LA schools want multi-million Apple refund after kids hack iPads The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has informed Apple that it will not accept continued deliveries of iPads to students, and will be seeking a multi-million-dollar refund from the company. The Instructional Technology Initiative (ITI) – a programme estimated to have cost up to $1.3bn and which would have seen the …
My wife''s a teacher, so I get to see into some of this.
In my opinion:
- the textbook companies see a huge payday for little outlay on their part
- the schools buy into the "elecronic classroom" dream
- tears ensue when reality sets in -- typically the second or third week of semester
- websites hang under the load, textbooks with "smart content" too intense for platforms, etc.
- no way back...kids end up printing out homework pages and handing them in.
Sometimes, the old ways are best. Nothing wrong with using technology, but making it a key part of the education process is, in my opinion, a mistake.
// won't even go into the issues of kids without internet at home
A disturbing trend that I have been seeing with my daughter at university is the textbook/online token combination. This is publishers trying to kill the second hand text book market and they're not being subtle about it.
To complete a course, my daughter has to either buy a new text book which comes with an "online" token that she has to use to complete the course ($x) or get a second hand textbook and pay $(x-smallamount) for the token on its own. In other words, they're trying to make it more expensive to buy a secondhand book than to buy new.
The publishers are no longer content with fleecing students for the obscene costs of textbooks, but they're trying to strong-arm themselves into the business of running courses.
The universities should tell them to FO but of course, they're getting kick-backs from the publishers.
As an academic working in the US.... 20 years ago, the first kickback was that if you wanted to look at a book then they would all (boxes full) be given to you. 15 years ago, if you were writing a book, then the publishers really would go to town. 12 years ago, I left (with some regrets)
> Don't forget the nice professors who force their own textbook on their students and release updated editions every few years.
Some of them pretty much every year, even for subjects that are not continually updated.
It's a well-known trick for professors to mandate the latest edition so that you can't buy second hand.
Sounds about right. My usual assessment for if a particular university course is going to be utter bullshit (management, 1st year macro economics) is that the textbook is required for the exam, that there is an electronic token for some online course "extras" that serve as our practise exams without giving us access to the old papers, and that a new edition is released every 3 years or less, but there are still a page or so of corrections per chapter. They run to 60 euro+ for first year texts.
We even had a tutorial on competition and artificial market controls that was looking at the US university (sorry, college) textbook market that had the subject changed at the last minute. Not because we might be smart enough to think "hey wait, that's us too!" but because, um, stuff....
Was a shame, since it's a great example of market failure, as the person who makes the purchasing decision of which text to buy doesn't have to pay for it. Thus the usual pressures such as lower price or higher quality do not apply, but how much kickback the lecturer gets does.
Compare this to the math heavy courses where we can get the latest book (40 euro), pdf of latest book (15 euro officially), old copies (10-20 euro) and even a free online one. Course is taught and assessed in english, professor is dutch, and saw no issue with people using a text based in their own language. There's also greater demand for textbooks on things like calculus or probability theory compared to management.
Since I'm either cycling 35 km a day, or cycling 15km and walking 3km I can either hump 3 texts or put them on a tablet/phone it's a no brainer for me. I also found the free electronic textbooks (they will sell you a physical copy and exam guides) to be of better quality teaching material. The economic ones by a large margin, but that seems to be because a lot of the indoctrination crap has been dropped so you just get to see the theory.
As for the story, I hate to break it to our lovely school admins, but if you can touch it, you can own it is still true. While I'm still not sold on touch as an interface, it's great for those under 8 years old or so, but I struggle to see anyone producing much on them without using peripherals.
" won't even go into the issues of kids without internet at home"
(England)
A few months ago a neighbour's laptop was broken and she begged the loan of one of my spares. Her daughter aged 7 had to do some stage tests for her school. Apparently they had to be completed online - and the school checked the results in the same way. The daughter returned the laptop today with the news that she now had all her certificates for the various tests - and her parents have now been able to afford a replacement.
Coincidentally their next door neighbour had a similar situation before Easter. Their 12 year old had a secondary school assignment that had to be printed for submission. Luckily there were two spare laptops in my stock.
I have a dedicated wifi Access Point that can just about cover my corner of the street. It's for emergencies only. It's been useful on a few occasions for neighbours whose broadband was broken - or for people on call while visiting elderly relatives.
So let me get that right, they buy the most expensive tablets on the market and then they lock them down to run only the educational software from a single firm (probably written for the lowest-common-denominator hardware)? What a waste. Maybe they should have started a trial with some cheap Chinese tablets (currently $40).
The students unlocking the IPads sounds very reasonable. They should make that an assignment!
"...to see young children following in my, and I'm sure many others, footsteps and outfoxing the hapless IT depts of schools."
Some of the earlier generation of outfoxers may now be running the show...
http://www.pennmanor.net/techblog/1to1devices/#/5
(Part of what appears to be a small and carefully managed project based in a school with involvement from teaching staff and clever use of peer mentoring).
The Register has contacted Apple and and is awaiting a response.
Good luck el'Reg, maybe just maybe this time they will!
Back on to the story surely with the control over the hardware and ecosystem Apple could lock this down tighter than a... well tight thing.
I would like to know more about the "hacks" and why oh why did they not recover the money from the students that did not hand them back? Please don't say they were leaving that up to Apple too rather than knowing who they were handing out the expensive toys to?
> why did they not recover the money from the students that did not hand them back?
The kids lost/broke them.
Of course you could make the kids (or parents) responsible for the loss. But how would you feel if your boss made you take home an expensive piece of equipment everyday and told you that you were responsible for any loss or damage - you would tell him to stick it.
"But how would you feel if your boss made you take home an expensive piece of equipment everyday and told you that you were responsible for any loss or damage - you would tell him to stick it."
It's called being responsible. If you have the attitude of "I'm not going to take care of something because it doesn't actually belong to me", then maybe people should stop giving you stuff on their dime. Would you rather the boss say "Go buy your own laptop so you are solely responsible for it"? What if you loaned something to a neighbor, and it was lost or stolen. Would you not think the neighbor is accountable for it?
And in this case, according to the article, the kids were not forced to take them home, they were ALLOWED to take them home (at least until they were "hacked").
"the kids were not forced to take them home, they were ALLOWED to take them home"
These would be kids who are too young to enter into a legal contract. Sorry, the responsibility for the laptops remains with the last legally responsible entity who had them That is the school unless you can persuade each and every parent to take on the burden.
"These would be kids who are too young to enter into a legal contract. Sorry, the responsibility for the laptops remains with the last legally responsible entity who had them"
So given that rationale and returning to my previous scenario of a neighbor borrowing something, you'd be perfectly content if the neighbor never returned said item or conveniently lost it since you never had a legal contract between the two of you explaining the terms of the loan?
I'm not arguing from a LEGAL standpoint. I'm arguing from a responsibility stand point. There are plenty of situations where someone cannot be LEGALLY held responsible for something, but that doesn't make it right or something that should be swept under the rug.
"So given that rationale and returning to my previous scenario of a neighbor borrowing something, you'd be perfectly content if the neighbor never returned said item or conveniently lost it since you never had a legal contract between the two of you explaining the terms of the loan?"
The difference here is that the school district is mandating these devices for students in the pilot program. How happy would your "neighbor" be if you forced him to borrow some expensive item to be used by his elementary or middle-school aged child and then told him he'd be on the hook for loss/damage?
The really funny thing in all this is that we, the taxpaying public, were assured repeatedly (and I mean at every opportunity) that the loss of these iPads was not possible because they had tracking hardware and software built right in. As to the hacking, well, big shock there...
I've thought this whole program was a boondoogle from the start. The district paid practically full price for these things. It's like saying we have to get BMWs for all the drivers education programs or students won't be able learn to drive properly.
"In 2013, LAUSD administrators backtracked on their policy of allowing students to take their school-issued iPads home after kids in the pilot scheme inevitably subverted the "device management" software to free up their internet and app access."
So, the pilot program participants blew it... Pilot programs are usually a small percentage of users to gage the usability on a variety of levels. Schools usually take responsibility for pilots as they are small percentages. So in reality, the students in the pilot blew holes in the Admin's plan too - Good work! The pilot participants screwed the pooch on all counts. Been there... Don't get me started.
If it takes the LAUSD nearly 2 years to cry foul and want cash back, they are drowning and grasping at swords. Good luck against Apple's legal team!
Lets face it, LA School District handed students these iPADS and knew full well that some of them would get lost, stolen or broken.
If you put a big dirt hill (attractive nuisance) on a playground and it's known that kids use this space then it is the responsibility of the property owner to prevent the little darlings from breaking their neck while playing on the hill or remove the hill. This is why we do not have sledding hills in many places and there are notes on tickets that state that the customer uses this facility at their own risk.
In this case, the school gave the students the nuisance and the school is on the hook for them, not the student
If they were broken the kids would have been instructed to return the broken iPads so they could be evaluated for repair/exchange/spare parts. They were almost assuredly lost, as in I lost something on ebay but I wasn't too sad since I also found a few dollars on ebay at the same time.
a bad idea is enacted in California in spite of exact, reliable and consistent warnings of a big problem. Money is spent anyway while those who support the new thing ignore the concerns.
then that thing has all the exact concerns and the political animals who refused to pay heed, claim "unintended consequence" or try to blame someone else.
then those same politicians/political appointees/wannabe politicians do something else stupid, and the Circle of Jerk continues.
happens with schools, civil infrastructure, legislative action, social policy...yet somehow the individuals are never accountable. Even when the supposed "bad guys" don't even exist with enough numbers or influence to make any sort of trouble if they wanted to.
You probably know this, but we that are not in California have to remember that California is in the middle of a drought emergency for last couple of years and yet are draining down their reservoirs to the tune of trillions of gallons of water for..... wait for it..... ensuring the survival of a minnow that lives in the rivers and streams that's NOT on the endangered list.
I can see why there's large chunks of that state that want to secede and either for another state or join a bordering state. Some things go beyond the "not making any sense".
Yup.
Challenge #1: imagining that school children would play nice. Result ? FAIL.
Challenge #2: thinking that your code was resistant enough to keep children in the straight and narrow. Result ? FAIL.
Challenge #3: persuading people that not being able to use the core component of the tool (accessing educational content) is just a challenge. Result ? ABJECT FAIL.
Challenge #4: Persuading the police that you had no idea that your insufficiently tested platform was going to be such a clusterfuck. Result ? PENDING.
And, as for standing by your performance, I sure hope you will be made to. All the way to prison.
Challenge #5 expecting apple to play nice
Challenge #6 expecting apple software to actually work the way they said it would or providing some support when it doesnt
My daughters school has issued all the pupils with iPads - she sensibly wont let me play with hers but I get the impression that most useful stuff is done through the school web pages where her 1/6th the price tablet does a better job.
"Challenge #6 expecting apple software to actually work the way they said it would or providing some support when it doesnt"
Don't get me started on Apple's software QA. They still haven't fixed issues from IOS 6 days, such as changing a recurring calendar entry not updating the entry on the devices calendar but it's fine in Outlook.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4736007?start=15&tstart=0
When LAUSD bureaucrats subsequently demanded kids return the tablets, only two thirds were actually handed back.
...and they don't have records of exactly who has them? Or a signed agreement from a parent/guardian who agreed to pay for it in the event of loss / damage?
When I was at school we weren't even allowed to take TEXTBOOKS home without having signed for them, what's wrong with these people? Kids BREAK things. It's practically a defining characteristic.
When I was at school we got textbooks and tended to hand them in at the end of the year but ISTR there was some form of payment involved somewhere. Still have a copy of my Teachers version of the O'level maths course which I use to scare sixth formers (and their teachers) when arguments about grade inflation come up...
But in your day - I'm assuming that you're of a mature age like me - The textbook was actually useful, and contained correct information actually worth studying and learning - not a distracting toy to loose / break / sell / hack.
I'm not referring to current UK textbooks. I'd call them comics except I wouldn't want to get sued by the Beano.
"I'm not referring to current UK textbooks. I'd call them comics except I wouldn't want to get sued by the Beano."
In fairness, you have to remember that the authors of textbooks are bound by the syllabus they are writing the book to cover. And that syllabus can be changed by the Secretary of State for Education without any need for legislation.
The 700 page tome I recommend to my adult students seems to cover the GCSE Maths syllabus fairly well, and has some reasonably tough challenge problems in it.
Older than I look, younger than I feel ;)
Still, this was the better part of 15 years ago now, and most of our teachers then were still using rebound copies of books from 20 years earlier. Largely this was because they didn't trust the new ones to contain anything more useful than a list of examinable facts, and seemed to think it was important to teach the kids to understand the subject matter and from this exam passes would follow.
We already learned this lesson back in the '90's - it was the government's bright idea that all the students needed was shiny new computers and this would make them smart - all that resulted was a lot of money was spent, some appallingly bad 'educational' software was written, and the machines ended up just being used for internet access, but no actual learning.
Far better investment it would be to provide the kids with a hackable Raspberry Pi with some open source development tools.
All of the kids who managed to jailbreak their iPads should be rounded up and placed in magnet schools, congratulations, you've weeded out the smart and curious kids. But of course, this being American educational policy, these are the very kids that will end up in trouble, probably even prosecuted for vandalizing school property.
"machines ended up just being used for internet access, but no actual learning."
Agreed top to bottom but for the above. I learned a ton from that old mac (sans internet access). I hasten to add that it wasn't only how to avoid a TPK and hunt in Oregon Trail.
"You 'ad GOLD screens? In our day oll we 'ad wus green.
An' macs wus fer th' ritch kids."
Luxury!
We had 3 keypunch machines at the back of the class that we took turns using to punch cards that went into a batch box that got run that night at the administrative offices.
Overnight is good -- know a country that had the kids mark mark-sense BASIC cards, mail them to a central location, get the run back 1-4 weeks later.
Once a year, they would go on pilgrimage to that computer center, and get hold of real TTY terminals
No I'm not making it up ...
@G.Y. : know a country that had the kids mark mark-sense BASIC cards, mail them to a central location, get the run back 1-4 weeks later.
Once a year, they would go on pilgrimage to that computer center, and get hold of real TTY terminals
-------
That country was the UK and the year was 1974 - thats how I got my very first introduction to writing computer programs using first an assembly language-like language called "City & Guidls" and then after a while upgrading to BASIC.
The computer was Medway College of Technology's and was a hulking great big IBM monster.
Hi, A.C.:
re: "All of the kids who managed to jailbreak their iPads should be rounded up and placed in magnet schools, congratulations, you've weeded out the smart and curious kids"
If it was in fact the actual students who did the hacking, I agree (and the teachers should ask them to explain how they did it, not to be punitive but as an example for the other kids of how to approach a problem). I'm guessing, though, based on my long-ago high school experience, that only a handful of smarties actually did the work and the rest of the kids either copied the smarties' work or paid the smarties to do their work for them. Lessons all 'round.
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Ah yes. I recall "hacking" the TRS-80 system they had in my high school my senior year. I took the class thinking I'd learn something. I didn't realize that the previous year working on their test machine with the permission of my probability and statistics instructor I'd learned 95% of what they'd be teaching. So of course I was always done with the assignments (thorough REM statements included) in half the time of anybody else in the class. Some of the teachers had been fascinated by a Centipede clone released for the TRS-80. And they'd let those of us who were finished play with it on the their console. But it was binary code from a floppy and so couldn't be loaded at the work stations, only the teacher's console. Eventually they got tired of me and a few friend tying up the teacher's console. We asked if we could download it to a station. They said it wasn't possible. At which point I picked up the manual, found the appropriate commands, and downloaded it to my student station. Which in turn was worse than me hogging the teacher's station because now everybody could see what I was doing.
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