A
growing number of K-12 school districts, anxious to save money while preparing
students for 21st-century work, are purchasing iPads in lieu of print textbooks
and sometimes instead of desktop computers. Districts view the tablets as more
budget-friendly than computers and more versatile than books for class use.
Across
the U.S., there are tales such as this one in Seattle where the district
decided all 181 middle-school youngsters should bring their own iPads to class
this year. Students who couldn’t afford to buy one could borrow from a pool of
100 tablets bought with funds originally designated to replace several
computers.
According
to an investors’ report cited by C/Net, PC sales to the K-12 market are
dwindling at about the same rate as K-12 iPad sales are rising, indicating
schools are switching to tablets. They’re not just buying iPads, either.
Kuno,
a tablet created specifically for K-12 use by the CurriculumLoft company, is
among the Android gadgets competing head-to-head with the iPad for school
sales. Business2Community says Kuno is attractive to district decision-makers
because its base model costs 25% less than an iPad and it comes with built-in
filters to protect kids from accidentally (or intentionally) accessing web
content they shouldn’t.
Samsung
is also working with Memphis, TN, schools on a new tablet system geared to K-12
grades. Each tablet comes with a stylus that lets students hand-write notes,
which can be converted to type and saved.
Why
are tablets getting all the attention from school districts and not e-readers
such as the Kindle or the Nook, given their lower price point? In the view of
Good E-Reader blogger Michael Kozlowski, it’s mainly because most e-readers lack
text-to-speech software for vision-impaired pupils and can be more cumbersome
to use.
