iPads for Waltham students – What’s ahead?

Last July “Waltham Public Schools teachers and administrators rejoiced after the School Committee and City Council recently approved a new initiative to integrate iPads into everyday learning….  The initiative has an initial cost of $383,400 as each iPad, sold with a case and keyboard, costs about $600… Other costs include a storing and charging station for iPads called “iPad carts,” and laptops that would be provided for 113 middle school teachers. A portion of that cost will come out of the schools’ operating budget and the City Council approved a series of changes to the schools’ Capital Improvement Plan to cover some of the other costs…. Nicholson said there were some kinks and issues the one-to-one team would need to review in the upcoming months. Some of the concerns include iPad insurance coverage, annual budgeting and security.” (http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/news/x853681404/iPads-for-all-Waltham-officials-approve-technology-initiative?zc_p=0 , http://www.walthampublicschools.org/1to1Learning.pdf

Sure sounds great, except for those last nagging details about “annual budgeting and security”. Wonderful as this concept may be, where is the 5-year financial plan describing where the implied millions of dollars are going to come from? In particular it would be great to hear from city councilors who excel at pointing to the lack of “city planning”; Tom Stanley & Bob Logan, how could you possibly approve this without at least a 5-year plan? Any comments from the Waltham Finance committee, school committee or council members?

Check out how initiatives like this have been working out in Los Angeles: “It took just a week for nearly 300 students who got iPads from their Los Angeles high school to figure out how to alter the security settings so they could surf the Web and access social media sites, prompting district officials to halt a $1 billion program aimed at putting the devices in the hands of every student in the nation’s second-largest school system.” (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/26/did-the-los-angeles-school-system-really-not-see-this-coming-when-they-handed-out-free-ipads-to-high-schoolers/).

For the record, I always admire and support our educators for their dedication as individuals. In the short-term, it is up to each one of us to carefully select who to vote for. (Hint: I’m for new faces on both the school committee and city council ;-)