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http://www.macnn.com/articles/01/05/02/how.school/

How school bought 23,000 iBooks

updated 02:35 pm EDT, Wed May 2, 2001

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Henrico County Public Schools, which took the spotlight yesterday after purchasing 23,000 new iBooks (the largest single educational purchase of laptops in history), will pay an estimated $18.4 million over the first two years for the new computers, according to c|net. Money was diverted from textbooks and paper to pay for the four-year lease.

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05/02, 02:42pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
first!

damn right! who needs outdated textbooks and paper when there are iBooks to be had! thank god someone made the right call.

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05/02, 02:55pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
second! :p

Actually, it really isn't a bad idea... gotta be cheaper to get edu content on cd and dist it across a network than to hand out dead trees to all the students. I think this will be a good test of the "digital classroom".

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05/02, 03:14pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Lease

They only leased them?

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05/02, 03:35pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
hmmmmmm

given the numbers above, that's 800 semolians per ibook.

now if it gets reported that they spent 18 million on com0uters and are cutting back on TEXTBOOKS, there's going to be a hue and cry that won't quit. Textbooks means the material that you TEACH.. which could be delivered on dead trees, or electronically. As much as a fan of this deal I am, if I was a parent in that system, I'd be screaming at this point. So I'll speculate that this is just lousy reporting.. that the district is not cutting out the content to buy the computers..

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05/02, 04:08pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
re:hmmmmmmmm

What many people don't know is that advanced schools are cutting back on textbooks in general, because the "content" they supposedly offer isn't offering students useful learning experiences. For example, how much specific content does one really remember from the hundreds of pages of history text read in high school. In comparision, how much content does one remember from a challenging history debate they prepared for and participated in (even 10 or 20 years later).

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05/02, 04:23pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
also, easier updates...

i think we have all run into textbooks back in the day when we were still in either grade, high school or undergraduate, which either had outdated information, incorrect answers, errata, or the like, and it was always up to the teachers to find them, usually by accident, and the only solution was to wait for and purchase the next "revision" of these books when it was available.

electronic format cures a lot of that, and still allows students to print out information on an as-needed basis, since reading on-screen is still slower to consume than the classic printed page.

for perspective: i was a member of one of the very first classes to try the "laptops for all" philosophy in colleges - Tulane University's BioMedical Engineering class of 1996, and, technical problems aside (they forgot to tell students it wasn't a good idea to hot-plug their scsi connectors - lots of blown/destroyed powerbook 165c's, lemme tell ya), i found it to be a great aid in all of my classes.

though mathematica running in 8 mb of ram redefines the term "slow." ;-)

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05/02, 04:26pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Leasing iBooks

Leasing the iBooks actually makes sense. First of all, the district can distribute the costs of the purchase over a four-year period, which means that the district can have the computers up front for all students instead of just a quarter of them. Second, it is probably a lease-to-own program. But, even if it wasn't, what do you think a district will want to do with 23,000 out-dated computers in 4, 5, or six years?

What I am more interested in knowing is how will they support that many computers? What does the district tech staffing look like (and do they have any openings)? Will classrooms be wired for AirPort connectivity so that every classroom becomes a computer lab with full access to the Internet? And, does every student have a district provided email account? This could be the most significant change in Education over the last 50 years.

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05/02, 06:27pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Bad Idea

Giving 23,000 notebooks to students is a bad idea. Doesn't matter whether it is a Mac or a PC, they are pissing their money away. How many functional notebooks do they expect to get back at the end of the first year? How are they going to support them? How do you get software upgrades to them?

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05/02, 06:44pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Documentation Please

I would love to the details of the discussions which led to approval of this purchase. $18,000,000 doesn't get spent without lots of input from lots of people, which includes the usual cries of "We need Pentium PCs running Windows for our 6th graders because that's what they use in the business world!" The justification behind this decision would serve as great ammo for similar debates in other districts.

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05/02, 07:59pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
$800.00 Is a great price!

I wish I could have got in on that. Easy upgrades and support! Excellent choice!!

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05/02, 07:59pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
$800.00 Is a great price!

I wish I could have got in on that. Easy upgrades and support! Excellent choice!!

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05/02, 08:18pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Re: 800 $ Price

This is not the actualy price they are paying... just what is beinge paid in the first 2 years...

That means an additional x $ will be spent in the subsequent 2 years. (since it's a 4 year lease) On top of that you need to add the interest rate.. and if Apple is beinge REALLY nice that would be equal to (or just over) inflation.. and since I doupt apple is that nice count on more like .05% per month.

So most likely each labtop will be 1100$ spread over 4 years.. and since these are probobly the models wih 128meg ram.. still a very good price!

:)

I would pay it.

Argh128

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05/02, 08:25pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Electronic textbooks

From what I have read, including the superb High Tech Heretic by Cliff Stoll, the main problem with electronic teaching is that most of the existing courseware is designed to be "fun" and lacks the rigorous factchecking and editorial control that exists in textbook production. Textbooks are also approved by state and local committees, which further refine or distort the process (your choice) and make sure the work lives up to standards and is full of real facts.

Electronic teaching aids are still rudimentary in all but certain science fields (such as math and physics) this many years after the introduction of PCs. They aren't subject to as much scrutiny. And while a textbook could be shared by students from semester to semester over many years without losing relevance or falling apart, a software product that provides any kind of electronic teaching (including simply text) is often more expensive, licensed per machine (not as a transferrable item), and requires maintenance upgrades.

it also requires a manager or several to handle licenses, installation, and troubleshooting.

As dull as some of the history texts I read in high school were - and one was from the 50s, but spelled out some authoritative thinking in certain areas of American history - I don't remember the book crashing, becoming blurry (except late at night), or being hard to read.

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05/02, 08:31pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Re: Bad Idea

How many functional notebooks do they expect to get back at the end of the first year?
iBooks are pretty rugged. The new ones also have a magnesium frame: strong and light. I think they'll do okay.
How are they going to support them?
With Multiple Users on, they can restrict the kids from playing around with crucial settings, while still giving them enough control to get a feel for how the system works. Also, it's a lease, so I'd bet the have some kind of support agreement w/ Apple or one of its contractors. Given the high profile of this announcement, I think it's fair to say that Apple will make sure that these 'Books stay working.
How do you get software upgrades to them?
Apple Network Assistant. They can set the iBooks up to check the school's server when the get to school, and it can automatically send updates around. Even system-level ones; those wouldn't take effect till reboot, of course, but it's very doable. Software upgrades shouldn't be a problem.
Just my 2�.
-Ster

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05/02, 09:54pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
The article.

From the source, the local area.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/MGBD08KF8MC.html

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05/03, 12:04am | report spam | close Reply | delete
I wonder?

What will the new iMacs will look like? I already feel all fuzzy inside. 8-)

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05/03, 01:42am | report spam | close Reply | delete
Good choice

Lucky for the kids that the adults made the decision to go with Apple and not DULL.

Not many schoolchildren like walking around with an incendiary device in their schoolbags...

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5804151.html?tag=mn_hd

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05/03, 08:25am | report spam | close Reply | delete
'Nuther Lost Generation

of illiterate tech-toy consumers. No "Think Different" poster kids here.

But the 18-mil will put some fuel in Steve's jet.

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05/03, 12:19pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Re: Electronic Textbooks

I realize that a lot of educational software is designed to be "fun" but electronic textbooks can be just multimedia textbooks. Perhaps in PDF form? Who says they have to use interactive edutainment software? It seems to me that a PDF file electronic textbook is just as good as printed textbook and in many ways better.

There is a lot that can be done with electronic textbooks before even discussing making them interactive. I am all for making them interactive as well, but only when the quality is there. I am not opposed to the "fun" edutainment software, but it is not a replacement for purely educational, informational, textbooks; fortunately electronic textbooks do not have to sacrifice quality.

Your standard textbook consists of text and graphics on paper. It should be pretty simple for a textbook publisher to just convert their layout files to PDF. Then the students can see the text and graphics on screen exactly the way they would see it on paper. If the student wanted a printed page then the student can print the page or print a whole chapter.

Using electronic textbooks like this, students can take every textbook home with them every night. No more worrying about losing textbooks or having them vandalized.

Electronic textbooks like I have described should be cheaper to publish and thus should be cheaper for schools to purchase. The data collection and layout would be pretty much the same, but it is a lot cheaper to press a bunch of CDs than it is to print and bind a bunch of books. Schools also would not necessarily have to have a separate CD for every student; they could buy a site license based on the number of students and distribute the electronic textbooks via the school network. Textbook corrections could be made on an as needed basis instead of teachers and students having to work around the errors for a few years before the school buys the next version.

Later the textbook companies could replace some photos with Quicktime video clips or sound clips. The size and scope of K-12 textbooks are somewhat limited but electronic textbooks can be expanded so that if a student or teacher wants to go into more depth then the information is their at their fingertips.

Electronic textbooks can easily be searched for specific information. Pages can be bookmarked for quick future access. Electronic textbooks can also be hyper-linked to informational websites on the Internet.

The list goes on and on regarding the benefits of electronic textbooks. I can not think of any real benefits to printed textbooks that can not be solved by the student's ability to print pages on their own printer.

Down the road if the more interactive educational software becomes more truly educational (whether or not it retains the level of edutainment fun) then schools can consider adding it to the library of titles distributed to students. For now though non-in

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05/04, 06:46pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Paper better than elec.?

Some posters on here seem to believe that the paper text books currently in use are of high quality, "rigorous factchecking and editorial control that exists in textbook production. Textbooks are also approved by state and local committees, which further refine or distort the process (your choice) and make sure the work lives up to standards and is full of real facts." as one person put it.

Wellll, this is simply not true. The texts used in everything under college level are downright horrible. The math, science, and history books are the worst, filled with all sorts of factual errors. This is because the people "reviewing" them don't have the credentials to do so, the teachers teaching the material don't have the knowledge to pick up on all the errors, and the money-focused companies publishing them have no incentive to fix them. College-level books are usually considerably better, since they're peer-reviewed by professors who teach the material.

For more information and research back-up, please see:

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05/04, 06:48pm | report spam | close Reply | delete
Paper better than elect.?

My links got wiped. Let me try again:

http://www2.ncsu.edu:80/ncsu/univ_relations/news_services/ebulletin/01_01/119/article7.htm

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/books.htm

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How school bought 23,000 iBooks

updated 02:35 pm EDT, Wed May 2, 2001

first!

second! :p

Lease

hmmmmmm

re:hmmmmmmmm

also, easier updates...

Leasing iBooks

Bad Idea

Documentation Please

$800.00 Is a great price!

$800.00 Is a great price!

Re: 800 $ Price

Electronic textbooks

Re: Bad Idea

The article.

I wonder?

Good choice

'Nuther Lost Generation

Re: Electronic Textbooks

Paper better than elec.?

Paper better than elect.?

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How school bought 23,000 iBooks

updated 02:35 pm EDT, Wed May 2, 2001

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first!

second! :p

Lease

hmmmmmm

re:hmmmmmmmm

also, easier updates...

Leasing iBooks

Bad Idea

Documentation Please

$800.00 Is a great price!

$800.00 Is a great price!

Re: 800 $ Price

Electronic textbooks

Re: Bad Idea

The article.

I wonder?

Good choice

'Nuther Lost Generation

Re: Electronic Textbooks

Paper better than elec.?

Paper better than elect.?

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