Let’s face it: iPads are fun. They’re small, portable and have bright screens and tactile feedback. However, they really aren’t more than that — toys.
Paying for apps presents another obstacle. In the past CPS had a policy of keeping installed programs uniform across all desktops in school. It is unclear whether this policy will continue once iPads are in the hands of students, but it is not currently in place.
This raises troubling questions: are teachers responsible for paying for all their Apps using already strapped classroom funds? Are teachers responsible for students’ iPads? Should iPads have uniformity in installed Apps? Even if the school can acquire the necessary Apps, iPads are almost criminally fragile, and also very valuable, and those two things combined will lead to many iPads MIA at the end of every year.
Considering the fast moving pace of technology and the consumer-oriented nature of the Appstore, it may not be
long before both the hardware and the software on iPads becomes obsolete.
Advantages of a desktop computer compared to an iPad include its longer lifespan compared to a tablet or laptop; cheap parts are available, and the basic components have been the same since PCs hit the market in the 1980’s. Because Windows has such a large corporate installbase, it has to be backward compatible to pander to corporation’s needs. Apps will cater to new hardware, leaving older iPads, such as the already outdated iPad 2s given to teachers, behind.
