

LA Schools demand refund for iPads - ericssmith
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ipad-curriculum-refund-20150415-story.html#page=1

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MCRed
This was posted yesterday, and variations of it have been posted regularly
over the last year. (just search "schools" and "iPad" in the search box at the
bottom.)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385738](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385738)

Seemingly always with the misleading headline implying there's something wrong
with the iPad, when apparently the issue is with the publisher of content.

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hamitron
well right... I mean had it been a samsung tablet, there would be no problems
whatsoever!

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billiam
The district rushed to single source the deal so it could get curriculum and
hardware for a single price, all to be paid for by your grandkids (school
construction bonds), who won't be voting for a long time. The curriculum
sucked. How exactly is that Apple's fault?

~~~
wongarsu
I don't even get the impression that the curriculum itself sucked, it sounds
like buggy software and unstable infrastructure.

"Any given class typically experiences one problem or more daily. Teachers
report that the students enjoy the interactive content — when it’s available."

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qsymmachus

      And this week, the school board took a step to replace 
      some of the online materials: It authorized the purchase 
      of new math textbooks. 
    

This summarizes the problem nicely – it's not clear (at least to me) what
advantage digital curriculum has over textbooks. There are a lot of pie-in-
the-sky promises when it comes to the intersection of technology and education
that don't really hold up in practice.

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honksillet
The blame should be placed first and foremost on politicians and bureaucrats
who made terrible decisions with taxpayer money.

That being said, Pearson is an company that exists almost entirely on rent
seeking and lobbying. If they can be taken down in the aftermath of this
fiasco, all the better.

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chrisbolt
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385738](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9385738)

