LA Schools Suspend a Billion-Dollar Contract with Apple

LA had a billion dollar contract with Apple. And now they are not going to use it and start the bidding process again. A new "request for proposal" will be implemented for the computing devices for the students. According to the Times the bidding gave Apple an unfair advantage.

Do you think that the choice of iPads at Deer Canyon was made fairly? When questioned about the bidding process it was stated that there is no document or paperwork on the bidding process. It was simply discussed, and Apple was the winner. In other words, there was no actual bidding, just a choice was made.

Do you think that there would have been a cheaper and just as capable computing device? Do you think that the iPad is too expensive?

Update.

The deal has been canceled ... and the LA schools are waiting to get their money back from Apple.

I have not been checking the news lately .. did the school get their money back?

And there is more to it. The LA district is buying Chrome books. Check out this article and see what it says about Chrome books vs iPads.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2855768/why-chromebooks-are-schooling-ipads-in-education.html

Note that Chrome books win in price, maintenance, they have a keyboard, and they can be shared.

No, I don't think that the Deer Canyon staff gave anything else a good look. They simply got into the Apple hype and went with it. They did nothing as far as researching alternatives. They simply made a decision without any paperwork or committee work. And that really was not fair because they have a responsibility to spend the money wisely.

But according to this article .. the features of the chrome books have pushed them into the school.

In addition, the kids seem to be using the chrome books and googles drive to work together on projects at the high school level. Personally I like the idea of the kids working together to edit each others works and communicate. I am not a big fan of the kids texting one another all day long, but when they edit a document together I find that to be more acceptable.