Lucky Maine Kindergarteners Receive New iPads

Auburn, Maine residents might have a good reason to be jealous of their five year old kids.

It turns out that a school district committee has voted unanimously to test a new program that will give each and every kindergartner a brand spanking new iPad2. The program aims to change how kids learn in the classroom and to put an emphasis on technology. School superintendent Tom Morrill feels the program will redefine “how we're going to teach and learn.”

The program would give new iPad 2s for 285 five-year old students and an extra number for teachers involved in the program. The total cost to outfit the entire Kindergarten program would total $200,000. Money for this program is not yet available but outgoing Superintendent Tom Morrill pledges to glean the necessary money from the school budget and from grants.

In today’s economic climate, what, with schools facing extreme budgetary restraints and layoffs, the idea that shiny new electronic devices are just being given out has stirred a bit of controversy. City council members have focused on money and the feasibility of handing iPads over to young children who have yet to learn how to read or write.

This comes as no surprise, as the council voted down obtaining iPads for city officials back in February.

"I love new gadgets, but now is not the time," Councilor Belinda Gerry said. "We don't know what the state is going to give us and we don't know what our property taxes are going to look like. So any motion to spend this money, I can't support."

Some children in the pilot program will receive iPads as early as May.

A major uptake of tablets in schools would be a logical extension of the devices' popularity in non-educational markets. Amazon already sells more Kindle e-books than paperbacks and periodical publishers facing declining circulations are pinning hopes on tablet subscribers as they become popular reading devices.

According to Superintendent Morril, the move to tablets is inevitable, making an iPad "even more important than a book."

A school district in Virginia is now replacing its Advanced Placement Biology textbook with iPads. New York, California, and Illinois have also jumped on the iPad wagon, spending between $150,000 and $1.3 million for the devices and apps in order to engage students in the classroom.