[LINK] Apple iPads for Victorian School Students

[Tom Worthington]

Premier John Brumby has announced 500 Apple iPads will be issued in a
trial to students at eight Victorian government schools:
<http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content/article/10578.html>.

At $AU629 each for the iPads, by the time support costs are added, I
estimate the trail will cost $1M. It is not clear what such a trial
would accomplish, or if there will also be an investment in educational
content and training for teachers to be able to use the iPads.

A few minutes trying an iPad was enough to tell me it was inferior to
cheaper netbook for education. In contrast to Victoria, the NSW
government is issuing 10,000 netbooks per week to schools, as well as
employing support staff:
<http://www.nsw.gov.au/news/2010-student-laptop-rollout>.

The NSW Government has a superior strategy, more likely to deliver
educational benefits than diverting resources to a trial of a few
hundred tablet computers.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/user/3890