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L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

latimes.com

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Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#51

Post by keithpeter »

tomswartz07 wrote: post #39
keithpeter wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent project. I especially liked slide 5 of your presentation... http://www.pennmanor.net/techblog/1to1devices/#/5 I'm wondering what materials the students are working with. I'm hoping it isn't some kind of holistic purchased package as per the OA.

Thanks! The project launched last year with the High School, and this coming school year we will be expanding to the Middle Schools. It was genuinely exciting to see the students helping their peers. It's almost all stock Ubuntu, Google Apps for Education, and a few other tools thrown in. We aim for Open Source where we can.

By 'materials' I meant what the (entirely mythical) Mrs Scroggins uses with class 3P at 10:30 am on Tuesdays when they are learning to solve one degree linear equations.

I'd imagine that Mrs Scroggins continues to use her trusty textbooks for routine skills development, perhaps with a few Khan academy resources, some mathpapa demos and, perhaps, a group exercise where students work together in Google Apps to document their steps in solving some bobbydazzlers.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#52

Post by smackfu »

pyvpx wrote: post #4

I want to know more about the 800MM on "improving" Internet access. that seems absurdly high, even for one of the top three school districts in the nation (by size)

It's not really Internet access, it's wifi. And wifi for a one-to-one deployment in existing schools gets pretty involved and expensive if you are doing it right.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#53

Post by dinergy »

pyvpx wrote: post #4

I want to know more about the 800MM on "improving" Internet access. that seems absurdly high, even for one of the top three school districts in the nation (by size)

Not really given size. We're a tiny district Consider LA has 600K+ students across the district, multiple facilities, and tens of thousands of staff I would say that is on the low end of infrastructure costs.

Our four site WAN runs > 30K/year, 100Mbps circuit is 24K, we're already at ~60K/y in operating costs.

It is easy to see how 800mil on infrastructure is probably not enough.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#54

Post by shams93 »

The thing is no one is going to rob a kid for a $150 chromebook, some parts of LA are not so friendly and a kid walking home with $1000 in hardware is not just in danger of losing the ipad but of being injured or killed in the robbery. Ultimately chromeos does a much better job, and gives kids a platform to learn javascript which is the language of the future anyways. Nobody is going to risk prison for a chromebook but robbery for apple gear is not uncommon.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#55

Post by harperlee »

jimktrains2 wrote: post #45
jimhefferon wrote: post #19

Public discussion of education is always hampered by the fact that people not professionals in it have no sense of how complicated it is. Some students are genuises, some are cognitively low. Some students have personality disorders. Some students will soak up everything they see. Others don't care. Some students need to be a medical treatments at various times during the week. Some pray five times a day. Some are so…

> Public discussion of education is always hampered by the fact that people not professionals in it have no sense of how complicated it is. My friend's a teacher and the stories she tells me give me a glimpse into it. She's been in an intercity school for about 3 years now and so far, yearly: * 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school * 10+ of her students will be in jail or in juve…

> 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school

I honestly don't understand how can the united states live with that level of violence, seeing by themselves that they are the exception in the first world.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#56

Post by tomswartz07 »

keithpeter wrote: post #51
tomswartz07 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! The project launched last year with the High School, and this coming school year we will be expanding to the Middle Schools. It was genuinely exciting to see the students helping their peers. It's almost all stock Ubuntu, Google Apps for Education, and a few other tools thrown in. We aim for Open Source where we can.

By 'materials' I meant what the (entirely mythical) Mrs Scroggins uses with class 3P at 10:30 am on Tuesdays when they are learning to solve one degree linear equations. I'd imagine that Mrs Scroggins continues to use her trusty textbooks for routine skills development, perhaps with a few Khan academy resources, some mathpapa demos and, perhaps, a group exercise where students work together in Google Apps to document…

Ah- I misunderstood.

I do not frequent the High School (I'm stationed at the Middle School levels), but from what I understand it's pretty much exactly as you've described.

The traditional books are used, but then supplemented with at-your-own-pace videos and online activities and projects.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#57

Post by tomswartz07 »

harperlee wrote: post #55
jimktrains2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Public discussion of education is always hampered by the fact that people not professionals in it have no sense of how complicated it is. My friend's a teacher and the stories she tells me give me a glimpse into it. She's been in an intercity school for about 3 years now and so far, yearly: * 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school * 10+ of her students will be in jail or in juve…

> 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school I honestly don't understand how can the united states live with that level of violence, seeing by themselves that they are the exception in the first world.

The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that there is one.

I'm just as surprised as you are with these anecdotal observations, but I agree- there is a lot to be done to fix the issues, not the symptoms.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#58

Post by jimktrains2 »

harperlee wrote: post #55
jimktrains2 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Public discussion of education is always hampered by the fact that people not professionals in it have no sense of how complicated it is. My friend's a teacher and the stories she tells me give me a glimpse into it. She's been in an intercity school for about 3 years now and so far, yearly: * 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school * 10+ of her students will be in jail or in juve…

> 3-4 of her students will be shot dead within a mile of their home or school I honestly don't understand how can the united states live with that level of violence, seeing by themselves that they are the exception in the first world.

> I honestly don't understand how can the united states live with that level of violence

Because the people on this forum and the US in general, I would venture to guess, don't live in poor, gang-riddled communities and hence don't see this level violence daily.

I live in the same city and I've never seen it happen, only hear on the news and through people's discussions, because I don't _live_ in the parts she teaches in.

What's doubly sad is our crime rate has been going down since the 80s and 90s and is fairly low among cities our size (Pittsburgh).

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#59

Post by learnstats2 »

ams6110 wrote: post #34
jimhefferon wrote: post #19

Public discussion of education is always hampered by the fact that people not professionals in it have no sense of how complicated it is. Some students are genuises, some are cognitively low. Some students have personality disorders. Some students will soak up everything they see. Others don't care. Some students need to be a medical treatments at various times during the week. Some pray five times a day. Some are so…

Are you an education professional? I'm not, but I wonder why we don't go back to the model of segregating students by ability/need. It seems like the trend today is to "mainstream" everyone into a common classroom, so you have high achievers, low ability, as well as genuinely abnormal (mentally retarded, severe behavorial problems, etc.) all together. I see no way that can be effective for any of them because you wil…

I am a teacher. Every child has individual needs that cannot necessarily be simply classified.

Schools (and teachers) do account for this as much as they are able to, but having 30 children in the same classroom is more cost-effective than having real provision for individuals.

Re: L.A. school district ditches iPad curriculum

#60

Post by bitdestroyer »

learnstats2 wrote: post #59
ams6110 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an education professional? I'm not, but I wonder why we don't go back to the model of segregating students by ability/need. It seems like the trend today is to "mainstream" everyone into a common classroom, so you have high achievers, low ability, as well as genuinely abnormal (mentally retarded, severe behavorial problems, etc.) all together. I see no way that can be effective for any of them because you wil…

I am a teacher. Every child has individual needs that cannot necessarily be simply classified. Schools (and teachers) do account for this as much as they are able to, but having 30 children in the same classroom is more cost-effective than having real provision for individuals.

Hence the push for differentiated instruction within classrooms, which I'm sure you're intimately aware of being a teacher. My understanding from my wife, who is also a teacher, is that it can be a pain for a lot of teachers but seems to offer some promise if an instructor can successfully integrate it into the learning process. There's obviously a lot of debate around this subject since teachers are asked to do so much already, but figured it's worth mentioning.
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