Letters: Using and abusing iPads

Re “Questions dog L.A. Unified’s iPad rollout,” Oct. 2

Like Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. John Deasy, I appreciate the idea that disadvantaged students could be helped by giving them Apple iPads.

However, I believe that technology came on us so gradually and without any rules of use, that abuse became rampant. One need only look at how many treatment options there are for people addicted to games and hours of use to know that abuse is too common and is affecting many young people very negatively.

How quickly the iPad goes from being a homework or research tool into game mode, only young people can tell you.

So beyond implementing rules to keep the district’s iPads counted and in good order, I believe the greater question might be whether giving each student a tablet is the best use of precious education resources, and whether having this technology will contribute to our children being critical thinkers.

Claire Marmion

Long Beach

One has to admire Deasy, who seems to be blind and deaf to all the recent problems with L.A. Unified’s iPad program. This impractical idealist carries on in Quixotic fashion to ride against the windmills.

Christine Peterson

Woodland Hills

The blind determination of politicians and school administrators to find in technology a silver-bullet solution to the problems of access and achievement in public education has resulted in too many untested pilot programs that see unscrupulous for-profit providers pocketing taxpayer dollars.

The current iPad rollout at L.A. Unified will likely go down in history as the South Sea Bubble of such misguided schemes. In replacing curricular materials with untested educational content prepared by a corporate provider, Deasy and other administrators have turned their students into unwitting test subjects.

This is more than a lapse of judgment; it is negligence with the public trust. This must stop.

Christopher Monty

Redondo Beach

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