US schools seek refund over $1.3bn iPad project

[Grey-gear]

US schools seek refund over $1.3bn iPad project - BBC News

 

Read this and first thought was does anyone want to say I told you so?

[abillybob]

The superintendent in charge of the LA school district who drew up and oversaw the costly programme resigned after the problems with the scheme came to light.

 

​Yeah! You better run.

[dry]

I can imagine all the decision makers at the initial meeting...

 

"Ooh! Shiney!... SOLD"

[Michael]

I can't quite see why the problem's with Apple - it's a software/curriculum issue. I agree with the above, new and shiny was obviously the thinking then oops, no idea what to do with them!

 

As for bypassing 'security' I would love to know what a basic consumer device like an iPad could bypass!??

[LeMarchand]

does anyone want to say I told you so?

 

Yes! Me!

[rickjames]

Cant help but think of thishttp://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/a/a1/Lyle_Lanley.png/revision/latest?cb=20121216012932&hc_location=ufi

[pete]

As for bypassing 'security' I would love to know what a basic consumer device like an iPad could bypass!??

 

It refers to bypassing restrictions on individual devices. They wanted to lock down what the teenagers could do while saying "hey this is your device, take it home".

 

TLDR: Unrestricted physical access usually defeats security measures and this surprised them.

[rich_tech]

This scheme always seemed to be doomed to failure by its controversy alone I thought, as it was a one supplier solution and the setup of US schools districts and their powers compared to UK.

 

We all know the pitfalls of iPads and their limits here, I am certainly seeing it now that we have our school devices up and running, from a central administration point of view, I would like to be able to lock off 95% of its configuration, but I can only lock off about 10% of the stuff that I would like to so its a battle to reset and reimage them when pupils fiddle around settings which can't be locked off.

[dbarry722]

Yeah!! The students drove my colleague mad last week. They set an alarm on several of the iPads and put them back in the trolley. They left and the next class came into the library along with the principal to do a talk. Cue the alarms on the ipad's. Frantic search on the trolley for offending ipads. One very unhappy techie!

 

I'm still not convinced with ipads in schools. Even my own HOD is sceptical but with others pushing the 'must have' device, its hard to justify your own stance.

Edited April 18, 2015 by dbarry722

[Sheridan]

Oooo is the shine finally beginning to dull on the iPads?

 

I'm sick of the attitude that teachersseem to have , that if they don't have trolley loads of brand new iPads then their school is effectively medieval!

[InterwebsGuy]

Yeah!! The students drove my colleague mad last week. They set an alarm on several of the iPads and put them back in the trolley. They left and the next class came into the library along with the principal to do a talk. Cue the alarms on the ipad's. Frantic search on the trolley for offending ipads. One very unhappy techie!

 

I'm still not convinced with ipads in schools. Even my own HOD is sceptical but with others pushing the 'must have' device, its hard to justify your own stance.

 

This is something that happens with ours regularly. It truly winds me up, especially as there is no way to stop it.

[ozydave]

 

Read this and first thought was does anyone want to say I told you so?

 

Yep with knobs on

Edited April 20, 2015 by ChrisH

[localzuk]

No doubt Apple will say this is all down to the iPads being used wrong, and it isn't their fault at all, stupid users...

[Garacesh]

I can't quite see why the problem's with Apple - it's a software/curriculum issue.

No doubt Apple will say this is all down to the iPads being used wrong, and it isn't their fault at all, stupid users...

 

Part of the 'software' issue is Apple's operating system itself. The lack of management (and the difficulty of implementing what little management there is) and the inability to have multiple users or profiles and no authentication whatsoever..

 

Apple would be correct in saying they were being used wrong.. But only because iPad's are not suited for an educational establishment. Tablets in-general can be an amazing aid to education, I was incredibly sceptical at first but I've seen it with my own eyes now.. Just not Apple. Sure, there are workarounds you can put in place (Office365, or other cloud storage springs to mind, or a magic triangle setup) but that still leaves a lack of auditing or authentication as to who accesses them and still allows for the aforementioned gumf like setting alarms etc.

 

Apple devices are - at their core (No pun intended) - single-user devices and it really shows. Until iPad's came on the scene could anybody honestly say that they had technology that the students frequently used that had such a lack of authentication or control?

[Michael]

I suppose you have to ask the question at the consultation stage (if any), why wasn't it identified as a consumer device and not entirely designed to work in Education? $1.3 Billion dollars is an eye watering amount, but if you bought the devices, then they weren't suitable for purpose, the manufacturer can't really be at fault.

 

From a legal perspective, my bets would be in the favour of Apple not offering a refund if challenged. The best they can do is use Meraki or similar, which can lock out most features pupils like to tweak with.

[Patrick]

I read the article and was completely unsurprised by this. iPads are a PITA in the school environment and apple do the bare minimum to help us roll them out and support them in school. Even they admit they are consumer devices and not for the educational sector.

[sparkeh]

I think the issue of refunds comes down to the details of the agreement.

 

Pearson was a sub-contractor of Apple suggesting that Apple was promising more that just to supply iPads but supply a complete solution that ran on iPads. If the solution doesn't work then a complete refund might be enforceable.

 

The whole situation was a mess from start to finish. The solution was purchased on a sample of the curriculum that Pearson promised to complete!

 

L.A. school district demands iPad refund from Apple - LA Times

[psydii]

Given that as far as I am aware none of the BSF Managed Service partners got sued for over promising and under delivering , and rumour has it that Apple's Legal team are the best in the business... I can't imagine that if this does make it to court that it will be anything but a terrible outcome for the LAUSD Board.

 

It sound to me like they tried to run before the solution was ready to walk. The limitations of iPads in this scenario are likely not the issue, as 1:1 devices they really work well.

 

The problem likely stem from:

not giving the teachers time to acclimatise to the tools and the curriculum, and being too hasty with the roll out: it takes a lot of resources to develop decent ebooks. New curricula in the classic delivery model have many teething issues in the first couple of years, why would this be any different?

 

I'd predict that:

it would take five years just to get the curriculum right.

It would take each school 1 year for the teacher to become comfortable with the tech, before they could be ready to have the students trying to rely on it too.

It would take five years to roll the tech out across each school (one year group at a time)

 

Don't forget that each school would need decent internet connectivity, cabling switching and wireless before standing a chance of ensuring the tech could be relied upon.

 

 

The real challenge is that a model for successful deployment of 1:1 tech runs perpendicular to the model from the development of new course materials.