Funding+Concern

Funding for ipads is a particularly interesting topic because everyone knows apple products are expensive yet they sold more than 1 million the weekend they were released. Where do schools get the money to purchase such expensive hardware? There are many answers to this question and it has been addressed by schools across the nation.

For example, in Arlington, Virginia, there was a grant made available entitled, "Governor's Productivity Investment Fund grant," and it allowed eight schools in four districts within Arlington Virginia to purchase and implement ipad usage in social studies classrooms. The aim is for all students to have anytime/anywhere access to appropriate tools within the next two years. Pat Teske, the instructional and innovative technologies supervisor, said, "the selling points of the iPads include less cost than a laptop, the ability to work with them outside and the nine-hour battery life. “Our kids take great care of them because they don’t want to be without them (EER District Spotlight, 2).”

Another example is the Clark County School District. They've creatively used funds that were initially given to the school district for construction projects in 1998. They've been allowed to reallocate the money to their technology fund and have successfully implemented over $33 million dollars worth of technology in their 356 schools that service 330,000 students (Takahashi, 10).

One article, by Neal Colgrass, says, "Textbooks are 'pretty much outdated the minute they're printed and certainly by the time they're delivered,' says one principal. Among other benefits: iPads can be less expensive than a year's supply of textbooks; kids are already used to flicking through electronic pages; easy note-taking, educational videos, and click-of-a-button homework submission. (And yes, many school iPads will have filters to keep students off certain websites.) As for textbook publishers—which rack up $5.5 billion in annual sales to high schools—they're already producing downloadable iPad versions and trying to figure out which school subjects are likely to go all-digital in the future." Another interesting view for buying ipads rather than textbooks.

Please continue to our next page, Potential Impact on Student Achievement