Re: [school-discuss] The painful transition to digital learning.

[LM <lmemsm@xxxxxxxxx>]

It concerns me when they mentioned IPads in the article.  They got a
grant in our District to get a bunch of IPads.  Now they're trying to
use them with systems that weren't designed for them.  Even if someone
gets a bunch of computers for free, there's still the cost of
infrastructure to work with them to consider.  Instead of getting the
best equipment for the job and using software as it was intended and
designed to be used or software that can be customized and adapted for
specific needs, the choice seems to be to get what's most popular.
What's popular isn't always what's best.  As mentioned in the article,
it brings in issues of privacy, but it also brings in issues with lack
of customization.  It's very difficult to install whatever software
you want on an IPad.  You need to use Apple's app store and they
control what's available from there.  I guess what concerns me most is
that we're moving from being computer users and developers to merely
consumers.  People aren't so much interested in how their computers
work and how to program them as they are in how to play with the
latest app.  A lot of the jobs for programming have been outsourced to
other countries too.  Can you imagine what could happen with software
that's critical to our national security being written completely by
some other country?   ...And if you think someone in the US goes over
the code with a fine tooth comb after it's brought here, think again.
I think it's great if we use technology to help advance things and
improve our way of life.  However, I'm not thrilled about the idea of
merely becoming consumers and having no control, choice or accounting
of what we consume.  More and more, we simply seem to buy things
because we're keeping up with the Jones's instead of truly seeing
benefits from the change.  Companies are going to change software,
interfaces, hardware all the time.  That's how they make a profit, by
getting you to buy new things.  That doesn't mean that because the
technology has changed and something else is now the new in thing that
it's necessarily a technological improvement.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 2:35 AM, Bill Ries-Knight <steelhoof@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A tale of woe for Huntsville Alabama as they take a partly planned leap into
> 100 digital computer learning...
> http://whnt.com/2012/09/12/taking-action-special-report-tech-trouble/#ooid=pwMGR2NTpuElY5U1_RXOSyosUzQ_8AEe
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