Ipads in Schools

Today in class we had an interesting discussion about our schools moving toward ipads. One student has had some difficulty concerning this with her children. She stated her children have already broken two and the insurance only covers three. When the students break their third one even on insurance the parent has to pay full price for the ipad. These students are only in middle school and are fairly young, so you know they have not learned how to take care of things. I mean really we all see how rough middle school boys are. Also everything must be done on the ipad in these schools. That means tests and homework can only be done on the ipad. Well when the students break their ipads, the ipads are sent out to be repaired. While the students’ ipads are out for repair they have no way of taking tests are doing homework. This results in zeros and getting behind in all their subjects. This to me seems unfair. I know we need to teach our kids responsibility, but all of us know accidents happen. Even as adults we may accidentally break our computer. There should be some way the student could still do their work while the ipad is gone. I love the move toward teaching our children technology. In this fast paced world it has become essential, and I know in order to compete in the global economy this is an excellent idea. However, I believe the schools need to be more understanding and find better fixes to the kinks in their system. There should be ways for the students to do their homework and tests while their ipad is being fixed. The ipad should be a resource not a necessity.