There was widespread publicity when First Daughter Ivanka Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the Wilder Elementary School in Idaho. Some of the local media were less than enthusiastic, mentioning high school student protests and low test scores. Some even pointed out that the district bought the iPads with funding from a program created during the Obama administration.
A teacher wrote to the blog to explain the back story. I won’t use her name, but you can find it on her comment that appears on the blog.
Just like every story on the internet, there is a different side to this. The iPads aren’t the enemy here. The real issue is a small district with no checks or balances allowing one person to be in power. If you want an inside look at what this district is going through, please continue reading otherwise please understand the iPads started out and were intended to offer amazing opportunities for the students. I’m not here to sell iPads but what they did for this community was very positive until one man with all the power decided to jump on a band wagon without doing his due diligence and researching the affects.
These iPads were granted to the district through the ConnectEd grant. The way the grant was written the iPads were going to help the students connect with the local community doing real life projects and helping in the community. They came with a complete overhaul of the infastructure, and the ability for students to be connected to the internet at home, while traveling for sports or their long FFA trips. Teachers were trained through a certified teacher trained on Apple product to teach the teachers how to take their lessons and add a new level of thought and creativity using technology.
Then the superintendent who has complete power in the district wanted to run for state superintendent and the Idaho State Department of Education began a personalized learning initiative. He thought if he could be the best in the state and get this started first and be ahead of the game then that would be really all he would need to get the win and become state superintendent. He expected the teachers to completely drop what they were doing and begin teaching this way over night. Teachers were being asked to completely compromise their curriculum and drop standards to make it easier for students to just focus on the “big rocks”. Students were getting Spanish credits in the high school for using DuoLingos app. At the end the students still couldn’t speak or write simple Spanish. If teachers questioned the methods they would receive poor evaluations, have to change classrooms for no reason or be asked to complete tasks that weren’t necessary or that no other teacher was asked to do.
Student and parent frustrations are through the roof. Parents and teachers were being denied the ability to talk to the board. In the high school wing all but two teachers left last year along with the IT guy, the secretary, the migrant/homeless liasion, the ELL teacher, and some sped staff all left. This is a very small district that graduates between 25-30 kids each year. That is a lot of staff turnover. The stress in the building is unhealthy because one man has all the control and he can’t/won’t change now or all that he has been hyping up will look like he is lying. A huge majority of the staff couldn’t stand seeing students having to use the iPads this way. But suggestions, ideas or possible improvements are deemed as insubordination.
I believe it is the superintendent’s connections through the Apple grant that brought Trump and Cook out there. Cook needs Trump to be onboard to continue the “ConnectEd” type initiatives and to stop the tariffs on the company and the local superintendent needs the media to confirm how good he is to the Idaho public as a “I told you we were good but you (public) didn’t listen” . He lost the election by a very large margin.
Not only was I a teacher that left, I was one of the tree people that wrote the middle-high school Apple grant. This isn’t how any of us intended for the iPads to be used, ever. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of the students that spoke up. I miss them terribly and felt like I am weak because I’m not mentally strong enough to stay and fight for them and protect their education. Suggestions on ways to fight are greatly appreciated!! These are absolutely amazing students they deserve much better.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All the news media made it sound like Apple had actually donated the iPads in question.
Is that actually not true?
If the iPads and/or the infrastructure to connect them to the internet paid for with Federal grant money, who got that money?
Did Apple get any of that money?
If so, what we have here is a case where the richest company in the world has actually made money off of one Idahos poorest school districts.
I thought it was bad enough that Apples CEO Tim Cook was using that school as marketing ploy, but if Apple actually made money from the iPads and Cook simply played along with all the stories that indicated Apple had donated them, Apple and it’s CEO were essentially engaging in a fraud on the American public.
Good catch. Would be a nice scoop for someone like Jeff Bryant.
Technology grants are the equivalent of the tech industry going fishing. Even a thousand miles from Idaho, I cannot agree that the iPads were given without a “personalized” hostile takeover of instruction being involved from the get-go. The “iPads for all” grant is the hook. Online “teaching” is the line. Data collection is the sinker. Technology as magical is the bait. Don’t take the bait, or your city will get caught up in the whole scam, hook, line, and sinker.
You are right about it being about fishing for dollars in schools — with what amounts to a giant drift net.
But I am nonetheless puzzled by the claim that Apple donated the iPads.
Every article I read said that Apple had donated the iPads and now the above post by the former teacher who was involved says the technology upgrade was paid for with a Federal grant.
It actually might not make a difference in the grand scheme but it makes a very big difference in the perception that Apple is trying to create in the public eye: that they care about students enough to donate their products free of charge.
Personally, I am sick of this FALSE advertizing (which is illegal) by companies like Apple.
If they want to treat schools as markets (as they most certainly do) then they should just say that. Quit trying to pretend they are doing it out of some magnanimity on their part because they are most certainly not.
Beware the “gift” givers.
More like grift givers.
A great phrase. Grift givers.
I have to add that I love seeing a tech CEO with a Trump. They belong together.
Tim Cook is Trump’s water boy.
Or maybe his caddy.
Or maybe just his cad.
In this case, the parents need to unify as a group — through social media organizing — then, again as a mass group, keep their kids out of school until the following demand is met:
— that this computer-based, replacing-teachers-with-computers garbage is gotten rid of, and full-time teachers and curriculum are returned to the school.
(After all, if this Apple/I-pad/no-teacher stuff is so great, do they employ this same garbage at the expensive, rich kids’ private schools where Trumps and other oligarchs send their own kids? Not a chance in Hell. And that ends the argument)
And this is key — these parents must stick to this boycott no matter what until their demands are met.
I live in a wealthy district outside of DC (Howard County, MD). Our County Super at the time(Renee Foose) got this same IPad grant to pilot in some of our middle schools. My children’s school was one and we were chosen because of our demographics Approx 50% upper middle class and 50% Title I (same with the other schools in the program)……none of the schools with low FARMS #’s got the IPads. At the same time, the BYOD initiative was implemented. It was a disaster. Anything Apple worked with the county wide infrastructure, but if a kid brought in anything other than an Apple product, there were connectivity issues and data issues. It was all a selling point for Apple. The really rich parents could afford to just go the Apple store and get a new device….and they did. When our Super was finally ousted from her position, the whole mess finally came tumbling down. They impose this crap on the people they think will accept this as an education for their children. My 2nd child was NOT allowed to bring the IPad into our home and that was a compromise since I didn’t want him to use it AT ALL. Child #2 is now in private HS. Done with test-prep masking as an education.
For those of us self diagnosed with AIIDS* please explain FARMS and BYOD. Gracias.
*AIIDS = Acronym Identification Impairment Disorder Syndrome. . . to be included in the DSMX.
Citizens need to vote the superintendent out of office.
Superintendents tend to develop huge egos after a certain point. Best to discard them then try to rein them in.
Hmmm. That superintendent behaved as if he was trained at the unaccredited Broad Academy. If not prepared by Broad, he certainly bought into management by coercion, punishment & fear. Those are Broad standard practices.
“He thought if he could be the best in the state and get this started first and be ahead of the game then that would be really all he would need to get the win and become state superintendent. He expected the teachers to completely drop what they were doing and begin teaching this way over night. Teachers were being asked to completely compromise their curriculum and drop standards to make it easier for students to just focus on the “big rocks”. Students were getting Spanish credits in the high school for using DuoLingos app. At the end the students still couldn’t speak or write simple Spanish. If teachers questioned the methods they would receive poor evaluations, have to change classrooms for no reason or be asked to complete tasks that weren’t necessary or that no other teacher was asked to do.”
I would feel more sorry for this teacher, but how did he/she NOT see that writing a grant like this would turn out this way? It’s like letting the camel’s nose in the tent. And since when are I-Pads essential to “connecting to the community?” That can be done easily (and better) without technology.
To the teacher: I am truly sorry that this superintendent is a meglomaniac. BUT, no one should trust superintendents to do the right thing for kids. Frankly, the same goes for most administrators. I don’t know what they teach at administrator school anymore, but lesson 1 has to be: “How to alienate your faculty and make the job miserable.”
“…no one should trust superintendents to do the right thing for kids. Frankly, the same goes for most administrators. I don’t know what they teach at administrator school anymore, but lesson 1 has to be: “How to alienate your faculty and make the job miserable.”
Unfortunately, I agree with that statement. I worked in five different districts in Illinois and was a traveling music teacher. I saw what happened inside many schools and the picture usually wasn’t that great. Principals are accountable to nobody and many are terrible to their staff.
DEFINITELY they teach: How to BLAME everyone but yourself…
I don’t call them adminimals for nothing!
Tragic but all too common these days. Money more important than people, even for our children. It is killing not only our schools but by extension our country and now, even our planet and future generations..
Please read SCREEN SCHOOLED, TWO VETERAN TEACHERS EXPOSE HOW TECHNOLOGY OVERUSE IS MAKING OUR KIDS DUMBER by Joe Clement and Matt Miles. Technology is not the “savior” of education as the tech companies expound,but can be extremely detrimental to children’s development and social skills when used inappropriately. As a veteran teacher, I know this but it is good to see it in print and backed up by solid research.
It is for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Screen Schooled: Two Veteran Teachers Expose How Technology Overuse Is Making Our Kids Dumber
by Joe Clement, Matt Miles
3.94 · Rating details · 84 ratings · 25 reviews
As two veteran teachers who have taught thousands of students, Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our students. Rather than becoming better problem solvers, kids look to Google to answer their questions for them. Rather than deepening students’ intellectual curiosity, educational technology is too often cumbersome and distracting, causing needless frustration and greatly extending homework time. Rather than becoming the great equalizer, electronic devices are widening the achievement gap. On a mission to educate and empower parents, Clement and Miles provide many real-world examples and cite multiple studies showing how technology use has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what’s really going on at school: teachers who are powerless to curb cell phone distractions; zoned-out kids who act helpless and are unfocused, unprepared, and antisocial; administrators who are too-easily swayed by the pro-tech “science” sponsored by corporate technology purveyors. They provide action steps parents can take to demand change and make a compelling case for simpler, smarter, more effective forms of teaching and learning.
Paperback, 272 pages
Published October 1st 2017 by Chicago Review Press
I used to be the tech teacher/coach at our sites. Every lesson, PD, and workshop I would do stressed the technology (whatever form) as a PART of the lesson. Then turned off and/or put out of site until the next use.
The attempted takeover of the teaching profession by the tech sector has been and still is painful to behold. Fortunately we’re seeing articles such as these in the mainstream media:
I think the ConnectEd federal grant was for internet connectivity and infrastructure and not the devices themselves.
I believe the teacher went into this with good intentions- in fact, one of the things that bothers me so much about these sales and marketing events is how incredibly CYNICAL they are- they take advantage of good people.
I’m just asking for some caution- these sales pitches are very sophisticated – my God, Apple is the king of brand promotion.
Just be careful. Look a gift horse in the mouth. You are under NO obligation to shower these people with thanks and allow them to run your school and classrooms based on a donation of devices.
I’d like to see schools switch this- instead of asking “what can this school do for Apple?” ask “what does Apple bring this school in real value and why should I allow them in here?”
You are in the driver’s seat. This is your profession and these are your schools. Claim it. Be the experts.
Think about how much Apple has gained from public schools over the last twenty years as a vendor. They sell devices. That’s what they do.
You don’t have to hate them, anymore than you hate any other supplier – just treat them like any other vendor.
They are pushing product. If that product somehow helps your students then buy it but please don’t fall for this marketing department BS about how your students need an Ipad or a “blended learning platform” or Facebook. They don’t.
Tech providers need schools much more than schools need tech providers. Take that market power and use it.If Apple were in your shoes THEY would.
This is so much what it really is.
Not necessarily about iPads, either (though they are a popular “just add water” choice).
When Bloomberg first took control of our schools in NYC, every school in every district in every borough (general and special ed) received red looseleaf notebooks with instructions on how to arrange classrooms, bulletin boards, etc. All schools were given and told to use a specific math and reading program. Everything became centralized and if you strayed, you were punished.
It all happened at once. Disruption was actually hailed as an educational force.
These people don’t know what they’re doing. That sounded like a pretty cool iPad project. Too bad it got into the wrong hands.
The problem with so much of tech is that it is bought because someone thinks it would be cool for the district to have all the latest gadgetry and if they don’t, they will somehow fall behind everyone else.
But unless you have a detailed plan for how the tech (eg, iPads) will be used specifically to aid instruction (and it must be much more detailed than saying students will use it to search the internet and do homework) there is no reason to have it and not a single dime should be paid for it.
Viewing technoligy as a tool is a very good way to look at things because it forces you to think about how it will be used.
If people bought tools at Home Depot the way many school districts buy technology, they would end up with a house full of power saws, drills, routers, Sanders, and other tools that they never use.
You buy tools for a job you don’t just buy them cuz they are cool of because your neighbor has them.
At least I don’t, but maybe I am weird that way.
A perfect example is the gigantic iPad fiasco (fraud?) that happened under John Deasy.
Many of the iPads simply disappeared.
And by the way, what ever happened to he FBI investigation of that?
It seems to have suffered a similar fate.
The FBI collected files on the iPad fiasco then disappeared.
The FBI collected files from Gulen offices in Ohio years ago, and were never heard from again.
I see the US Attorney decided not to bring any charges.
“Viewing technology as a tool is a very good way to look at things because it forces you to think about how it will be used.”
And that IS the crux of the matter.
At first, that’s the way tech was sold: as a tool for the teachers. And, honestly: the tablets, computers, and interactive boards are excellent tools with so many possibilities.
But I can still remember Joel Klein’s picture in the Times Magazine, holding an iPad near to his smiling face. The story was about how much the private sector can do for the public schools. Since then, the emphasis has slowly but very surely shifted towards the teacher becoming a tool of the technology.
I know I’ve said all this before; so please excuse the redundancy. But it bears repeating for anyone new to this forum.