LAUSD kids ‘jailbreak’ iPads
When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced it was giving iPads to its students back in July, I predicted:
“The iPads themselves might allow the kids to break out of the system and find Web sites that teach something original and good. But even if the LAUSD puts restrictions on what the kids can see, no doubt many kids also will find ways to ‘jailbreak’ the restrictions and gain access to pornography, racist sites and other things I don’t want my tax money supporting.”
That just happened:
“More than 300 students at three Los Angeles Unified high schools bypassed security measures to access unauthorized websites on their new district-issued iPads, prompting an immediate ban on taking the tablet computers home, officials said Tuesday.
“The breach was discovered Friday at Westchester High, Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills. Those campuses were among the first to receive the iPads in the first phase of a plan to equip every LAUSD student with one of the $678 tablets.”
But that’s just the first step. Soon, the kids will find a way to jailbreak the iPads in a way the schools can’t figure out.
But already, a key reason for spending our money on the iPads — doing homework and other research outside of school — has been canceled. If the iPads stay in school, it would be more cost-effective to get $200 laptops running Windows.
Or just go back to blackboards and books.
4 comments
Write a commentRelated Articles
CA-style feudalization is going national
March 16, 2013 By Chris Reed The feudalization of California that Joel Kotkin has written about so smartly for years
Gov. Brown’s 3D chess game leads to timid politics
If you believe Jerry Brown is a governing genius, then forgive me for laughing until I injure myself. What I
Police anger over new law could shake CA Dem coalition
California’s Democratic Party has dominated the state Legislature so thoroughly since Republican Gov. Pete Wilson left office in 1999 that
…but it’s for the children!!!….
LOL
Why is it everyone with half a brain knew this…..and more…..would happen…
Blackboards, books, lectures, note taking, writing, analyzing… what a concept. Teachers might even go back to teaching the three-R’s rather than gender studies, social justice and attending protests and union rallies.
Katy
My guess is that some LAUSD insiders made a bundle off this deal with Apple. They had to know it would fail from the start. Way too many unintended consequences are bound to happen when you put free technical and fragile devices in the hands of irresponsible juveniles. The outcome was destined. Nobody will get any smarter. The dropout rate and the test failure rate will stay the same or even get worse. The ones who’ll lose bigtime are the taxpayers. As usual.
3-4 year techno gadget paid for over 25 years with construction bonds……idiots.