iPads: a Fad -- Union Chief, Southern California -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

I wasn't going to post this story.

I saw the front page headline on a newspaper yesterday while riding my bike along the Pacific coast, south Los Angeles. I changed my mind (about posting this story) when I overheard a young girl at Starbucks this morning-- she appeared to be six years old, first grade, or maybe as old as eight years old, third grade, carrying her iPad (without a cover) and telling her friend she also had something "... with16 gigabytes." I just heard the last part; I did not catch to what she was referring.

So, I thought it interesting to read that one educator in Manhattan Beach, California, felt it was a mistake [same link as above] to be providing iPads for middle school students in his/her district.

At Manhattan Beach Middle School this fall, the iPad will be as ubiquitous as the old-fashioned spiral notebook.

That's because the school is the first in the South Bay - and the latest among a small but growing group of schools statewide - to adopt a one-iPad-per-student model.

Administrators and some teachers tout the one-to-one model as a bold leap into the future - one that embraces a more interactive approach to learning, as well as takes a step toward eliminating the need for paper and possibly even backpacks.

But the leader of the teachers union is not nearly as enthusiastic, saying the district is pouring a lot of money into a fad, when teachers haven't received a raise in years. And a teacher survey indicates teachers are divided on the program.

It's hard to believe that this is the first school in the South Bay that will be using this model. But I digress.

I didn't this last year, but until recently I had been substituting for a middle school and a high school in San Antonio, Texas. The juniors and seniors were provided net tops two years ago for the first time, and it is my understanding that the school will move to iPads this next year (maybe they already have them) (due to the cost savings, ease of use, downloadable books, and apps).

So, while the city of San Francisco will ban Apple computers (and I assume iPads), the rest of the country moves on. And, again, I digress.

It is incredible how heavy the backpacks are that middle school students are carrying these days, and with all that weight, they are limited to a dozen books. With an iPad, the weight is nominal and the books (many of them free) are literally limitless.

The iPad won't eliminate teachers. Quite the contrary: iPads may save jobs. There is a huge cost savings when a school district switches to the tablet rather than the computer. Fewer IT personnel are needed to manage a tablet-centric system; there are no new operating systems to purchase or to load; no programs to load from a floppy; risk of viruses are minimized; the list goes on.

If I were teaching on a full-time basis, I would assign one or two students in each class to be responsible for managing the iPad calendar and lesson plans for the students. In fact, my hunch is that there will be many volunteers, just as there were volunteers to erase the "chalk" board at the end of the day when I was in school.