Murdoch group unveils Amplify tablet for US schools

[groundloop]

Source: BBC News

A new tablet for schools has been unveiled by Rupert Murdoch's education group Amplify, reigniting the debate about how children will learn in future.

The $299 (£198) Android device includes learning programs for pupils as well as tools for teachers, allowing them to monitor progress and attendance.........

While education experts believe that tablet-led education is likely to become the norm in classrooms, not everyone thinks proprietary systems will be the best way forward.

"Everyone wants to offer proprietary software that will lock education into their system and that just isn't going to happen," said Prof Stephen Heppell, a digital education expert at Bournemouth University.



Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21683616

---

There's a lot more to read in the linked article.

I can just imagine why News Corp. is trying to get locked into our kids classroom. No Thanks.

[KamaAina]

1. Someone needs to come up with an open-source school platform pronto

Red Hat, perhaps?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. "Red Hat, perhaps?"

This always blows people away...

[cliffordu]

8. Linux user since late '95.

"You are registered as user #33135 with the Linux Counter"

12 floppies to install the system.

The first time I saw the command prompt I felt like King Kong.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Could be worse...

You could have an overwhelming urge to throw barrels...

[cliffordu]

10. well...

Yep.

[Robb]

2. Fortunately most districts are not run by idiots.

[Scuba]

3. Pre-loaded courses include ...

Don't Be a Taker

Trickle Down - It Just Needs More Time

Why Health Care Is Bad For You

Gays, Women and Other Lesser Beings

and of course ...

Why You Can Only Trust Fox News

[madfloridian]

4. He's getting rich in the Chicago school system.

Murdoch contract with Chicago schools

In case Chicago missed it, Rupert Murdoch is now profiting from the testing craziness hitting Chicago's public schools. He owns an outfit called "Wireless Generation" that is now a contractor with CPS. Anyone who doesn't already know that the administration of Chicago Public Schools, the nation's third largest school system, is in the hands of amateurs (or worse, outsiders who want to destroy public education and turn it over to the private sector at all costs), should be contacting any of the 241 principals of the so-called "Track E" schools which begin receiving their students on August 13, 2012.

Things have gotten so crazy in the 2012 world of edits, memos, Power Points, orders, reforms, re-reforms, and re-re-re-reforms from the administration of former Rochester school supt. Jean-Claude Brizard and former "Relationship Banker" Rahm Emanuel that it would take a team of a dozen investigative reporters on the ground school-by-school (with a backup team of another dozen researchers) to separate out the greed, mendacity, incompetence, and silliness that is being foisted on Chicago behind the smokescreen of the latest iteration of "School Reform." Meanwhile, the city's communities, teachers, principals, and children will be facing centrally planned chaos as the first full year of Rahm's version of "School Reform" kicks in non Monday August 13, 2012. The 241 Chicago "Track E" schools would make this sub-system one of the 20 largest school districts in the USA were it a separate system. But it would be one of only three (the other two are Detroit and New Orleans) currently ruled by a group of outside mercenaries dedicated to destroying public education.

NYC still has a contract with him as well, I think. I know they stopped one contract...but I think there are others around.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Things started going downhill

when calculators became the norm in schools.

[onehandle]

6. News Corp provided 'education.' The vast majority of schools are getting iPads.

He's not only corrupt, he's cheap.

[quakerboy]

11. At that price

Why not any other tablet? In fact, you are headed toward Ipad price territory a that point.