Still pining for (or waiting on) a new iPad 2? Sounds like you should be a kindergartner in Auburn, Maine. The school district there has decided to buy 285 iPads for use by students and teachers at a cost of about $200,000. Teachers using their own iPads in class had great success with students learning the alphabet where they had previously had problems. A video of the students using the tablets was shown to the school board and the decision to make the purchase followed.
The iPad program follows a successful laptop program for older students at the same district.
The price cited per tablet is just under $500 (the remaining cost being for software and insurance), so if 16GB Wi-Fi models were purchased, it doesn’t sound like there was much (or any) price break.
The plan is to run a pilot program in May, with a full implementation at the beginning of the new school year in the fall. The ultimate goal is to raise the district’s current 62-percent literacy rate to 90 percent in two years.
Check out the video below for the local news report (unless you’re on an iPad… ironically, it’s a Flash-based video… )
(via Electronista)
The future is here Dave. I have seen comments that mention the high cost of text books. Here is a device that can be tailored to the individual student and provide instant feedback. A book at this level cannot do this. The ‘Pad could follow to the 1st and 2nd grade, saving textbook money. I have a 5 yr old starting K in August. I doubt that Cupertino Unified will hand out ‘Pad’s, even if it is Apple’s hometown. (BTW, school is just down Pruneridge from the Apple Spaceship site…) Rick.