iPads in the Classroom and The Delusion of Progress

When I first read that LAUSD planned to spend over a billion dollars to provide iPads for students, my first reactions were

1.      Thank God I don't live in that district

2.      I've got to buy some Apple stock. (I don't think that students will benefit from the program, but Apple shareholders will)

My lack of enthusiasm for the program stems from personal experience. A few years ago, my former principal expressed interest in an iPad program for the school. I even accompanied her to an open house at a different school where visiting teachers could observe iPads being used in the classroom. On that fateful day, we watched the little children work away on their school provided iPads (it was all completely natural and un-staged, of course). Most interestingly, however, there were Apple consultants on campus, eagerly promoting the agenda.

It comes as no surprise that kids like using iPads. Everyone knows that kids like playing games on machines. It's also no surprise that so many teachers love iPads. This business is saturated with educators that follow any unproved fad in their thirst for novelty. What did impress me was that Apple scored a brilliant coup by successfully hawking its machines to schools. It is truly an ingenious marketing program by the world's largest corporation. In these small, impressionable school children Apple has found a captive market. Each grade level represents a fresh, new generation of customers.

I had to ask one of the teachers at the iPad school if there was any way of measuring the success of their program. Did standardized test scores improve as a result of using these machines? I got a blank look from the teacher, then he replied: "I don't know." At this point, a big warning flag went up in my mind.

Rather than troubling herself with such an inconvenient question, our principal immediately 'drank the kool-aid' and bought into the program. More appropriately, I should say that she compelled parents of our students to buy into program. They were the ones footing the bill.

At a parent-teacher assembly she repeated the same platitudes she heard from Apple's marketing dept. about how there was an urgent need to modernize the classroom, and how employees of the future need technological literacy, etc. etc. I couldn't help but recall the Far Side comic featuring proud parents watching their child playing a video game, while imagining the valuable career skills he is developing.

These parents trusted the principal, and bought in.

Selling the program to the parents was one thing, selling the program to faculty was another. Initially she assured teachers that it was merely a new tool for classroom enhancement. Later, however, she changed the tune, making future employment at the school contingent upon the teacher's centering the classroom around the iPad.

I'm not against technology in the classroom. I love technology! I'm using it right now to right this article! iPads have much to offer, and kids love them, and there are many ingenious learning apps available for small children. However, parents, and other tax payers should be cautioned that iPads are no panacea.

So, now our school had iPads. After three years of the program, however, I was completely underwhelmed by the results. Far too much class time was wasted because of those damn machines. My jr. high students were constantly gaming during instruction time. Routinely while perusing student work, I would see students closing a window or game just as I approached. Students constantly used devises for inappropriate communication. Frequently - during class time, principal or vice principal would come into class to confiscate student's iPads. Massive amount of time taken for faculty to examine machines for inappropriate material. The time taken away from learning was incalculable. It actually came as a relief to me when I went to a new school that did not emphasize this technology.

The iPad program is one of the reasons that my wife and I would not send our kids to the school at which I worked. We aren't infatuated by the thought of our kids spending more time in front of a screen. They get enough screen time as it is. If anything, I want them to spend less time in front of a tube.

Ultimately, the iPad program should be subjected to the 'Criteria For Success' outlined in a previous blog. Parent's shouldn't necessarily trust a starry-eyed teacher who claims: "We use iPads in the classroom, and the kids love it!" The success of a program must be measurable, and more substantial than some teacher's anecdotal observations. The question should be: "Do standardized test scores improve?" 

I'm sure the good people of Apple would answer: "Of course scores will improve". I trust the good people of Apple, but I want to be able to verify the results. This question should be answered by a series of non-biased academic studies replete with test and control groups. The final measure should be based upon standardized test scores. 

I know of no such formal study, but my own empirical evidence is that there was absolutely no measurable improvement. I taught for three years at the school after iPads were introduced. Yes, students were quite tech savvy, but academically they seemed to be worse and worse off each year. I do not have high hopes for their futures.

I have no doubt that LAUSD will declare that their expensive iPad program is an unmitigated success. I have no doubt that LAUSD will demand more tax payer money for this and other programs.  I also have no doubt that LAUSD will continue to under-perform. On a happier note: I did buy Apple stock, and it's performing quite well!