According to local media reports out of St. Paul, Minnesota, Apple’s iPad is at the core of the largest program of its kind for a state school system.
The St. Paul School District is prepared to equip tens of thousands of students with iPads, which are “provided by taxpayers of St. Paul for students of St. Paul public schools.”
“This will be a great year of exploration,” Superintendent Valeria Silva tells the Star Tribune.
Just three months ago, the district, wrestling with how best to use technology to tailor learning to individual student needs, abruptly ditched a strategy it had sold to voters in 2012 and decided instead to put iPads in the hands of its nearly 40,000 students.
“Officials say the St. Paul district now can capitalize on advances made in the use of iPads for learning, and ensure that minority and low-income students are on equal footing with students of other public school systems,” the same report reads.
Families will not be charged to have their kids receive an iPad for school usage, but they will be liable should the iPad assigned to them be broken or lost.
