The great Los Angeles iPad debacle continues this fall, with contract suspensions, admin investigations, and calls for resignations (oh my!) If you haven’t been following the story, I’ll point you to latimes.com for all the ugly details, but let’s just say the whole affair continues to stink, especially for the students.
If you want to get past the politics, backroom shenanigans, and varieties of false outrage, you can dig into our LA coverage, in which we try to focus on the district’s actual implementation strategies, which are informative for any educator. LAUSD CIO Ron Chandler was selected as one of our most influential people in our June issue (http://bit.ly/1kEC4h8). Chandler has also spoken with refreshing candor about his district’s issues at several Tech & Learning events, including California Tech Forum, which you can watch in full at our Livestream channel archive (http://bit.ly/1wnyBa2).
Ultimately, students in LA need and deserve the same basic provisions that the schools detailed in our cover story (Mixing It Up) receive: Instruction from teachers informed with data, access to and guidance on using the Internet, and the opportunity to use technology tools—be they iPads, tablets, or laptops of any stripe—that will be essential to their future successes. To steal a quote from John Rice, manager of blended learning at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS): “If we want students to be college and career ready, our classrooms need to look like those classrooms.” As always, I want to hear your thoughts. You can email me at khogan@nbmedia.com or leave us comments at techlearning.com. Thanks for reading!
— Kevin Hogan
Content Director
khogan@nbmedia.com
