RSSGeorgia County Outfits Students with iBooks
By David Worthington | Published May 2, 2005, 6:14 PM
The time-honored tradition of a teacher with an Apple on their desk has met the 21st century in Cobb County, Georgia. The Cobb County School District has given the go ahead to procure up to 63,000 iBooks for teachers and students in a largest ever one-to-one computer learning initiative called "Power To Learn."
The first phase will begin as a pilot program this fall with the deployment of 17,000 iBook G4 laptop computers at four high schools. With continued school board approval, the program will be extended to all Cobb County high school and middle school students. All teachers K-12 will be provided with the laptops.
The iBooks will come preloaded with iLife software, Microsoft Office, World Book Encyclopedia, and a graphing calculator. The school district will lease the laptops at a cost of $350 USD per computer/per year, with a gross average of $5.9 million being spent per year.
Once considered to be a venerable piece of classroom technology, Apple is battling to win back the confidence of school districts. Last week, the school board of Henrico County Virginia Public Schools dropped the company’s one-to-one laptop program in favor of a contract with Dell.
An evaluation committee consisting of nine of teachers, principals and administrators voted to recommend Dell's proposal, which was $4 million less expensive than continuing a pre-existing pilot program with Apple. "I think it says a lot that the committee's recommendation was 9-0 and the board's vote was 5-0," said Superintendent Fred S. Morton IV. "Unanimous decisions are pretty unusual."
"This is a great opportunity for us to provide our teachers the best teaching tools available. At the same time, we're going to test the concept of letting the students use those tools as well, all in a wireless environment where they will have access to information anytime and anyplace," said school board Chair Kathie Johnstone.
Instructional support will be initially provided by an Apple Project Management Team; a local repair facility will address technical issues and repairs. A surplus of computers will be on hand to ensure that each and every student has their own unit even while repairs are being made.
The county will operate a "Learning Development Center" with dedicated staff development specialists to train school district personnel to manage the program's logistics.
Power to Learn is paid for with funds from the $697 million SPLOST program. Other initiatives include district-wide persistent wireless Internet access. The program's effectiveness will be monitored by of Georgia's Learning & Performance Support Laboratory.
"I firmly believe that this is the best use of our technology dollars to prepare our students to be competitive in the 21st Century economy," said Johnstone.
More information is available from the school district's Web site.
4 Million... that's alot of money to pass up...
Most of the time all you hear is that teachers need a raise...
take the dell deal and give yourselves a 4 million dollar raise ;-)
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|If the teachers cannot learn what they need to teach today's school kids, then they should not be teachers.
Computers are a part of life - being able to use one is becoming as much a life skill and career skill as being able to do maths. I know my computer skills are far more relevant for my job than most of the things I learned about sciences, mathematics, etc at school.
True, the focus earlier in learning should be the basics of reading and writing: yet used properly, the computer can be a much better tool for this than anything else. With appropriate software, it can carry on teaching a student at home, in ways a book never can.
Don't be so quick to discount them as a useless toy. Even a relative of mine (aged 54) sucessfully uses PCs in her school to further her kids education. This is in a special developmental school (not sure what you call them in the States) where student IQs are no more than 50.
Think about it.
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|Isn't Cobb County the one that put the stickers in biology textbooks saying that evolution is a theory and not a fact?
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|When will HP/Dell/PC Vendor Whoever wakeup and give all these kids new Tablet PC's running Windows Tablet. That would go a long way to ensuring adoption in the near future... esp. giving them to students in 8th+ grade. This is why Apple hangs on in the laptop/desktop market even though they churn out an inferior proprietary product.
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|inferior how exactly? they have the most attractive intuitive and functional desktop / workstation OS i've ever used. i guess ignorance is bliss.
long live crashing hard drives and teal desktops!
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|Inferior...? Care to back that up, or are we just bashing away at Apple again for the hell of it?
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|roflmao!
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|Proprietary? Yes, they're picky about what you can do sometimes (but not as bad as some people think--and, yes, you can install your own RAM), but we're dealing with laptops and tablets here. In this case, I wouldn't say that PCs aren't proprietary.
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|that's because it is JUST a theory. there hasn't been any factual evidence to establish that evolution is fact and not a theory.
Even Darwin, who authored the hypothosis was a creationist. This hasn't been proven fact yet.
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|Yep, and gravity is JUST a theory too. Just so happens that evolution has NO competitor that stands up to scientific criticism (regardless of what anyone will say, intelligent design and creationism are not valid scientific theories). But to answer the OP, yes, Cobb County is the county where they put stickers on the biology textbooks... thankfully the courts told them to remove them and restored some sanity to the classroom...
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|I also was a teacher for 8 years. What makes a school district, or the nation for that matter, think that students and teachers are going to learn more or better with a laptop that is filled with Adware and Spyware. How can iBooks help if the majority of students have trouble with comprehension and are reluctant readers.
Most older teachers can't handle the technology and therefore it collects dust in the classroom. I know many teachers, and they have a hard time using calculators and overhead projectors. Some of these older teachers don't even have te desire to learn the new technology rather than try to incorporate it into their lesson plans. Plans that were orginally developed when they started teaching and now they are just shuffling papers.
Don't judge me, I know there are a number of great teachers out there and these are the ones that will use the technology and use it well, but it pains me to see that this story is even news. Dell and Apple are battling for market shares and they are attacking schools. Schools are way behind in technology and in their use of it, but throwing laptops at a district is not the answer. Our schools are failing because students are not learning the basics and are exiting without the skills required. Most students, parents, and teachers don't care either.
IMO . . . from what I have seen(because we had used a similar program in my district)this will in no way benefit most of the students. Computers are viewed as a toy. Most teachers will only use it for email or downloading of pictures, and this is because they don't have a computer, or have an aging one at home.
What about class size, aging books, old buildings, and safe surroundings? These are only some of the areas that need to be addressed - before laptops and football fields. . . and I realize I need to shut up.
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|"What makes a school district, or the nation for that matter, think that students and teachers are going to learn more or better with a laptop that is filled with Adware and Spyware."
The iBooks will come preloaded with iLife software, Microsoft Office, World Book Encyclopedia, and a graphing calculator.
Mac's don't have the spyware problems pc's have. No where in this article does it say they're installing spyware. I can't think of a single app thats installed spyware on my mac... ever.
"Most older teachers can't handle the technology and therefore it collects dust in the classroom."
Most schools rooms aren't taught by 60-80 yr olds with walkers. They're taught by 25-40 yr olds who are well educated and know something about learning. Children always have the desire to learn, and regardless of whether they have a good teacher or not they should be afforded the opportunity to learn as such.
I find that most of your post takes a back seat to anything positive. If I had a computer in high school I can only imagine how much better I could have done, but then who needs digital organizers, calendars, and learning tools when you've got pills and shrinks to fix it all.
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|How ignorant are you. Dell, eMachine, Mac, Gateway, HP . . . All come with preinstalled spyware and adware on them. Maybe you need to take a look at the machines the next time you can.
"Most schools rooms aren't taught by 60-80 yr olds with walkers. They're taught by 25-40 yr olds who are well educated and know something about learning. Children always have the desire to learn, and regardless of whether they have a good teacher or not they should be afforded the opportunity to learn as such."
You need to look a bit harder at the subject you are talking about. As I have said, for eight years I was in this system. I have taught all grades k-12 and the similarity among them all is a general lack of school interest. Though there are always exceptions to the rule, I am speaking generally. And I never said 60-80yr olds, I am talking about the 30-40-50 year olds.
And your comment "I find that most of your post takes a back seat to anything positive. If I had a computer in high school I can only imagine how much better I could have done, but then who needs digital organizers, calendars, and learning tools when you've got pills and shrinks to fix it all."(CONTRADICTION)
Just summed up your total thought process. Even you think that a laptop can help you. If it could, buy one quick, your mind is slipping backwards.
What background do you have?
And finally, there is not one comment on this entire site that is truly positive. Try reading some of your own post. Everyone is entitled to do that. I am not sure if you know that it is our first ammendment right. Perhaps you missed that in school along with the laptop.
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|College educator, mac user, pc user, laptop user, entrepreneur, web programmer, applications programmer, database admin, system administrator...
flame on, ignorant flamer
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|Who slept with who or paid who to get this deal?
And by procure do they mean 'buy' at discount? 'get' free? or purchase at retail because lemme' tell you - I'd be firing someone for this....
Considering any underpowered ibook is at least a grand more than a fully powered Intel/AMD notebook, I'd investigate this ---- that is only, ofcourse - if these were to be purchased retail. If Apple gave them away or GROSSLY discounted them, moreso than say, Dell/IBM/Gateway/etc. would, then it's perfectly understandable. At the basic level (office suite/calculator/etc.) and ibook is the same as it's counterpart.
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|Now add into that the cost of support...
Apples have by far a lower TCO than PCs, simply because Apple isn't guessing what hardware it needs to be compatible with.
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|"Power to Learn is paid for with funds from the $697 million SPLOST program. Other initiatives include district-wide persistent wireless Internet access. The program's effectiveness will be monitored by of Georgia's Learning & Performance Support Laboratory."
REad the whole thing before posting, eh?
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|What happens when they get out into the real world and find mostly PCs?
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|What a ridiculous argument that one has ALWAYS been. The basic applications for schooling - Office, for example - is are basically the same on either platform. The only difference between the two is how you launch the programs, and you'd be foolish to think school leavers wouldn't have the aptitude to learn how to do that.
Just because something is in the majority, doesn't make it the best choice. It's that kind of attitude that would see monopolies all over the world: stifling innovation.
Apologies if I've offended, but I've heard that stupid argument far too many times.
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|As someone who has been a high school teacher for the last 8 years, let me tell you that 'leaving' and 'aptitude' have very little to do with each other these days!
Oh, and they tried something like this in a county in Florida. They actually GAVE the students the laptops and something like 75% of the laptops wound up in pawn shops. LOL. Or not-LOL.
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|And just because something is a monopoly doesn't mean it's not the best.
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|Yea, that was in my school district, Broward County. Infact, my school was the one will all the problems. There were many laptops stolen, but no where near 75%, more like about 100 laptops. And right now there are a lot of problems with students not giving the laptops back to the school, as the school is collecting them to end the year. 2 students have already been arrested for not returning their laptops.
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|True. But just because it's a monopoly doesn't mean you should buy into it, either.
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|Lol... Sounds like mac got a monopoly on this school district...
:-)
I think they should let the parents, teachers and students decide for themselves... and give them a list of options...
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|They 'give' laptops in the States? Students pay for them here, usually on a lease agreement, with a balloon payment at the end (just like car financing). Never heard of someone walking away with one without paying!
I think laptops in schools are a great learning tool: if the teachers know how to use them, as much as the students. Typically though, most do not; and the students are leagues ahead in their understanding of computers. Schemes like this really need to consider staff training as well - not just blanketing the schools with hardware.
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|The best bet against these laptops ending up in pawn shops, and the like, is to use NCs instead of full PCs. These type of systems are only powerful enough to access the net where much of its operating system and storage is located on the school's servers. They could also be "branded" as well with a message on the top saying that it is a criminal offense to own one outside of its stated purpose.
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|they make a sound like this...
GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHH .... AAAAAARGGGGGGGGG WWWWWWHHHHHHYYYYYYY!!!!!
then they double click, reboot, and ctrl alt delete just like the rest of the herd.
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|Bad idea. How are they going to support this system if each student/teacher has a different platform? It'd be unworkable.
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|lmao.
Yeah, give kids something they can sell for wads of cash. Good idea. Who was the super of that district? Looking for a job, I hope? Got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard.
Each laptop should have gone out with a packet of documentaion stating, very clearly, that these laptops were not the property of the student, and in big, bold letters stating the fines, including cost, in retail, of the laptop that would be levied if the laptop was not returned with all it components, regardless of loss/theft.
The other alternative, leasing them to the students, would only be workable in a white-collar district. This alternative would completely flop in a low-rent / inner-city district where most families are getting by paycheck-to-paycheck.
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|leasing won't work in the US. Income is so wildly varied, even within districts, that there would always be kids unable to afford to lease. this would only serve to widen the social / intellectual / income gaps, not close them.
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|Or they giggle and gufaww at all us PC users and become the next generation of Mac elite....stealing all our high-end, high-paying graphics and advertising jobs.
...b@stards.
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|What? They're going to move to India?
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|There are also loans one can get that they don't have to pay back. It is worth the investment because it is a child's future.
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|True. The same problem exists here, but laptop programs are only introduced in schools where a significant majority (90%) can afford to pay such a lease. Those who can't are offered other viable alternatives (second-hands, different lease terms, etc).
For those schools whose students cannot afford laptops, State & Government money is used to fund desktop PCs instead.
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|Maybe because in the end every computer can make text documents in one common format...
mac,linux,xp all support microsofts word format they just use diffrent word processors.
web browsers use pretty much the same protocols...
in the end everything can be compatible with each other.
you really ask me why kids need computers...I have NO idea... and neither do alotta people when it comes down to it...
yes you need computer knowledge to be able to work in the 21st century...
but still... my mom was able to run a pc after a little training... not a lifetime of growing up with technology
There is a diffrence between kids who have real interest in technology...and the kid who just looks up crap and listens to music and chats with their friends.
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