Let’s Have A One-to-One Chat
Guest post by Roberta Eidman, MPH, a Los Angeles community member.
On October 29th, the LAUSD School Board will review Superintendent John Deasy’s controversial One-to-One i-Pad initiative. Parents, teacher and press have criticized the project for its $1B price tag, use of bond funding, security glitches and absence of instructional planning. Still, Deasy is determined to forge ahead into Phase II, with no time out to learn from Phase I.
Let’s hope Deasy can present more than a plea to civil rights. He should attend a Special Common Core Technology Project Ad Hoc Committee meetingon Tuesday October 22nd, at 5:30 PM. It’s an open meeting, the public is welcome.
I wanted to learn how 1:1 projects are going in other states, so I did some research. 1:1 initiatives are key components of America’s drive toward data-driven pedagogy, standardized testing and Common Core State Standards. One-to-One has been around for a while, evolving as tech evolved. Back in the day, 1:1 meant laptops; then notebooks. Now it can be any number of handhelds from competing vendors. Devices come with proprietary apps from developers angling for a share of the immense academic marketplace.
The numbers are staggering, spurred along by NCLB and RT3 incentives. Here is balloon map of recent 1:1 i-Pad deployments (the LAUSD purchase of 600,000 units is not included). I’ve found estimates online for HP and Android deployments too.
1:1 projects are a Gold Mine for corporations. The up-front price is impressive; devices have short lives and software changes continually, so repeat orders and updates are frequent. The private sector is well served. Are students and teachers equally well served?
