Free iPads for Georgia state students. Senator hopes to replace schoolbooks.

[aGameOfThrones]

Republican Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams told the press earlier this week that the Georgia legislature and educators are considering a proposal by Apple to replace printed books, according to a report by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Last week we met with Apple Computers," Williams said, "and they have a really promising program where they come in and their [sic] recommending to middle schools – for $500 per child per year, they will furnish every child with an iPad, wi-fi the system, provide all the books on the system, all the upgrades, all the teacher training – and the results they’re getting from these kids is phenomenal."

The senator added, "we’re currently spending about $40 million a year on books. And they last about seven years.(and public iPads will last how long?) We have books that don’t even have 9/11. This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction.”



Biggest thing since the overhead projector

A report by the New York Times last month described a pilot program at Roslyn High School on Long Island which started with 47 iPads. The school hopes to expand the program to include all of its 1,100 students.

It noted that the iPads "allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios," citing teacher Larry Reiiff as saying, "It allows us to extend the classroom beyond these four walls."

The school described its initial purchase, which used 32GB iPads combined with a case and a stylus at a $750 each, was a part of an effort to go paperless and cut spending. In addition to just serving as electronic textbooks, the iPad are also described as running math games, begin used to study world maps and interactive sky charting of constellations, and to simulate the keys of a piano.

Roslyn school superintendent Daniel Brenner said Apple's iPad would save money in the long run by reducing printing and textbook costs; estimating that the two iPad classes save $7,200 a year.

"I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector," added school principal Scott Wolfe.

Schools around the country go iPad

The report stated that New York's public schools had ordered 2,000 iPads, 300 of which went to Kingsbridge International High School in the Bronx. It also noted that 200 public schools in Chicago have applied for iPad grants.

Apple points out that Chicago public schools, the third largest district in the US, are ecstatically supporting iPad as a learning tool. John Connolly, the technology director for Chicago Public Schools, states in a promotional video that "being able to outfit so many our kids with such a low cost machine could be a real advantage for our district."

The Virginia Department of Education is managing a $150,000 iPad initiative to replace history and Advanced placement biology textbooks at 11 of its schools.

The report also noted the Pinnacle Peak School in Scottsdale, Arizona, which "converted an empty classroom into a lab with 36 iPads — named the iMaginarium," while the private Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey bought 60 iPads for $36,000 and is considering providing iPads to all students next fall.

A number of eduction initiatives related to iPad are taking advantage of President Obama's competitive Race to the Top program designed to back the best ideas in education with federal support.

hxxp://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/05/georgia_state_senator_hopes_to_replace_schoolbooks _with_ipads.html

[t0rnado]

OR they could allow students to bring in their own laptops which are much more powerful and useful than an iPad, but the Georgia state senator probably has money invested in Apple, so that won't be happening.

[HOLLYWOOD]

I thought this was voted down by the FEDS because it discriminated against the blind... no braille. Yes, I know, audio would work just fine, but the state once again is interfering in cases.

Oh, that's okay for government to impose books on students and ban iPads because it discriminates, but it's not discrimination (Teddy Kennedy's Bill) for taxpayers to pickup the secondary education bills of government workers only.

[Danke]

So "my dog ate it" excuse won't work anymore?

[Carson]

Socialist to supply students with iPads

We have a system in this country of stealth socialism. Some not so stealthy.

Then again when you stop to consider just how much is spend on social and public works programs we rival any socialist government in history. some of it you may not consider as socialism. What about the guy in a foreign country that made the mistake of banking on the Federal Reserve Note. How would it look to him.

Something about illegal immigration troubled me. Where was the money coming from to corrupt the politicians and police in many of the countries around the world?

It became clear that one possibility was that there are those in the government that can print up what ever amount it takes to get their way. Without any auditing of the Federal Reserve so can others not even inside of our government.

Maybe this will help make the danger of fiat money clear.

Imagine you and me are setting across from each other. We create enough money to represent all of the world's wealth. Each one of us has one SUPER Dollar in front of him.

You own half of everything and so do I.

I'm the government though. I get bribed into creating a Central Bank.

You're not doing what I want you to be doing so I print up myself eight more SUPER Dollars to manipulate you with.

All of a sudden your SUPER Dollar only represents one tenth of the wealth of the world!

That isn't the only thing though. You need to get busy and get to work because YOU'VE BEEN STIFFED with the bill for the money I PRINTED UP to get YOU TO DO what I WANTED.

That to me represents what has been happening to the economy, and us, and why so many of our occupations just can't keep up with the fake money presses.

All that money that is devaluing things like your retirement fund or savings is stealth socialism if you think about it.

[Maximus]

Maybe I should buy some shares of Apple...

[Book Fellow]

Not everything green is bad. The paper weight of distribution, the fat book bags, the waste associated with textbooks is tremendous. Even if it isn't quite as good, at the moment, I'm all for it.

[libertarian4321]

OR they could allow students to bring in their own laptops which are much more powerful and useful than an iPad, but the Georgia state senator probably has money invested in Apple, so that won't be happening.

I don't understand the need for an iPad. They are VERY EXPENSIVE for what you get.

You could get a netbook computer with more power and more memory for FAR LESS money than an iPad that would have all the capability of an iPad except for the touch screen (hardly necessary) and the "cool" factor.

If you want "cool," fine- go ahead and buy the iPad- but NOT WITH MY MONEY!

[nobody's_hero]

There are some counties in Georgia that already have done this.

My home county did this, and it caused quite a stir. As a product of that school system, I can tell you that those kids need a hell of a lot more than an iPad. But what they need can't be bought from Apple or McGraw-Hill. For what we spent on iPads, we could have hired tons of new teachers, but as it was grant money, it had to be used specifically for iPads.

Then of course, as with our education system in general, if the parents won't get involved in their child's education, then you're just wasting time and money. Too many parents where I'm from view schools as daycare centers for their little tax credits children than a place to grow the mind.

[amy31416]

Not everything green is bad. The paper weight of distribution, the fat book bags, the waste associated with textbooks is tremendous. Even if it isn't quite as good, at the moment, I'm all for it.

Lugging around 25lbs+ of books builds character and muscles, dammit! Plus, books don't break when kids drop them (or get shoved in a locker/thrown in a pool, etc.) AND they can be used for kindling when they're outdated. Plus, old textbooks can be a saving grace--you just tear out the page of the assignment and complain to the teacher that you just couldn't do the assignment.

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Books are vastly cheaper than Ipads..Well, this is just more corporatism marching right along. When you can't sell your shitty merchandise voluntarily, you always can peddle your wares the involuntary way -- theft FOR THE CHILDREN!

[moostraks]

Electronic media allows them the ability to update information they see fit to change and delete. It is the new age version of the reprints done in 1984 but you can be coerced into supporting them by how cost effective and "green" this process is for the taxpayer. Without hard copies there is not much proof from the time they make this idea go mainstream of how they are watering the truth down. No more need to burn books just delete them.

I will leave my children a legacy of hard copies of a variety of books and I hope others will do the same. If it ever gets to a point where the Library of Congress and the Vatican are the only ones with hard copies we are screwed...

Call me paranoid but when technology this dangerous to free thinking becomes wide spread popular and pitched by tptb I just can't trust our government.

[nobody's_hero]

Electronic media allows them the ability to update information they see fit to change and delete. It is the new age version of the reprints done in 1984 but you can be coerced into supporting them by how cost effective and "green" this process is for the taxpayer. Without hard copies there is not much proof from the time they make this idea go mainstream of how they are watering the truth down. No more need to burn books just delete them.

I will leave my children a legacy of hard copies of a variety of books and I hope others will do the same. If it ever gets to a point where the Library of Congress and the Vatican are the only ones with hard copies we are screwed...

Call me paranoid but when technology this dangerous to free thinking becomes wide spread popular and pitched by tptb I just can't trust our government.

Well, most of those hard-copy books are full of nonsense anyway. Or they omit minor details, like, um, the history of the War for Independence (I think we spent about an hour going over the most important time in our nation's history, before moving on to how the Civil War was morally impeccable and how the U.S. saved the world in WWI, and then later in WWII—thanks to the heroic leadership of FDR, which saved the U.S. from economic ruin).

But I agree, and I don't think it is paranoia. Electronic history might as well be no history at all, depending on who has their fingers on the delete button.

[sailingaway]

Republican Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams told the press earlier this week that the Georgia legislature and educators are considering a proposal by Apple to replace printed books, according to a report by Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"Last week we met with Apple Computers," Williams said, "and they have a really promising program where they come in and their [sic] recommending to middle schools – for $500 per child per year, they will furnish every child with an iPad, wi-fi the system, provide all the books on the system, all the upgrades, all the teacher training – and the results they’re getting from these kids is phenomenal."

The senator added, "we’re currently spending about $40 million a year on books. And they last about seven years.(and public iPads will last how long?) We have books that don’t even have 9/11. This is the way kids are learning, and we need to be willing to move in that direction.”



Biggest thing since the overhead projector

A report by the New York Times last month described a pilot program at Roslyn High School on Long Island which started with 47 iPads. The school hopes to expand the program to include all of its 1,100 students.

It noted that the iPads "allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios," citing teacher Larry Reiiff as saying, "It allows us to extend the classroom beyond these four walls."

The school described its initial purchase, which used 32GB iPads combined with a case and a stylus at a $750 each, was a part of an effort to go paperless and cut spending. In addition to just serving as electronic textbooks, the iPad are also described as running math games, begin used to study world maps and interactive sky charting of constellations, and to simulate the keys of a piano.

Roslyn school superintendent Daniel Brenner said Apple's iPad would save money in the long run by reducing printing and textbook costs; estimating that the two iPad classes save $7,200 a year.

"I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector," added school principal Scott Wolfe.

Schools around the country go iPad

The report stated that New York's public schools had ordered 2,000 iPads, 300 of which went to Kingsbridge International High School in the Bronx. It also noted that 200 public schools in Chicago have applied for iPad grants.

Apple points out that Chicago public schools, the third largest district in the US, are ecstatically supporting iPad as a learning tool. John Connolly, the technology director for Chicago Public Schools, states in a promotional video that "being able to outfit so many our kids with such a low cost machine could be a real advantage for our district."

The Virginia Department of Education is managing a $150,000 iPad initiative to replace history and Advanced placement biology textbooks at 11 of its schools.

The report also noted the Pinnacle Peak School in Scottsdale, Arizona, which "converted an empty classroom into a lab with 36 iPads — named the iMaginarium," while the private Morristown-Beard School in New Jersey bought 60 iPads for $36,000 and is considering providing iPads to all students next fall.

A number of eduction initiatives related to iPad are taking advantage of President Obama's competitive Race to the Top program designed to back the best ideas in education with federal support.

hxxp://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/05/georgia_state_senator_hopes_to_replace_schoolbooks _with_ipads.html

They have that many plugs in every room? Because the charge will not last.