iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified’s iPad pilot program

The future of the classroom

On Jan. 19, Apple introduced a new educational initiative, iBooks 2, or textbooks for the iPad. In a presentation, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, noted that as textbooks are passed down from student to student, “they get more highlighted, dog-eared, tattered and worn,” and the iPad could serve as an interactive, searchable, constantly updated tool to replace that.

Manhattan Beach administrators anticipated this. “One of main reasons we went with (the iPad) instead of the iPod touch is the size of screen in anticipation of textbooks becoming electronic,” said Gerger, adding that for students, a light iPad beats a backpack full of textbooks.

Recently, Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik argued that intersecting technology and education is helping technology firms more than students in the classroom. “It’s great to suggest that every student should be equipped with a laptop or given 24/7 access to Wi-Fi, but shouldn’t our federal bureaucrats figure out how to stem the tidal wave of layoffs in the teaching ranks and unrelenting cutbacks in school programs and maintenance budgets first?” Hiltzik wrote. “School districts can’t afford to buy enough textbooks for their pupils, but they’re supposed to equip every one of them with a $500 iPad?”

Redondo Beach Unified School District Board Member Todd Loewenstein created Beyond 451, a startup company working on creating a suite of applications for tablets aligned with the California Department of Education content standards. He hopes to launch in January of next year. “We think it’s going to change the way students learn,” he said, adding that education in the United States is stuck in the 20th century.

Loewenstein compared current iPad use in education to television in the 1950s. “There wasn’t a lot of programming,” he said. “There are a lot of apps out there, but people don’t know how to use the apps, it’s not organized…That’s what is missing here.”

Some educators believe that spending funds on other programs trumps spending on technology, perhaps at least until teachers are better equipped and trained in using new tools.

For Manhattan Beach Unified, moving forward with full implementation of iPads is costly. The district would need to shell out more than $2 million to put an iPad in each student’s hands. The district is also considering doubling the implementation, which would cost $400,000, expanding the pilot by providing iPads for all teachers, which would cost $150,000 or continuing the pilot as is for another year.

“Schools have to weigh what they think is going to be more instructionally beneficial to the kids,” Vendlinski said. But, he said, “People are becoming more and more expectant that those technologies are going to be available and integrated.”

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