| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Los Angeles Unified School District suspends $1 billion iPad contract with Apple | | | Kelly Hodgkins, MacRumors | | | Los Angeles school district superintendent John Deasy halted the district's iPad contract with Apple in mid-rollout, reports the Los Angeles Times. The $1-billion multi-year contract would supply LAUSD students with iPads that were pre-loaded with curriculum from Pearson. More»
Why This Matters: This was and remains a truly spectacular AV-in-Education screwup—at one point the LA District Attorney considered filing charges. We are going to spend some time on this today since it is such a cautionary tale. It is interesting to note the school district is "reopening the bidding process". Maybe you can get in on it and do it right. –Cynthia Wisehart |
| | #2 | Flashback to iPad rollout Fall 2013: LAUSD halts home use of iPads for students after devices hacked | | | By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | | | Following news that students at a Los Angeles high school had hacked district-issued iPads and were using them for personal use, district officials have halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice. More»
Why This Matters: First of all, the iPads were not "hacked"—the students simply deleted their profiles so they could use the web unrestricted. Can you say "admin rights"? Maybe the district prefers to say they were "hacked" as if it were an unforseeable work of cybergenius by high school students, instead of just sloppy IT. That's not all that's sloppy about this $1 billion boondoggle. The district forgot to budget $25 million in keyboards needed for state student testing (iPads don't have keyboards?!); they failed to establish a policy for repair and replacement (parents are responsible?); and 71 iPads had are missing and presumed stolen. It's week one. We've all seen technology plans go wrong, but this is an unconscionable and unnecessary setback for tech in schools.–Cynthia Wisehart |
| | #3 | LAUSD officials had close ties with Apple execs records show | | | by Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | | | Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy and his chief deputy developed a special relationship with executives from the companies that won a key technology contract, records show, raising new questions about the bidding process in a $1-billion effort to provide a computer to every student in the nation's second-largest school system. More»
Why This Matters: This isn't just part of the LAUSD iPad scandal. We've all seen—or suspected--aspects of this technology bidding/contracting process. I wish I was more surprised. It does seem to me though that the biggest problem was not cronyism, but an underling lack of understanding about how the technology worked and would be applied. –Cynthia Wisehart |
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