Andre Yoskowitz
26 Jul 2013 22:47
Thanks to a new $30 million program, 640,000 kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District will receive free iPads.
The first 31,000 will be given to kids this year, with the full rollout planned before September 2014. The goal of the program is to give students technological skills they may not have, and a better way to learn.
Adds Mark Hovatter, the chief facilities executive for the LAUSD: "The most important thing is to try to prepare the kids for the technology they are going to face when they are going to graduate. This is phase one, a mix of high school, middle school, and elementary students. We're targeting kids who most likely don't have their own computers or laptops or iPads. Their only exposure to computers now is going to be in their schools."
Every iPad will be pre-loaded with educational applications, as well as a few other apps that will help students with their studies.
The district has 1,124 schools (K-12), and the first deployment is hitting the first 49 of those schools.