back to article Secondary pupils get free iPhones in edu-app trials

Pupils at a London secondary school have been given iPhones to test applications for education A group of 30 pupils in years seven to 11 at Gumley House Convent School in Hounslow have begun to use the phones in class for the next seven months. Brentford City Learning Centre (CLC) is to run the trial along with technology …

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  1. Mr_Pitiful
    Stop

    Thats 30 new listings on ebay then

    Time to grab a bargin me thinks.

  2. lukewarmdog
    Badgers

    so why not

    just use the iPod Touch, cheaper to buy and run, download anything wirelessly. No camera so no geo-tagging but so what.. the idea is new educational uses / apps. Not like they need tom tom to get round school.

  3. nigel 15
    Jobs Horns

    when i first heard this i thought it was a load of #$%%$<s

    saw this on the news last night. my first thought was that it was a shocking waste of money and really a load of hairy #$%%$<s.

    But having had half a day to think about it i still think it's a load of #$%%$<s

  4. Stef 2
    Flame

    Boys for the Jobs

    Why not open a MacDonalds in the school whilst we're at it?

    Mind you, that's where the best pupils from Hounslow will end up working anyway, if they're lucky.

  5. The Vociferous Time Waster
    Flame

    Nice...

    Let's try out another way for Labour to shit a metric crapload of cash on some wanky idea to make kids feel more included.

    Wanky ideas like this on the increase

    Beatings and canings on the decrease

    and hey presto...

    Education standards on the decrease

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    You want an education

    Yup we have an app for that

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    It's not the only one

    A friend of mine is a teacher, his year (or some of) were issued Asus eee 701's as part of their learning.

    Of course they were linux and none of the mongoid IT staff could work it, so a new member of staff on full wage was hired to support them. (At least someone got a job from it.)

    Of the 280 or so handed out, a 190 or so were handed back in. The rest having been... Ahem. "Lost."

    Cost of taxpayer.... Tremendous.

    Cost of teaching value - Not much.

    Most couldn't work them as they were unable to grasp linux (Even with the kiddy interface) and it didn't prepare any of them for a written exam, as no one writes anymore the "sitting down for two hours" killed them. And their writing is so bad you can't read it, thus setting them up for a life of A levels and University which are mainly 3 hour essays in exams.

    Just stupid. It won't help reading giving them a personal games-, I mean personal assistant, it will just promote a lack of the basic R's. Why add up when there is an app for that, why write when you can stab at a qwerty keyboard with your overweight podgy fingers.

    What next, an immigrant to go into work for you and sit your lessons? Computer based exams with nothing to shape them for the real world where it is all pens, paper and post it notes.

    "Fire" because education today is a disaster.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Eh?

      Whilst I agree with the general gist of your post: "Mongoid IT staff" why? beccause they didn't know how to work an OS that they'd presumably never used before, and presumably hadn't had any training for? That's rather harsh isn't it?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    WTF??

    "We went for the iPhone because it gives children more of a facility to customise applications than they can get at the moment with Windows based devices,"

    What a load of cobblers. One of the main disadvantages of the iPhone is that it is locked down and isn't customisable like Win Mob which lets you customise just about anything you like. Don't like the default keyboard? Fine, change it to one of hundreds available. Want to change what is on your home screen? Fine, add or remove whatever you like. Ahhh freedom.

    Why doesn't he just say the truth which is, "We went for the iPhone because it is the latest flashy eye candy must have toy that lets kids have fun in class with hundreds of games and fart apps. Screw learning anything!".

    Just hope its not coming out of the tax payers pocket.

  9. Sheepdog
    FAIL

    There's a book for that

    Lets see: one decent science book, a biro and a paper diary. Nope, can't see why an iphone is cost effective and has any beneficial value in education apart from looking at youtube whilst in class.

    In a way I feel sorry for the kids who are now a target of muggers. Guess someone didn't think of that aspect in the proposal.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Use number 1

    "The girls in the trial are encouraged to use the iPhones as much as possible"

    Next weeks headlines.

    iPhones removed from pupils due to hormonal teenage girls sending nudy pics to b/f's. Headmaster said to be examing evidence very carefully, before handing over phones.

  11. Thomas Bottrill

    Why iPhone?

    ""We went for the iPhone because it gives children more of a facility to customise applications than they can get at the moment with Windows based devices," he said. Another advantage is that many of the applications transfer data for use on the device, rather than demanding that the pupil logs onto the internet to use an application."

    On the other hand, if they used any other smartphone platform, they could write their own apps for it, or even teach the kids how to, without having to pay to join a developer program.

    Plus, a WinMo, Symbian, Android et. al. phone would probably be cheaper. Hell, if you really wanted to teach kids stuff that's useful for the future, get them prodding around the Android source code.

    I don't really get the point about iPhone apps being easier to customise than WinMo apps. Surely WinMo beats iPhone in that respect, considering how many undocumented settings you can tweak. Or is he just talking about how the app store is more integrated?

  12. Paul 131
    Headmaster

    Schools kids & mobiles...

    It's a mobile phone on which kids you can play games... Go figure!!!

    On the other had maybe the iPod Touch would be a more suitable device for this trial...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE: Why iPhone type questions

    (1) It is shiny

    (2) If kiddies get one free you can bet that teachers also get one free.

    (3) Despite the "easier to customise" bollocks the fact is they are more difficult to customise, and therefore more difficult to fuck up - which for an alleged teaching aid is a good thing.

    I think when they say "easier to customise" what they really mean is "I can actually understand iTunes".

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great idea

    I wondered why our own local school didn't take this approach. They invested in a batch of Fizzbooks [the name alone would put me off] and they've been a disaster. Many were DOA, they are constantly requiring maintenance, and some haven't been able to use them for the entire school year so far. Most of the batteries now seem to be giving up (already!!) and the school are being told they will have to pay for this themselves.

    It crossed my mind at the time that they would would be better off with Touches or iPhones. There is now a staggering number of high-quality, relevant applications, and Apple's management of the App store provides some protection from viruses, porn, etc. The devices themselves are reliable, don't have keyboards to gunk up, are very portable, and have excellent connectivity. And there's an amazing, free developer kit for those with the inclination to produce something for themselves.

    If you're going to make technology available to students, I think this is a great way to do it. I'd like to know how this works out in practice - keep us informed!

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