Fair enough— Amplify — Rupert Murdoch’s education technology company — made crappy tablets without the Gorilla Glass promised in its proposal.
But it also appears as though Guilford County Schools was way too trusting of Amplify’s quality control, even after a demo failed during an April school board work session. These developments have left David Colin —the retired computer engineer who repeatedly questioned the need for the tablets as part of GCS’ $30 million Race to the Top grant —- feeling vindicated:
Colin, 77, felt vindicated, Friday — sort of — when GCS announced that it was suspending the tablet program after experiencing problems with about 1,500 of the devices that included broken screens and a melted charger.
Colin, who worked as an electronics engineer for more than 35 years, has filed numerous public information requests with GCS regarding the tablets.
“It just seemed like common sense,” he said. “It’s a retail product, and they’re trying to use it in a commercial-type operation.”
In a recent email that Colin sent to GCS Board Chairman Alan Duncan, he brought up concerns about problems arising with the battery, including possible overheating, if left plugged in too long.
Some parents’ reaction:
Magen Eller said her daughter Abby has not had a tablet for use in her classes at Allen Middle School for about a month. The screen initially cracked after another student bumped Abby’s desk and the tablet fell to the floor, but then the screen shattered in a second mishap, Eller said.
At that time, the tablets had an ineffective silicone shell while the district waited for Amplify to send the stronger protective cases the tablets should have had from the beginning, she said.
“I was really surprised Guilford County Schools sent home a tablet with that flimsy little thing,” Eller said.
Parent Linda Mozell said her daughter and other students at Southeast Middle School had repeated problems connecting to the Internet with their tablets. And even though her daughter got one of the “hard shell” protective cases, that caused its own set of problems, she said.
The keyboard’s hard-shell case kept rubbing against the tablet screen in a way that could scar it, she said. In addition, the cord connecting the tablet and keyboard broke easily, the stylus was too big for easy use, and the equipment came home without a user’s manual.
“I was not pleased with the resources on the tablet,” Mozell said.
So for now the tablets have been scrapped, and where this goes nobody seems to know. No doubt GCS will perform its due diligence to make sure this next round of tablets –wherever they come from — operate properly. My guess is they’ll pick it up again by the time the second semester starts in January.
Meanwhile, I heard GCS director of instructional technology Jake Henry on WFDD this morning talking about how the one–to-one initiative funded by the federal grant will carry on —without the tablets. I would say they could have just done that in the first place and saved a bunch of money, but that’s not the way public education works.
