“The St. Paul School District will roll out an iPad initiative this fall that is the largest ever for a state school system — and as the label on the back of each device makes clear, many people have a stake in it,” Anthony Lonetree reports for The Star Tribune. “‘Provided by taxpayers of St. Paul for students of St. Paul public schools,’ the tag reads.”
“Just three months ago, the district, wrestling with how best to use technology to tailor learning to individual student needs, abruptly ditched a strategy it had sold to voters in 2012 and decided instead to put iPads in the hands of its nearly 40,000 students,” Lonetree reports. “‘This will be a great year of exploration,’ said Superintendent Valeria Silva of the work and the risks ahead. Diane Smith, a fifth-grade teacher at Hamline Elementary, already has seen such an adventure pay off. Last school year, Hamline Elementary, armed with a $50,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, made iPads available to all students in grades two through five. Nearly nine of 10 students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to state Department of Education data. At first, Smith’s class was locked into math apps. Then the students found the means to give full flower to their own ideas, and the learning took off. Tri-fold displays, the staple of science fairs and history days, soon gave way to iPad creations.”
“For about a year, the district has worked to improve its technology infrastructure, according to Katie Wilcox-Harris, assistant superintendent of personalized learning, and is now ‘absolutely confident’ it can support the influx of the new devices. Teachers are in the midst of completing nine hours of professional development training,” Lonetree reports “In June, the school board approved a $5.72 million lease arrangement with Apple Inc. that will climb to about $8 million annually in 2015-16, when the iPad project is in full operation at 61 school sites. The district has possession of 27,760 iPads and 1,385 MacBook laptops, with the bulk being stored for now in a warehouse with upgraded security. Students will begin receiving their iPads one school at a time during the third week of October.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Today is a tale of two school systems. St. Paul School District vs. Los Angeles Unified Schools.
Our bet is that, with Apple’s revolutionary iPad, St. Paul students and teachers thrive while Los Angeles students and teachers struggle mightily due to poor planning and meddlesome mistakes by confused administrators and other assorted clueless busybodies.
Related articles:
Los Angeles teachers union calls for investigation of school super Deasy’s ties to Apple, Pearson execs – August 26, 2014
L.A. Unified School District suspends Apple iPad contract – August 26, 2014
L.A. Unified School District repossesses students’ iPads as $1-billion plan hits hurdles – October 1, 2013
L.A. Unified School District awards Apple $30-million contract for iPads as Microsoft whines – June 19, 2013
The details about the huge 640,000 iPad rollout in Los Angeles schools – July 26, 2013
Los Angeles schools $30 million iPad deal; LAUSD board voted unanimously for Apple because iPad rated the best – June 21, 2013
Apple stands to make ‘hundreds of millions’ in Los Angeles school deal – June 19, 2013
LA Unified School District awards Apple $30-million contract for iPads as Microsoft whines – June 19, 2013
Apple to offer 10-pack education pricing for ‘iPad mini’ – October 22, 2012
Apple sees schools increasing tablet dominance with iPad in class as ‘iPad mini’ looms – October 22, 2012
Some Aussie schools require all students to own Apple iPads – October 12, 2012
Analyst expects September launch of Apple’s ‘iPad mini’ to boost education sales – June 5, 2012
Illinois elementary school buys 650 iPads for students, 70 MacBook Airs for teachers – June 26, 2012
San Diego Unified School District buys 26,000 Apple iPads; one of the largest K-12 iPad deployments in U.S. – June 26, 2012
Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, California to get 1,800 Apple iPads (with video) – March 4, 2012
Apple offering discounted iPad 10-packs for education – March 22, 2010
Madison, Wisconsin schools buy 1,400 Apple iPads – using Microsoft’s money – January 28, 2012
Colorado school goes all-Apple; iPads in classrooms spur student engagement to new heights – January 24, 2012
Student math scores jump 20% with Apple iPad; transforms classroom education – January 20, 2012
Apple reinvents textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad – January 19, 2012
Schools expect iPads to outnumber personal computers in next five years – October 31, 2011
OSU study finds Apple’s powerful iPad decreases expenses, increases productivity – May 3, 2011
Top 50 Apple iPad rollouts in enterprise and education – June 14, 2011
Growing number of U.S. schools embrace Apple’s revolutionary iPad as learning tool – January 4, 2011
Rising generation of iKids slipping Apple iPads instead of books into school backpacks – December 14, 2010
Steve Jobs met Obama to talk education, energy, job creation – October 22, 2010
Apple’s revolutionary iPad dramatically helps Illinois autistic students – October 15, 2010
University of Leeds gives medical students textbooks on Apple iPhones – September 29, 2010
N.J. schools explore using Apple iPads as teaching devices – September 22, 2010
Students in four California school districts trade textbooks for Apple iPads – September 09, 2010
Scottish school becomes first ‘iSchool’ where Apple’s revolutionary iPad replaces pencil and paper – August 31, 2010
Back to school personal computer sales slow except for Apple’s Mac – August 11, 2010
Incoming UC Irvine medical students to receive Apple iPads – August 06, 2010
New Hampshire school giving Apple iPads to incoming freshmen – June 15, 2010
iPad takes off as flight school teaching tool – May 12, 2010
California’s Monte Vista Christian School first to use Apple iPads in classroom – April 21, 2010
Seton Hill University to give new Apple MacBooks and iPads to every full-time student in fall 2010 – March 30, 2010
Kodiak Alaska school district to bid on upgrading to Apple MacBooks, iPads – March 24, 2010
Apple offering discounted iPad 10-packs for education – March 22, 2010
KeyBookshop has over 18,000 educational e-books ready and waiting for Apple’s iPad – March 16, 2010
Tupelo, Mississippi schools get 5,000 Apple MacBooks – October 29, 2009
Greater Atlanta Christian Schools to equip 1,200 students with new Apple MacBooks – October 29, 2009
Maine expands Apple MacBook program to high schools; 71,000 MacBook order is largest of its kind – June 30, 2009
I like the labels on the backs… should’ve inscribed the line for them.
Apple replaces the new iPads with the old in a year or two, depending on their contract. Then they take away the old for resale. How could they resell it when it is inscribed, Moron
you sure are cranky.
maybe this will help:
http://midol.com
Hey, that’s my joke!
I made that up before you were even ovulating.
…and don’t cramp my style.
Then finish slurping up your Ensure, you old geezer!
Depends on what June Allyson advises me.
I always liked June.
♪ ‘Memories! Memories!’ ♫ 😉
Oh and good luck with me EVER ovulating.
okay, but don’t get egg on your face.
I hope they succeed and turns out a good use of tax payer money. However, these large scale deployments often fail or at last never meet expectations. Apple was visionary when seeding schools with Apple II’s way back when. Perhaps the same unfolds here, I just wish that less tax payer money was being used on unproven scale such as this.
“…I just wish that less tax payer money..”
true, but hey, it beats the cost of a drone missile at a Pakistani wedding.
Cheaper but a lot more fun.
As a St. Paul taxpayer with 3 kids in the school system, I am very curious to see how this new program works out. My oldest (6th grade) will be taking her’s home with her each day. My next oldest (4th grade) will be using it at school and leaving it there, and the youngest’s school will not receive their’s until next year.
Interesting times ahead, that’s for sure…………
Unless there was an RFP for this, expect it to stall pretty fast. Google will challenge all comers if they were not invited to tender.
It appears from the drivel you have been posting here that you are just the latest in a line of dipshit trolls. Please just fuck off and leave us in peace.
Los Angeles Unified Schools loss is St. Paul School District gain.
As a parent of a St. Paul student, I’m concerned that they are rolling this out without enough training and planning time. As of last year, St. Paul was partnering with Dell, who couldn’t deliver what the district needed. Suddenly they’ve switched gears without much forethought as to what the teachers will actually be doing with the iPads.
By the way, I applied at Apple to be one of the instructional designers/trainers working with the staff at St. Paul. The position wasn’t posted until late July, which is kind of scary.
Apple’s not yet in the clear for holding onto the Education market.. Seems Chromebooks acceptance is accelerating.. According to this article Chromebooks’ tablet/laptop 2012 share in K-12 was 1%, by the end of 2013 it jumped to 19%, as of June 2014 over 1 million Chromebooks have been sold into the education market. http://www.govtech.com/education/Do-Google-Chromebooks-Threaten-Apples-Dominance-in-Education.html
Whoops, sorry.. In 2014 Q2 alone 1 million Chromebooks were sold into the education market.
Just read the source article.. I wonder if there are going to be legal repercussions to the decision based on the following portion of the source article..
“In May, Silva announced the district was changing course on a $9-million-per-year voter-approved initiative, “Personalized Learning Through Technology.” Cast aside were the original plans for a Facebook-like Web page through which teachers and students could interact.
Embraced, instead, was the one-to-one iPad initiative — just the kind of device-laden plan that voters had been told would not be pursued”
“Nearly nine of 10 students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunches”
90% of the students at one school are on a lunch program. That means there are thousands of students in the St Paul district who go hungry on the weekends and during the summer. While I really like the idea of expanding teaching to include technology (especially iPads), I wish the district could have spent some of that $5.72M on the more basic needs of the students.