I’ve been patiently waiting for the Santa Barbara Unified
School District to solicit parent feedback on its iPad program. My son was
issued an iPad upon entering 7th grade, and the program now issues them to
every student in grades 4-12. By and large, having an iPad has been a negative
experience for our family.
Let me first establish that I am no Luddite. I use
technology, and my son does, too. I am thankful for the ways technology has
improved our lives. And I appreciate that one of the goals of this program is
to ensure that all kids in our community have access to technology and its
benefits. Furthermore, my objection is not to the use of iPads in school. They
can be a wonderful tool for research, multimedia projects, and the teaching of
digital literacy and citizenship. My objection is that they are issued to every
child with no option of opting out of the program or refusing the device. The
majority of assignments and assessments are then deployed on them.
Some of the issues we have encountered include: