The Los Angeles Board of Education is already heavily invested into iPads and now it has announced plans to expand its distribution of iPads to 38 more campuses before state testing begins this spring. The tablets will be given to students, teachers, and administrative staff. Aside from that, the Unified School District is also going to equip seven high schools with laptops.
The total for the new proposal should cost taxpayers and the District $115 million. The number of iPads the District can buy for testing is unlimited, but the Board expects to keep the number under 67,500, because during the testing phase, iPads will be shared by classes for six weeks.
Right now, each iPad costs the District $768, and that fee includes not just the hardware but apps and support. Officials are trying to negotiate the fee down by $200 or $300, though, for devices used only in testing. Apple, on their side of things, has agreed to loosen another term of the contract, which locked the District into buying older iPads, so instead they will now provide the latest hardware.
The program has been controversial. Some think that tablets aren’t necessary in the first place. Also the program quickly went over-budget.
Source Electronista
Filed Under: Apple