It seems like only yesterday the New York Times magazine published a lengthy article about the powerful and transformative tablets that Joel Klein’s company Amplify had sold to the Guilford County, North Carolina, schools. The writer, Carlo Rotella, was appropriately cautious in assessing what it meant when students had most of their lessons on a tablet, but nonetheless there was a tone (encouraged by Joel Klein)
of “this is the future, get used to it.”
Well, maybe it is the future, but not yet. On Friday, the Amplify tablets were recalled because of multiple technical glitches. The schools are suspending their use until problems can be ironed out.
According to a local business blog,
Guilford County Schools is suspending the use of 15,000 tablet computers that are part of its signature learning technology initiative because of cracking screens and potential safety problems. Those tablets were supplied by a company called Amplify, which is a collaboration betweenNews Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) and AT&T(NYSE: T).
The district said it turns out those tablets were not manufactured with the proper damage-resistant screens, and about 10 percent of the district’s devices have had to be returned to the company because of broken displays. Another 2,000 tablet cases supplied by Amplify have also had reported defects.
Also, at least one student turned in a charger that had overheated, melting its plastic casing. That’s a potential safety problem, and it prompted district officials to go ahead and suspend the entire program until Amplify and its suppliers can fix the problems.
The Amplify tablet was heavily marketed as the Next Big Thing, with profits unlimited, but it was not adequately tested. The success of the marketing campaign seemed to assure the success of the product.
This brings to mind two other heavily marketed, expensive products that were not properly tested or implemented.
Los Angeles continues to struggle with its $1 billion iPad problem. The kids cracked the security code in no time, using the expensive devices as toys. Some were withdrawn, some were lost. Meanwhile, the district has crumbling buildings (that should have been repaired with the money from the 25-year construction bond that was used to pay for the iPads), and classes are overcrowded.
And then there are the Common Core standards. The Gates Foundation assumed that if it gave a few millions to every significant organization inside the Beltway, the whole country would quietly acquiesce and accept the product that Gates paid for. That venture is experiencing meltdowns in state after state because it was hurried into production and deployed without trial runs and without consultations with the end users.
At some point, all this “creative disruption” will run into a wall. Perhaps it already has. Parents, students, and educators can take just so much at one time. Then “reform fatigue” sets in.
Klein is a failure.
Murdoch is a failure.
Gates is a failure.
Duncan is a failure, etc..
Epic fail boys.
They can’t even peddle educrap successfully. Time to turnaround the edufrauds.
Amplify Tablets, what terminology now comes tumbling off our lips! But let’s be sure to call it like it is because these tablets amplify absolutely nothing but wasteful spending. When reform fatigue does arrive, there will be a huge vacuum and a deep need for educators who remember how to find engaging starting points with children, weave curriculum using wonder and wisdom, write tests, score them and share implications with children and parents, design beautiful learning spaces and powerful “provocations” and deeply….teach+learn together.
“Amplify Tablets, what terminology now comes tumbling off our lips!”
Maybe, just maybe this once we should heed Ol Nancy’s advice: “Just say no!” to those drugs (tablets).
For folks who are new here…Amplify is owned by Rupert Murdoch who hired infamous NY School ChancellorJoel Klein to be the CEO.
Murdoch also owns inBloom with Bill Gates economic and tech input. This company does data mining of ever public school student from pre-K – college. Everything is stored in their ‘cloud’ from names and addresses, health and academic records, family info, and even I have been told, Social Security numbers.
What a coup for ill-intentioned people to be able to hack into, or purchase, that source…as Murdoch’s people were able to hack phone records in Britain and are now under indictment!
Lessons CorpEdReformer$ will never learn:
NEVER exclude the true educators, bypass their input, ‘we know best’ attitude will not work, parade TFA 23 year old experts, shove technology directly in the hands of children, AGAIN: DO NOT BYPASS THE EDUCATORS. We ALL need them to educate children.
Not difficult at all!?
And guess who makes the money for BAD stuff? It’s just a grab for money and at the same time narrow the minds of our young so they don’t question the status quo and authority—perfect set up for a totalitarian state and the breakdown of democracy.
Schools and society continue to be affected by technological and other changes that in some ways, disrupt what has been done before. Some help, some hurt, some have mixed impact. For example,
Computers & internet – open up vast array of information, makes it possible for people to communicate more easily across distances, allow blogs and list serves such as the ones people are reading here. These technological changes also allow new forms of crime and other negatives.
One of our challenges is, remains and will be to make the best possible use of changes such as computers and the internet – without denying for a moment that young people and the broader society are better off when well trained, thoughtful ethical people must be in charge of applying these changes. And one of the challenges is how to maximize benefits and minimize problems with emerging technology and other forms of disruption.
Oh well thank you for these pearls of wisdom.
Who knew well trained, thoughtful, ethical people would be so helpful?
And isn’t that exactly what we’re lacking when non-educator frauds, policy wonks, politicians and lackeys are in charge?
Real teachers get it Joe….even without your condescension.
This post reminds me of the Rhesus monkey experiments that I read about so many years ago in a Psychology class. Infant Rhesus monkeys were taken from their mothers and given “surrogate” mothers made of wire frames with terry cloth covers. The surrogates could provide food, and the infants could cling to the cloth covers. What resulted? Isolation, disturbed behavior, anxiety, stress, and a limited ability to socialize and learn.
The Rheeformers want to sell us expensive surrogates for real education. “Isn’t time in front of a screen just as good as time with a real teacher?” they ask. “Isn’t screen-time better, cooler, more 21st century, more indicative of progress, more rigorous, more efficient, than anything that could actually occur in reality?”.
Those tablets are just wire-framed surrogates. And they don’t even have terry cloth covers.
Ouch!
We need a visual…line up wire terry-cloth monkey next to Amplify tablet with a cracked screen and a melted charger.
Will get busy…need some inspiration…..hmmmmm?
Thank you for the inspiration. I shall credit you when I tweet.
rhesus monkey: wire momma = children and learning: amplify tablet
Visual here:
OMG — Linda, you are just awesome! What an amazing juxtaposition of pictures!
Middle school teacher & Linda: a bases-clearing home run!
Point well made. Graphic spot on.
Krazy props to you both.
:)
Thanks Krazy 🙂
Inbloom dashboard for the big boys….we must keep assessing until they improve.
Excellent post. Common Core is difficult for students. Teachers are told to differentiate instruction so all kids can learn, but if they are two grade levels behind do we teach them what is on the CC test at their grade level: or try to teach 2 years of material to students who struggle to retrain information? or do we try to teach what will be on this year’s CC test so students will be somewhat familiar with the material? Race to the Top pushed teacher evaluation being tied to evaluation, trying to get federal money, which many did not, but the agreements were already made. Then CC standards came out which were designed to help students become college and career ready. Which careers were they designed to help? Art? Music? Athletic careers? do they all need to know how many vertices are in a rectangular prism by age 8? Teachers are writing district curriculum mostly on their own time and required to fill out checklists as to when CC standards are taught on top of using new technology. PE teachers are getting knocked on their evaluations for not using the computer lab. We keep hearing our society is too plugged in. People email, text, etc. instead of talking to each other and doctors tell us all we do not get enough exercise. Teachers are getting less and less exercise as we prepare students for tests that are above their level, yet we are still using tests from many years ago to see if a student has a learning disability. The tests are not Common Core aligned so they say that the student is at grade level. Please keep writing.
They would be better off handing each child a violin, a pair of knitting needles, and a library card. Imagine the creativity that would flow from our children if we embraced research based, progressive education in our public schools ala Montessori and Steiner. After all, that’s what American CEOs and politicians want for their kids, why isn’t it good enough for mine.
Reblogged this on CNY Teacher and commented:
Epic fail as NC school district recalls 15,000 tablet computers.
They would be better off handing each child a violin, a pair of knitting needles, and a library card. Imagine the creativity that would flow from our children if we embraced research based, progressive education in our public schools ala Montessori and Steiner. After all, that’s what American CEOs and politicians want for their kids, why isn’t it good enough for mine.
Well, it made a bundle of money for the corporations
AND
is that not what it is all about, making money for the corporations and preparing our children to be “slaves” for them. They call it preparing for the workforce. Not my choice of words.