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Schools Learn Tablets' Limits

Districts Grapple With Glitches as Some Say Devices Can Supplement Lessons

Two elementary-school pupils in the Los Angeles district tool around with their tablets in August. Problems have stalled the district's tablet rollout. ENLARGE
Two elementary-school pupils in the Los Angeles district tool around with their tablets in August. Problems have stalled the district's tablet rollout. Los Angeles Times / Associated Press

As schools rush to embrace computer tablets as teaching tools, glitches have officials in a few districts rethinking the usefulness and even security of the latest technology trend.

Tablets and iPads have been embraced by schools as teaching tools, but some districts are changing course, following a series of glitches and students getting past security settings. Stephanie Banchero has details. AP Photo.

The highest-profile snafu came in Los Angeles, where a $1 billion program—funded by voter-approved bonds—to provide Apple Inc. AAPL -0.32 % iPads for K-12 students came under fire after some students sidestepped the security system and accessed social media, online games and other content that was supposed to be blocked.

The Los Angeles Unified School District temporarily took back thousands of tablets from students at three high schools and required the devices to remain on-campus in all 30 schools where the effort had been rolled out. School board officials called a special meeting for Oct. 29 to assess the $50 million first phase of the program ahead of votes to fund the second and third phases.

Los Angeles school board member Bennett Kayser said the district's initiative was "hastily planned" and several "red flags" were overlooked, such as the potential expense of lost or stolen devices and questions about the completeness of the installed curriculum software. Plus, he added, "There is no silver bullet or Superman here; technology is a tool, not an end unto itself."

The fitful Los Angeles rollout comes as K-12 schools nationwide are expected to spend $9.7 billion on technology in 2013, up from $6 billion in 2003, according to the Center for Digital Education, a national research and advisory institute specializing in education technology trends and policy. Districts in Maryland, Kansas, North Dakota and elsewhere have rolled out tablet to thousands of students this year. And experts say the pace of technology spending is rapidly growing as schools try to become more tech-savvy.

Advocates say new technology may allow teachers to better target students' individual academic levels and learning styles, and engage students who often are bored by the more traditional style of teaching. For example, teachers can watch students writing essays in real time and shoot one a note if she failed to write a proper introduction and another a separate note if she used improper punctuation. Moreover, they say, students need technological skills to compete in today's economy.

Leslie Wilson, of the Michigan-based One-to-One Institute, a nonprofit that helps districts implement programs that assign a digital device to every student, said students must learn to be "creators and producers, not regurgitators and consumers" of information, and technology can hasten those skills. She said laptops, tablets and other such devices can benefit students if they are chosen with student achievement in mind, rather than on the "glitziness" of the product.

Skeptics say schools are racing into the digital promise with little forethought and, in some cases, expecting computer tools to boost academic outcomes even though the research on the issue is inconclusive. Researchers from the University of Southern Maine, for example, found that a program that provided laptops to middle-school students boosted writing scores, while a study by the Texas Center for Educational Research found no difference in test scores between middle-school students who got laptops and those who didn't.

The Los Angeles program, the first phase of which was approved in February, aims to provide by the end of 2014 every student with a tablet employing digital, interactive curricula designed to meet Common Core math and reading standards adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Under its contract with Apple, the school district pays $678 a tablet; Apple didn't return a call for comment.

Parents and residents questioned the high price tag and speedy rollout of the devices. Some students and parents said they didn't understand their personal liability if an iPad was broken or misplaced. Now, some school-board members are calling for a clearer plan for the costs of maintaining and updating the technology.

Still, district officials say they are pleased with the results so far. The devices allow for instruction to be tailored to each student's level and teachers have gotten creative with their assignments, such as having students work with slide shows on the tablet. Superintendent John Deasy called the initiative "stunningly successful," and added: "It's pretty amazing watching students who've never had access [to tablet technology] and now have it."

Meanwhile, officials in Fort Bend Independent School District in suburban Houston scrapped a $16 million iPad initiative after an audit this month found, among other things, teachers complaining the curricula on the tablets were incomplete and didn't align with the district's instructional goals. The district had given out about 6,000 tablets with an interactive science curriculum to fourth- through eighth-graders as part of an effort to boost science test scores.

Jim Rice, president of the school district board of trustees, said schools are "seeing a sea change in how children learn and schools need to keep up with that," but, he added, "the devil is in the details and districts should understand all the moving parts before they jump into technology."

Officials in Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, N.C., suspended a $30 million effort that gave 15,000 middle-school students Amplify tablets after students or school staff broke about 10% of the screens either by dropping them or placing them in backpacks or purses, and some of the cables that connect the devices to keyboards broke.

Officials with Amplify—the education subsidiary of News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal—and the school district say they are working to fix the problems. District officials said they were satisfied with the academic content on the tablet and said teachers had been using them to provide quality instruction. Superintendent Maurice Green said the suspension was "extremely disappointing" and said the district "remains committed to personalizing learning and to the one-to-one initiative."

Many districts around the country are rolling out tablets without a hitch. About 850 students at Neil Armstrong Middle School in suburban Portland, Ore., got digital tablets this year after a smaller pilot program at the school last year showed students were more engaged and less likely to misbehave during class.

Nichole Carter, an eighth-grade English teacher who was part of the tablet pilot program last year, said the devices dramatically cut down on paper costs, allow her to track student work in real time and let children work together through a protected social media-like platform.

"A tablet is a tool that can enhance a lesson and engage kids," she said. "But you really have to know your content and understand how to teach for it to be effective in helping children learn."

Write to Stephanie Banchero at and Erica E. Phillips at

Page Sheldon
Page Sheldon

I'd rather the money be spent on financing schools in lower SES areas, rather than furthering the gap between schools and classes. Are tablets really a necessity? I just think funds could be allocated more efficiently and spread out a bit more evenly.

Mary Ann Lux
Mary Ann Lux subscriber

$678 for a tablet.... Who negotiated THAT??????

Joel Angeles
Joel Angeles

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nancy marsh
nancy marsh user

My kids go to a private school where iPads are required (and paid for by parents).

They do not have the problems noted in this article, but their work does seem to occur on a disjointed set of one-off Apps.

I assume this will improve over time. I think tablets will replace text books. Then when you open the chapter on the Solar System you can watch animation of the planets orbiting the sun instead of looking at a text book picture. You can watch the best 6th grade science lecture ever on the solar system ("vote" on by consensus, achieved over time, the same way youtube videos rise to the top).

These are early days.


An exploration of the use of "iPads in Education" was conducted using futurist Joel Barker's Implications Wheel six months after the first iPad was released. That exploration, identifying possible positive and negative implications, identified the key problems that have now happened according to this article. And it's interesting to note that others have noted the "lack of planning" and known "red flags." For example, our exploration clearly noted the possibility of "students break their iPads" and "students hack iPads to access blocked sites." The power of Barker's Implications Wheel is that it provides the opportunity to create barriers that block negative implications from happening -- or minimize their damage long before they happen. It would be easy to dismiss some of the things that have happened as "unintended consequences." But that's a poor excuse when major issues were clearly identified long before they occurred -- and could have been addressed/prevented.

David Cousins
David Cousins subscriber

I agree, there are many search engines out there to look up a myriad of topics. The internet is the world's greatest asset, however, it is also the world's greatest weakness. If anything should happen to the internet, our children would be thrown back into the stone age because they would not know how to cross the road without Google Maps.

I know that this fear is unfounded at this point in time, but I fear that as we travel this new road of technology based information we risk the chance of loosing everything that we hold dear...Knowledge.

joyce ostering
joyce ostering subscriber

Common core is the issue here -- All schools need to have this technology or CC does not work ---- When the technology is fully implemented - the computer will be the teacher and the teacher will become the baby sitter/ helper. They are MANDATED to teach to ''the core'' ---- Does this not sound like indoctrination to you? And the computers are just part of it but a real core of it .

The problem is [1] CC [2] the cost to implement it -- yes some states have received monies from it [obtained from the taxpayers - thankyou very much!] but some rich towns and states may not have the monies to do this as mandated by the time line from the states

Technology is not just learning how to use it but also how to keep the children from getting into the other venues on the computer -- How do you stop that ? Also all schools will need an IT guy or guys to fully maintain this very intricate expansive technology for all the students to use --HAVE THEY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT ALSO AND THE EXPENSES FOR THIS ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL? No i think not

But for me it is not about this but about the pushing for all schools to implement this ''standard'' ie: mindless following of a standard that everyone will eventually be the same --- THIS IS NOT AMERICA ANYMORE - where -if one wants to go further - he can - NOW EVERYONE WILL BE THE SAME --- YEA COMMON CORE!!

Geri Kelly
Geri Kelly subscriber

The very last statement in the article says it all. As a teacher, you have to know your subject and know how to teach for the tablets to be effective. So why have the tablets?

Joe Aveni
Joe Aveni subscriber

Good teacher training makes for good applied technology. You cannot have one without the other.

Bobby Davis
Bobby Davis profilePrivateuser

READING, WRITING & ARITHMETIC should be emphasized!

Get back to basics of teaching including critical thinking instead of becoming electronically stupid!

Douglas Kielkopf
Douglas Kielkopf

Last Christmas, I gave my adult daughter and iPad as a gift.

The price at the local Apple store was $499, plus tax.

California is paying $600 plus per iPad, per contract.

Must be one hell of a souped-up iPad.

I wonder how much was "rebated" to some unknown agency?

David Cousins
David Cousins subscriber

Yes, but can they find a book in the public library using the Dewey decimal system, the real test? Or, use the card catalog to find pertinent information contained within books for their book reports?

Technology is great, and it needs to be taught to our children. However, technology needs to be a tool in learning and not the curriculum. Hands on approach to learning is the secret to learning. Children need to touch, feel, smell, and taste in order to learn, and when we restrict these senses, we prevent the child from really learning.

Florin Nedelciuc
Florin Nedelciuc subscriber

Is this why they keep raising our property tax each year so they could buy shiny iPads??? No, thank you!

If you want kids to succeed, how about switching to old school curricula like Classical education, where kids memorize the multiplication table and train them to do arithmetic in their heads, learn grammar and punctuation, actually study logic and rhetoric so they can develop sound arguments and real world communication skills? How about teaching our kids how to balance a checkbook and what a mortgage is? How about teaching them a foreign language so they can compete against the rest of the world? That's what I call education, not playing around on iPads!

Dave Mulligan
Dave Mulligan subscriber

“funded by voter-approved bonds”

LA voters approved those bonds for school construction, not this crackpot idiocy.

“Kayser said the district's initiative was hastily planned and several red flags were overlooked”

Who cares? It’s not THEIR billion dollars.

Edward Chavis
Edward Chavis subscriber

I think a better use of the billions that are being spent on technology is to increase teacher wages so it would attract top tier teaching candidates from other industries. I can't fathom that creating slide shows on an ipad or reviewing writing in real time(is that even really possible) is going to improve childrens ability to perform. The added worry that parents will now have to be responsible for upgrading the tablet or paying for damage adds additional household stress.

Now if the other point is that the students text books will also be on the ipad, then that may be a good use. However you can accomplish that with a kindle reader for a reduced cost (cheaper to buy and replace) and in my opinion they are harder to damage

Frank Mostek
Frank Mostek subscriber

Is this part of the "core"?

Who's paying for all of this??

I'm all for teaching kids with computers, etc. but I think some good old fashion teaching should take precendence.

Chris Georgandellis
Chris Georgandellis subscriber

While I'm not "in the know" of what's happening here, I suspect that whatever planning that went into this was woefully inadequate.

Chris Henry
Chris Henry subscriber

Kids need to be "creators and producers, not regurgitators and consumers" of information. If they can't take information on board and remember it (consume & regurgitate) they aren't going to amount to much as creators and producers. Modern educational theory wastes way too much time on the frosting while ignoring the cake.

Darren Chesser
Darren Chesser subscriber

here is what I don't get - the schools want me to get a tablet for my daughter and ensure she has internet access, however when I say I am taking my family to Hawaii for three weeks in january and my daughter can learn remotely, the school board gets up in arms, in the end what good is all of this if it isn't used correctly

Zamir Syed
Zamir Syed subscriber

Students hacking the tablet to enable gaming and social-media sites is not a glitch, it is a reality.

John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin subscriber

As we increase spending per student, the use of technology, and all the other "enlightened" education techniques the performance of our students has done nothing but decrease. Why don't we go back to what works, a teacher with the power to keep the class in line, and parents that hold their children accountable for their actions. With these items in place all children need are a desk, text books, paper, pencils, and a chalk board.

DAVID OH subscriber

Regardless of the merits of iPads in classrooms, that is really a cute picture of that little girl smiling.

David Harouche
David Harouche

Why do people always want a shiny new piece of hardware to provide for something it's only a vehicle for? It's all about the content - if they don't have content, they might as well be staring into a mirror.

jack witty
jack witty subscriber

Are teacher, administrators and politicians always this naive and ignorant....? Give these sophisticated devices to little gang bangers then expect them to respect the rules imposed. That is hysterical and another huge waste of taxpayer money. Liberals always see things as they wish them to be and never as things really are. Score one for APPL.

STEVEN FALLON subscriber

My two high schoolers (honor students) were handed iPads this year. From my observation, the results are mixed. An AP Bio teacher seems to put the tablets to good use with homework available on the tablet. On the other hand, my younger student reported that the AP Spanish class is making less progress as too much time seems to be wasted in class as the teacher and students are learning/attempting to use the tablet.

I have talked to other parents that are unhappy with the tablets. The tablets, as shown in the picture with the article, can create a "goofing around" problem in class and at home. Control of access to electronics remains a disciplinary tool. That tool is trumped by the school requiring students to use iPads for school work.

Mike Edson
Mike Edson subscriber

I'm surprised you used the word 'tablet' because all I've ever heard of in schools is iPads. Where are the 1/3 priced Androids? They are just as good - some are better.

Andrew Black
Andrew Black subscriber

When they proposed this program a year or two ago, a reporter had the audacity to ask how they were going to pay for them. The district's response: "We pay for things every year. That isn't the problem.'

Mark Bliton
Mark Bliton user

I work as a Systems Analyst and can see some benefit to having technology in the classroom. I have always said that EVERYONE should take a programming class so that they can establish a framework for logical thought. problem solving, and Boolean logic. It must be noted that the mere presence of technology doesn't supplant the higher importance on the underlying disciplines (reading, writing, mathematics, and logic). To me this is especially the case in lower grade (pre-Algebra) levels.

In my opinion spending $1 billion on iPads is a waste of money and won't produce the desired results that government-run schools are hoping for. I believe that they are indeed hoping (even though they deny it) that iPads will be the silver bullet that will make American students competitive with the world. Anyway, technology (especially Apple products) are sexy and a convenient way to funnel more taxpayer dollars into the failing government schools.

Give me school choice any day over an iPad. Competition will make government schools improve more any an over-priced iPad.

Paula Dowling
Paula Dowling

Look at the picture under the headline. Those two girls might not know how to read but they sure know they can have fun at taxpayer already.

Brian Seel
Brian Seel subscriber

Our nation's greatest Presidents learned from textbooks, good enough for these kids too. And don't give me that malarky about they need to learn technology, pushing a screen to do stuff is not going to lead to these kids being expert computer programmers in 20 years.

Steven Antkowiak
Steven Antkowiak subscriber

I agree with many in regards to their comments regarding a return to the basics, but some kids are better visual learners than auditory learners and the tablet program in Guilford County, NC, which is mentioned in the article showed great promise for my Special Needs children, who attend Middle School in Guilford County and have learned because of technology--not in spite of it.

The failure of this program in Guilford County wasn't the technology, it was the ignorant people selecting the equipment and the questionable process upon which the final selection was made. Turns out the CIO of our school system doesn't even have a technology background! Just further proof that Government could mess up the proverbial nice dream.

Want to read more about this huge debacle:

Nicole Hamilton
Nicole Hamilton subscriber

Waste of money. Our public education is in decline because our teacher quality is in decline, not because we don't have enough electronic gadgets in the classroom.

Fifty years ago, we used to subsidize public education on the backs of smart, educated women. But today, those smart women have better, higher paying alternatives and we're left with the low quality people our low pay attracts. To fix this, we'd probably have to double teacher salaries. Instead, we're giving away iPads.

Dale Yancy
Dale Yancy subscriber

Dittos. I love new technology and have two tablets, but as you said, kids need to be learning the basics and they don't need a tablet to do so. Also, one teacher said these tablets cut down on the cost of buying paper. $678. will buy a lot of paper!!!

John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin subscriber

You need to change your definition of "correctly". Making you purchase something on their order while maintaining control over you and your child is their version of "correct". Your vision of greater freedom to educate your child as you see fit contradicts the vision of big brother.

Paula Dowling
Paula Dowling

I haven't met a child who didn't smile after being given a toy. This time the toy is paid for by taxpayers. Are you still smiling?

Timothy Boucher
Timothy Boucher user

I don't use or own Apple products, but my company leases them. iPads are much more dependable and hold their resale value at lot better than Android devices (but also cost more).

Raymond Klett
Raymond Klett subscriber


Your second paragraph is a conundrum. No male teachers fifty years ago? Then poor more money into a union dominated cesspool. Sexist to say the least but it's Nicole...

Kirth Gersen
Kirth Gersen subscriber

"low pay" ?

In Calif, it's pretty common for a teacher to make $60K+ wages for barely 180 instructional days. That's an annualized wage of c.$87K.

Their contribution to their own pension or health care benefits is negligible, just a few %.

No, "low pay" isn't what's attracting "low quality" ... it's the excessive administrative overhead and the toxic influence of the teachers' labor union.

In Calif, Teachers Union is far and away the single largest political campaign donor in state & local elections. Beween the Teachers and the SEIU, they have contributed ~30% of all lobbying & campaign dollars.

Greg Bryan
Greg Bryan subscriberprofilePrivate

Mostly agree. I'd support higher teacher salaries only when their performance is measured and the underperformers are terminated. But the teacher's unions will never let this happen, why? Because they are a union, where rule # 1 is always lifetime employment. Rank and file teachers know what the problems are, but they have no control of their union.

Paula Dowling
Paula Dowling

Have you considered the education decline is due to the policies implemented by radical left-wing ideologues such as yourself?

Raymond Klett
Raymond Klett subscriber

Nicole your response, inferring ignorance, disqualifies any explanation. Furthermore, your comment is intended to support the party line of more pay for teachers. Are you implying that because of low pay all we get are stupid teachers?

R. Roth
R. Roth subscriber

You can bet that picture was chosen from among many available, to make a editorial comment about the use of the devices. It came across to me and maybe to others as a not-so-positive endorsement of the program.

DAVID OH subscriber

Yes because it's a cute picture and the milk's been spilt. Folks can learn in the future that this wasn't the best way to spend taxpayer money, but hey, our taxpayer money went to fund other stupid things, like a pointless war in Iraq, as well as other educational garbage like books teaching something called "intelligent design".

But hey, whatever. It's still a cute picture.

R. Roth
R. Roth subscriber

Resale value works for the private sector as a consideration. I don't think the LA district expects many of these devices to be around in a year or two. So never mind resale value. What do they say to a family that says they lost the device? Pungle up? I don't think so.

Nels Mattson
Nels Mattson subscriber

"iPads are much more dependable"

I would say easier to use... Dependable? The hardware is probably close to equivalent in-terms of failure rate.

Nicole Hamilton
Nicole Hamilton subscriber


That's an annualized wage only if they work it! They have to be offered summer school and they have to accept it. Not all are get asked and not all accept. Many teachers spread spread their 9 months' of earnings over 12 months. (That was what my mother did, growing up.)

As for whether $60K is good pay, that could be relative. If that's what you were making, would you still consider that good pay?

Kirth Gersen
Kirth Gersen subscriber

It's the tired -- and false -- liberal narrative that "low pay" is the problem. Not in Calif , seem my post above.

Calif has some of the lowest student performance rankings of the states, despite the very high, per student expenditures.

Nicole Hamilton
Nicole Hamilton subscriber

> Are you implying that because of low pay all we get are stupid teachers?

No, but it's certainly biased that way. Obviously, there will always be some talented men and women who will choose to become teachers simply because they feel it's their calling. They gain huge satisfaction and if they could afford it, would do it for free.

My mother was a grade school teacher and, now that I'm semiretired and can afford to do whatever I want without regard to what it pays, I teach EE at UW Bothell. So I understand how satisfying teaching can be.

But a WSJ forum seems like it should be the last place on earth where I should have to explain the concept of market incentives. If you're willing to pay more, you get more and better choices.

Read the articles. The first is a very accessible article by an MIT economist published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford, hardly some kind of left wing pinko organization.

The second article is a PhD thesis in labor economics that's filled with statistical analysis supporting the argument that what's changed in public education has been better opportunities for women.

We could restore the quality public education we used to enjoy but it would cost a lot more to attract better talent.

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