At the 2007 election Kevin Rudd promised high school kids a desktop computer and brought in tax concessions for laptops. So high school kids would end up with two computers. Alex Robson and I wrote an op-ed saying how expensive and ridiculous this policy would be. Anyway, now the Queensland government is promising year 7 kids an iPad.
Under Labor’s plan, 32GB iPads with wifi capabilities will be distributed to about 5065 students taking part in the pilot phase of the Flying Start program between 2012 and 2014.
“These Year 7 students will be in their first year of junior secondary school and we want to support their transition with cutting edge technology to support the new learning environment,” Ms Bligh said.
To be fair, this’ll stop kids being bored at school – Angry Birds while the teacher’s back is turned will help pass the time. Will it teach anything else? Doubt it.
For the bean counters – these are very expensive iPads; $5.7 million divided by 5065 students is $1125 per iPad. JB HiFi price = $673.
(HT: Noodle)
Seen reports both ways on this sort of thing. Done well it has led to some significant advances in learning. Done poorly – well, yeah, they get Angry Birds out of it.
Either way, its a far better option than a laptop or a computer.
Driftforge
21 Feb 12 at 4:08 pm
Just when you thought this mob of incompetents couldn’t dream up any more of their ludicrous schemes, Bang! off pops another one.
It’s not technology that is causing Aussie students to lag well behind Asian students.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 4:10 pm
It’s the set top box disaster 2.0
They will never learn. Stupid arrogant Labor.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 4:13 pm
The real Flying Start will be the ability to pick up a cheap Ipad from the five-finger discount specialist at the pub after legaions of these freebies go missing.
Myrrdin Seren
21 Feb 12 at 4:14 pm
How do I enrol?
.
21 Feb 12 at 4:15 pm
Vote for me. Vote for me. Look- I give your kids presents. Vote for me.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 4:16 pm
Oh Mother of Mercy.
Is this an Onion gag?
C.L.
21 Feb 12 at 4:18 pm
The LNP need to fight this. An iPad for an iPad, a Bluetooth for a Bluetooth…
TimT
21 Feb 12 at 4:24 pm
lol
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 4:25 pm
Wow. If the spectacularly bad polling continued, I was already thinking of voting Labor in the interests of a better democracy (governments with tiny oppositions tend to be awful) but now, seeing I had a kid due in year 7 soon, I’m sold.
(I may or may not be being serious.)
steve from brisbane
21 Feb 12 at 4:28 pm
Of course you are Steve, you old conservative, you.
Fleeced
21 Feb 12 at 4:33 pm
Classic Labor.
This time they’re offering to buy votes they know they won’t have to pay for.
But the electorate know they ain’t really sellin’
JamesK
21 Feb 12 at 4:33 pm
If it was anyone other than the government, the price would go down, not up, when you were buying 5,000
offor the suckers.Mother Hubbard's Dog
21 Feb 12 at 4:35 pm
Meanwhile, mums and dads still have to fork up hundreds of dollars a year in ‘voluntary’ contributions to their local public school.
What a bunch of fork-wits
duncan
21 Feb 12 at 4:36 pm
I’m actually surprised Bligh didn’t throw in a Wii vibe for the mums and a set of steak knives for the dads.
C.L.
21 Feb 12 at 4:37 pm
Screw the steak knives, $600 is about four longnecks a week.
duncan
21 Feb 12 at 4:43 pm
Well, if you accept Gonski’s idea that government schools should receive 75 per cent of an additional $5 billion in taxpayers’ financial resources, on some confected educational disadvantage basis, you will see much, much more of these kinds of wasteful escapades across the land.
As an aside it’s a significant concern that digital technologies, that should be used to break down government schooling centralism, are being co-opted by politicians for (not-so) cheap political points.
Julie Novak
21 Feb 12 at 4:45 pm
So the Federal government buys each kid a laptop, the State government an iPad. Maybe the local government should buy each kid an iPod with soothing music to help build better study habits.
John Comnenus
21 Feb 12 at 4:45 pm
TimT please stop
Tal
21 Feb 12 at 4:45 pm
Reverse all this crap. I dont’ think the Shanghai government gives a computer to every kid and they are the highest scoring place for education. Give every kid a pen and paper. But what is more of concern is not that some Chinese are beating us but the fact the Kiwi’s are smarter that is a real worry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading#data
kelly liddle
21 Feb 12 at 4:49 pm
The $452/student balance is for QTU Fortitude Valley ‘training sessions’.
Forester
21 Feb 12 at 4:51 pm
What’s the bet they order a bunch of iPad 2′s or even Ipad 1s, and by the time they get their shit together and actually start handing them out, everyone’s got iPad 3s or Samsung tablets?
papachango
21 Feb 12 at 5:03 pm
Sinclair, how far we have travelled.
I am just old enough to vaguely remember free milk to primary schools to make up for a lack of milk at home. (I never like flavoured milk). I can even remember the names of the two kids in my class photo who were slighly over-weight.
we now have free star-trek style technologies given to schools. apparently the poor and getting poorer too, and the top 1% are just flying ahead.
Jim Rose
21 Feb 12 at 5:12 pm
What’s the bet they order Acme iPad rip-offs from China, which normal people could buy for $4.99?
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 5:18 pm
Lol… so Bligh is bribing people with Ipads now. Good one Anna.
Try this for a bribe. You’re going to lose and no amount of filthy tricks will change that.
JC
21 Feb 12 at 5:30 pm
JC
We are a bit slow up here in QLD and managed to keep electing them for about 20 years and bribes do work, already got a vote from steve. Debt at $62 Billion and counting things are great. ($62 billion is almost what Hawke/ Keating left for the whole country)
kelly liddle
21 Feb 12 at 5:48 pm
If we want kiddies getting useful experience and operating fancy touch screens, we should get them jobs at McDonald’s.
Infidel Tiger
21 Feb 12 at 5:53 pm
Ah, so that’s the reason for the iPads.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 5:56 pm
Net state debt is 129 bn. Commonwealth debt is 37 bn.
Our Government debt is more like 12.3% of GDP.
.
21 Feb 12 at 5:56 pm
The sad thing of course is that iPads and their ilk are so utterly useless. Most people take about 2 weeks to realize that.
andyd
21 Feb 12 at 6:01 pm
Blighopoulos government spending.
H B Bear
21 Feb 12 at 6:03 pm
Dot
That is just some number they like to use. How about using net financial worth at -$232 Billion or net worth figure of -$122 Billion. For Aus gov.
“Net worth is equal to total assets less liabilities.
Net financial worth is equal to financial assets less liabilities.” http://www.budget.gov.au/2011-12/content/myefo/html/13_appendix_d-01.htm
kelly liddle
21 Feb 12 at 6:20 pm
Why do government policies always assume kids learn better with high technology?
Quentin George
21 Feb 12 at 6:22 pm
Total Commonwealth Government Securities
on Issue – $227,401m consisting of:
Treasury Bonds – $198,653m
Treasury Indexed Bonds – $14,629m
Treasury Notes – $14,100m
Other Securities – $19m
As at 17 February 2012
Updated weekly.
This is the one I prefer…
Winston Smith
21 Feb 12 at 6:31 pm
I think the LNP might have alady proposed something similar, but I think it was for special needs kids. And it was 6000 iPads. So they are already 1000 up on behind the times Bligh.
Anyway, my kids school have just signed an agreement for a bunch of HP laptops (HP! Wtf!) and the cost is in the thousands per laptop. It isn’t the cost of the hardware, but the lease/service arrangements. So $1125 per iPad sounds pretty good.
As a text book device, the iPad is fantastic. Sent from my iPad.
Of more cornern is this setting aside 50% of the CSG royalties for $4000 graduation payouts to high school kids. Seriously? I guess when you are going to lose anyway you might. Well promise anything.
And how does the mining tax fit in to this royalty business.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 6:39 pm
The Barnett Govt has announced a plan for 900 iPads to be given to Year 1 & 2 students too.
Absolutely crazy. If you want to win their hearts and minds, give the kiddies a BMX and a ging.
Infidel Tiger
21 Feb 12 at 6:43 pm
what are year 1 and 2 students going to do with an ipad?
kelly liddle
21 Feb 12 at 6:51 pm
Dunno, but they’ll be far more adept at the technology than their teachers. I see 3 year olds confidently using iPhones these days. Which if you ask me is disturbing.
Infidel Tiger
21 Feb 12 at 6:54 pm
I had a friends three year old instruct me how to play tetris! (which of course I’ve played since I was a kid) on an iPhone, in a very authoritative, ‘Mummy” tone.
That was disturbing. Kids these days are fricking children of the corn – and they think we’re all stupid.
.
21 Feb 12 at 7:07 pm
what are year 1 and 2 students going to do with an ipad?
NOT getting educated in the way I was, and CERTAINLY NOT getting educated in the way my Dad was from 1925 to 1934 when he had to leave school and catch rabbits and grub ferns. But they WILL be able to protest and occupy +++++
I keep thinking about the novel series “Tomorrow when the War Began”. When I read it ( having a teenager at the time) I was reminded of Arthur Ransome’s Swallowdale which I loved as a kid. NO IPAD will develop kids like the ones in those books, and I used to know kids like that.
hzhousewife
21 Feb 12 at 7:18 pm
My youngest learned the times tables, up to twelve times twelve, using an iPad app. The sneaky little device tricks them into wanting to learn.
Did a say she was four at the time?
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 7:25 pm
That’s interesting, Entropy. Did you pay $1125 for the iPad?
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 7:30 pm
yep… now we’ll see how much the mobile device management software costs to control them. It might be worth asking how they will disable the 3G sim capability so the kids don’t have unfettered internet access from them. Oh, I wonder who will be writing and or buying the apps. How will they control which apps get on them? How will they make sure that the kids have the apps they want to use? How will Apple handle the warranty for these things?
I’m staggered. The qld government can’t even get them integrated properly into their own networks for senior execs.
DM
21 Feb 12 at 7:55 pm
No, Gab, but I do not have a leasing and service agreement either.
For atypical school laptop, the lease is close to three grand. So this price for a school rollout doesn’t seem too bad. I wish our school went with iPads rather than laptops.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 8:28 pm
Entropy – not tablets?
Sinclair Davidson
21 Feb 12 at 8:31 pm
Yeah, sure ’cause it’s “free”. Projected cost $1125 per iPad knock-off and we know Labor always meets budget. yeah? lol
Kids don’t need iPads to learn. This is just another waste – same as the federal “free” 1 million computer scheme promised in 2007, and it’s taken 5 years to deliver 600,000 plus the budget blow-out.
Makes no sense.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 8:33 pm
DM if you had RTFA, you would know these are wifi only. As to controlling what kids look at, well, good luck with that no matter how good the nanny software is on the school webserver.
There are multiple models for app management on iOS devices. They are similar to blackberries, without the need to get a blackberry server. Two examples You can have the iPads synced via iCloud to update apps, or if the school doesn’t want to pay for them, get parents to sync via iTunes at home with a list of apps.
You can tell I’m a fan.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 8:36 pm
Actually It’s a great strategy. Buying the next generation of welfare recipients. Teach ‘em early that the Labor givernment provides you with freebies.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 8:41 pm
Anyone who buys their kid a tablet other than an iPad, Sinclair, deserves to spend their last days alone in a decrepit old folks home.
Agree though with Gab that it makes no sense for the government to stick its beak in. Schools are generally better placed to make decisions on what they want and how it will benefit the student, particularly with regard to software needs before the hardware is chosen.
It never seems to work out that way though.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 8:42 pm
I also think $1125 sounds too low. A 32gb wifi iPad is $689, leaving only $436 for servicing over the lease, apps and other costs.
Far too low.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 8:47 pm
LoL.
Sinclair Davidson
21 Feb 12 at 8:48 pm
I thought you would appreciate the thought.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 8:54 pm
It was a good comment. I’m very happy with my tablet though.
Sinclair Davidson
21 Feb 12 at 8:56 pm
Entropy,
You seem to be on top of the iPad thing, perhaps you can explain how you plug in the cable for the NBN? We already know the NBN is the future of education. If all the kiddies are using iPads plugged into the NBN and they move around the classroom will they strangle each other with their cables?
Rob
21 Feb 12 at 8:57 pm
What a truly stupid thing to say!
As if giving kids an iPad will help their move to high school. If that is the best she can come up with to’hide th bribe’, she really has lost it.
Johno
21 Feb 12 at 8:58 pm
She really is irritatingly stupid. Is there even 1/2 an Emily’s lister with 1/4 of a normal brain?
JC
21 Feb 12 at 9:02 pm
Off topic but sort of related.
JC did you fix your iPhone?
Rob
21 Feb 12 at 9:05 pm
There isn’t anything wrong with testing new technology. A cost benefit study might find iPads a cheaper alternative than management and depreciation of paper text books even though there is no direct educational benefit.
They might increase teacher productivity through streamlining distribution of class notes, examinations and marking, enabling to increase class sizes.
But we’ll never know because the Social Democrats have spent someone elses money on someone else and directing the delivery of the benefit. Producer capture will give teachers all the benefits of increased productivity by keeping class sizes the same.
A better alternative would be having the parent buying the device with their own money, monitoring how the device is looked after and at the end of the day is best placed to assess the educational benefit. If it works for that individual school parents will vote with their wallets and other schools may follow.
We need charter schools and vouchers now…
Forester
21 Feb 12 at 9:54 pm
Rob, I ignore the problem, as I went to the virtual home button and started to use that. I indirectly got it from your links, so thanks.
JC
21 Feb 12 at 9:57 pm
Now if only he could fix his iPad.
Gab
21 Feb 12 at 9:59 pm
On the the plus side, we’ll have ” Fucken ipad” on the Cat from year 7ers. The smart ones that is.
Jumpnmcar
21 Feb 12 at 10:05 pm
“give a kid a ging”.
Give?
I gave Junior an old tube from my bike and told him to make his own.
Which he duly did.
I had to quietly toss it in the bin as it was a wee bit too lethal for suburbia. Would be marvelous if you had a few thousand acres though.
boy on a bike
21 Feb 12 at 10:07 pm
Entropy, a small point of order: the management software available for the iOS devices pales in comparison with what Blackberry Enterprise Server offers. In terms of lock down and audit trail, I’ve seen nothing better on the market.
We’re an all Apple household, but at work it’s all BB and for good reason.
tbh
21 Feb 12 at 10:13 pm
It’s nice to hear about a young boy doing something productive.
I’ve recently purchased the The Dangerous Book For Boys for my as yet unborn sprog. It covers matters as diverse as The Commonwealth to catapults. I’m thinking of homeschooling safe in the knowledge that this will be all he really needs.
Infidel Tiger
21 Feb 12 at 10:17 pm
Thats better
Jumpnmcar
21 Feb 12 at 10:24 pm
This heading of this thread should be;
Dead workers for all of us…
MaryT
21 Feb 12 at 10:24 pm
What a crock of shit.
Half of you pricks have iPhones and iPads and would be up in arms referring to “profiteering” if Apple charged a cent more, on APS 4 or AIN wages you simply couldn’t afford them.
.
21 Feb 12 at 10:27 pm
Stop buying Apple products, GetUP weenies, if it bothers you that much.
tbh
21 Feb 12 at 10:29 pm
Isn’t modern Australia awesome, now year 7ers can ” friend” Gina Rinehart. For freeeeee.( Well Gina and Clive are stumping up the loot,technically )
Bring on the mining adds ” like your ipads kids? your most welcome “
Jumpnmcar
21 Feb 12 at 10:44 pm
MaryJ,
Don’t you think getup has done enough damage to the world? The Rudd and Gillard govts are on its head.
Why should getup care if some workers commit suicide in China, when they showed not the slightest concern for the workers who were killed in the pink batts disaster?
[Slight edit to avoid derailing the thread. Sinc]
Rob
21 Feb 12 at 10:44 pm
And it’s not as though every other bit of electronic gear isn’t made in those factories. In fact some are made with less scrutiny. Ironically products no doubt used by the getup tcrowd o spread their pathetic bullshit.
I bet the most popular factories to work in in china are Foxconn. Because they have the best conditions for factory workers. It is just it falls short in comparison to the west.
Entropy
21 Feb 12 at 11:31 pm
Dumb, Dot, Dash
Why do you always fall over in a heap of expletives as soon as you are confronted with a bit of moral superiority?
MaryT
22 Feb 12 at 8:58 am
I don’t know why you think being a hypocrite is a form of moral superiority.
This is again, a crock of shit, Mary.
Once again, I must remind you, that you are a fucking dunce.
.
22 Feb 12 at 9:04 am
Stop nagging, MaryBob. What business is it of yours you commie freak.
Gab
22 Feb 12 at 9:04 am
OT. Sinc
MaryT
22 Feb 12 at 9:20 am
Dumb, Dot Dash
So the question obviously remains.
MaryT
22 Feb 12 at 9:21 am
Derailing threads again, MaryBob. Why can’t you just focus on the topic. Do you have ADHD?
Gab
22 Feb 12 at 9:25 am
♫ Marybob, Queen of Arkansas ♪ ♫
spot
22 Feb 12 at 9:25 am
Gab
whore for capo’s?
Shouldn’t you be sleeping now?
MaryT
22 Feb 12 at 9:55 am