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This is such an amazing move. It's going to put access to information into the hands of millions of children. It is a revolution in the making.

loverobots 14y ago
I am afraid they have taken away books and given them a new distraction device.
kaolinite 14y ago
They said the same about the internet but most kids just play games or go on Facebook :-) I read a recent study by teachers using iPads in the classroom - they said that they didn't help learning as the children just played games or messed around with them instead.
- TeMPOraL 14y ago
  Which is not really a problem with iPads, nor with kids - it's a problem with education.
  - kaolinite 14y ago
    100% agree. I'm just sick of schools spending £1000s on plasma TVs, etc, and then not having enough left in the budget for textbooks (true story).
  - goblin89 14y ago
    Exactly. During traditional class, as I recall, your options are roughly these: 1) mess around with something, 2) study or make it look like that. In terms of temporal motivation theory, the utility of messing around is much higher than the utility of boring study. Two ways to fix this—either lower the utility of messing around, or raise the utility of actual learning. A punishment by teacher (with high enough expectancy) for messing around with classmates or cellphone does the first. Obviously, a book is too boring—but replace it with an iPad and children can now play games while no one notices[0], which makes the utility of messing around go up again. Another, arguably better way would be raising the utility of actual learning relative to messing around with stuff. In other words, make so that children would like to do it themselves—through some psychological reward (valuable and close enough temporarily), or by making it an enjoyable process (i.e., immediate reward). It means fixing the system though. [0] Like many of us, in regular day job environments, can (and do) procrastinate with the help of our fancy devices.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

loverobots 14y ago

I am afraid they have taken away books and given them a new distraction device.

kaolinite 14y ago

They said the same about the internet but most kids just play games or go on Facebook :-) I read a recent study by teachers using iPads in the classroom - they said that they didn't help learning as the children just played games or messed around with them instead.

TeMPOraL 14y ago
Which is not really a problem with iPads, nor with kids - it's a problem with education.
- kaolinite 14y ago
  100% agree. I'm just sick of schools spending £1000s on plasma TVs, etc, and then not having enough left in the budget for textbooks (true story).
- goblin89 14y ago
  Exactly. During traditional class, as I recall, your options are roughly these: 1) mess around with something, 2) study or make it look like that. In terms of temporal motivation theory, the utility of messing around is much higher than the utility of boring study. Two ways to fix this—either lower the utility of messing around, or raise the utility of actual learning. A punishment by teacher (with high enough expectancy) for messing around with classmates or cellphone does the first. Obviously, a book is too boring—but replace it with an iPad and children can now play games while no one notices[0], which makes the utility of messing around go up again. Another, arguably better way would be raising the utility of actual learning relative to messing around with stuff. In other words, make so that children would like to do it themselves—through some psychological reward (valuable and close enough temporarily), or by making it an enjoyable process (i.e., immediate reward). It means fixing the system though. [0] Like many of us, in regular day job environments, can (and do) procrastinate with the help of our fancy devices.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]