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AIBU?

To have a word with the school about their blatent Apple product advertising?

32 replies

D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 13:40

Dd1 has just shown me her parents week form. I can choose from a variety of groups to participate in with dd1, including a "Workshop showing how ipads can be used to enhance learning at home across the whole curriculum"

Really Just ipad? A Google Nexus cannot do the same thing then? Or a Tesco Hudl? Or any number of more reasonably affordable or superior Android tablets?

Almost every note sent home regarding work they can do on their tablets or giving them permission to bring their tablets into school specifically mentions ipads, not generic tablet computers. I've even had letters telling me that dd1 is allowed to bring her Macbook or ipad to school for the day Hmm

If they are shown apps at school, these are sometimes Apple Apps and no Android alternative is mentioned, despite the fact that I have always found a corresponding App in the Play Store after calming down a very upset dd1.

We manage this quite well. We can afford for the children to have their own tech, but I do think that the importance this school place on children having their own tech, Apple branded tech in particular, is starting to go a bit far now and cannot be easy for parents who cannot afford the latest ipad or macbook and might not realise that their is very little an ipad can do that a Hudl cannot.

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spanieleyes · 09/03/2014 13:45

Presumably the school has ipads so demonstrates the apps on those? So I could give you an idea of the Apple apps we use to support learning in the class but have no idea about others because we don't use them!

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RhondaJean · 09/03/2014 13:46

The problem is that all android tablets are different, whereas apple is one system and probably the most commonly used one. It would be impossible to run a workshop for x amount of parents with x amount of differ tablets as it would just be chaos.

Are they allowed to take in other tablets apart from apple? The problem can also be if the teacher is familiar with the apple system and knows how to deal with a problem on it re inappropriate content but isn't so sure of the million other types, but it does sound hard on children who don't have apple, my littlest is quite clumsy and for that reason she has a cheap hudl and not a 4/5 hundred pound iPad yet.

The focus on MacBooks is a bit bizarre.

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ThistledownAndCobweb · 09/03/2014 13:46

Presumably the schools (and maybe LEA) have chosen to invest in apple products.

Any courses or suggested activities will naturally link to this.

My classroom is mainly apple, but I do ask the pupils to tell me about any android/hurdle etc apps that do a similar job to ones that we use and then I share that information.

With the best will in the world I don't have time to do this myself (or organise training etc) because it's not what I use.

With regard to bringing equipment in they may not have the capability to share work on other devices. I use Apple TV in class so can easily add an apple device and share work on the IWB. Other platforms may not be so easy for me.

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D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 13:51

Yes they are allowed to take other tablets in and other branded laptops too.

The school have a number of ipad 2s, have just invested in a truck load of ipad Air and have 5 Think Pads.

Dd1 takes in her non Apple tablet and seems to get on fine with it, no issues with cross platform sharing from what I know and I'm sure she'd have told me if there was. She would sell her soul to get her hands on her very own ipad Air.

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Allergictoironing · 09/03/2014 13:54

It is a rather exclusive attitude. If the children are expected to do stuff that involves a tablet, and they are only able to do these things on an iPad, then the parents are expected to get the damned expensive things so the children can do what they are supposed to for school.

An iPad is a very expensive outlay for a low income family, especially when children have a greater tendency to lose or break things than adults. I'm a bit Hmm that the assumption is that all school children have access to a tablet at all, let alone one particular (expensive) brand.

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cardibach · 09/03/2014 13:57

I'm a teacher, and Apple invest quite a lot in educational training, so you can go on courses as a teacher on how to use iPads, for example. I wonder whether the same is happening here - either trainers funded by Apple are coming to school, or a training programme that can be used in house has been given to the school/LEA by Apple. Perhaps if some other tablet manufacturers focussed on education the situation might change.
I'm very surprised about the letter referring to a MacBook, though, as all LEAs I know of use Windows on PCs/laptops and MacBooks wouldn't necessarily be compatible. I'm a bit surprised they are allowed to take any tech in, actually - we aren't allowed to due to the increased risk of viruses entering the school network via insufficiently protected home devices.

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D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 14:04

They have Macbooks in the school. They also have Samsung branded Chrome books and Windows PCs, but the focus does seem to predominantly be on Apple tech.

They are allowed to bring in their tablets/laptops for special homework projects and for "free time" on a Friday afternoon from year 5 and up. They are not allowed to connect them to the internet. Dd1 insists that most of her friends have their own mi-fi connection they use in school for freetime.

Any apps or special programmes they might need have to be downloaded at home before they take their stuff into school.

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CommanderShepard · 09/03/2014 14:10

It really pisses me off, all this Learning How To Use A Specific OS gubbins, when they could buy a load of Raspberry Pis and teach them Scratch and therefore actual programming rather than how to work an Apple product. We seem to be teaching people how to consume technology rather than create it.

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Madmum24 · 09/03/2014 14:12

Regardless as to whether or not YABU or not, i am shocked at the level of tech that is expected for primary aged children! Are you in a particularly affluent area OP? Or is this the norm now? thank God we home school

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Llareggub · 09/03/2014 14:21

I'm not surprised at the level of tech. My yr2 DS was asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and bring it to school on a USB. It irritated me, given that there are many households that won't have access to this kind of stuff.

My reception son uses an iPad at school. He has used other tablets and calls them all iPads. Maybe it is becoming te generic word for a tablet like Hoover for vacuum cleaner?

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D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 14:35

MadMum, the school is in a weird place wrt affluence. It sort of straddles one of the poorest areas of town and one of the most expensive.

I would say around 60% of the children come from middle class backgrounds with the rest made up mainly from low income families.

The ipad 2 have been there for years, the ipad Airs just after they became an Academy. We've also just had a letter telling us that dd1 can go to London for 3 days in July. We must pay £255 by June if we want her to go. Clearly whoever is running the school is from the kind of background where finding £255 is something you can do in just less than 3 months.

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spanieleyes · 09/03/2014 14:36

Primary schools HAVE to teach programming! We teach Scratch from year 3 onward.

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lottieandmia · 09/03/2014 14:48

Our school promotes iPads too. It's because they are used in the school and also because the school has an arrangement where parents can get a discount.

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D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 14:56

I might turn up to the ipad workshop with my Samsung tablet, just to be awkward Grin

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chipsandpeas · 09/03/2014 15:01

a lot of people as well will say ipad but have a different kind of tablet, same with ipod
seems to be the new generic name kinda like hoover refers to any kind of vaccuum

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Somersaults · 09/03/2014 15:11

Spanieleyes is right. Schools have to teach programming. My y1 class can talk knowledgeably about algorithms and debugging. Ok, so they are only doing this at an incredibly basic level using programmable toys at the moment but they are learning. All our ks2 classes use Scratch.

I think iPad is becoming a generic term but think back to the monopoly that Microsoft have had on technology in schools over the last ten to fifteen years. I learnt nothing but windows, ms words, excel in my ICT lessons at school.

Our school have iPads in every classroom. We refer to them as iPads because that's what they are. We talk about doing work on the iPads, and I'm pretty sure if we sent a letter home it would talk about iPads rather than tablets. The apps we use are bought from the Apple store. Just like schools teach that word processing is done on ms word, they now teach skills using apple apps or products. I can see your point but I don't think you will change anything by complaining to the school about it.

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PotteringAlong · 09/03/2014 15:19

chips I was just about to say the exact same thing!

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jamdonut · 09/03/2014 15:30

Confused Confused primary schools HAVE to teach programming??? Don't think it's happening in our primary (yet). Though we have acquired some very nice tablets and netbook (type) computers recently. We seem to be moving away from having a ' computer suite' .

My daughter and her friends were all given i-pad Mini's when they started 6th form last September,which will belong to them when they finish their A levels ! Envy Envy I make do with a Hudl Hmm

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Somersaults · 09/03/2014 15:36

The new curriculum coming in this September definitely includes programming from year one. I know many many schools are already including it. It's a huge push at the moment. ICT has becoming 'computing'

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CrohnicallyFarting · 09/03/2014 15:56

allergictoironing actually, I'd say it's less exclusive. The school are teaching iPad use as they actually have some iPads in school for pupils to use. Whereas if they taught something on android but only had iPads in school, that would be assuming they had access to android devices outside school.

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D0oinMeCleanin · 09/03/2014 16:26

Surely they could teach both and use the word tablet instead of iPad? When teaching children editing using Apple Apps would it be that hard for the teacher to add "if you have an android tablet you could try searching for movie editing suites" or a quick search on Google for similar Android apps rather than "Here is this brilliant Apple App that is not available on Android if you wanted to you could go home and make a movie on your ipad and add some special effects and bring it into school tomorrow to show everyone" leaving my child and I would imagine many other Android owning children feeling left out, despite the fact that most android tablets have apps that do the exact same thing.

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ThistledownAndCobweb · 09/03/2014 17:48

Some teachers do. I have a board where we list apps - the ones we use on iPads in school and the children add equivelant apps for other platforms.

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maddy68 · 09/03/2014 18:09

We use apple products in school as they invest a lot into educational products. We do use windows too
I don't see the problem to be honest!
They are transferable skills but training on the actual software in use at. The school builds confidence

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HadABadDay2014 · 09/03/2014 18:33

What about the children who haven't got any pad at all.

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redskyatnight · 09/03/2014 18:33

The DC's school is not in an affluent area. Apple sells them products at a very cheap rate - hence the school takes them on it. I have used the first occasion of my DS saying "I want an iPad" to give him a lesson in how marketing works.

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