” he wrote, “no additional users will be allowed to receive email via NYCDOE’s Exchange ActiveSync… There will be no exceptions to this policy.'”
P.E.D. reports, “As result, some teachers who had purchased new iPads for their classrooms canceled their orders. Technically, the ActiveSync ban applies to Google Android tablets as well as iPads, but we haven’t heard any teachers complaining about having to return a shipment of Samsung Galaxy Tabs.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]