Please don't buy your students iPads

I thought this was going to be a really fun post to write. It started with a little back-and-forth with my buddy Bill Chamberlain on Twitter. I think the iPad would be a total waste of money for schools (not to mention the precedent it sets) and he thinks it would be a good purchase. I'm paraphrasing him.

The more I've thought about it and the more I've read the opinions of others, the less fun this is turning into, though. I really don't like the idea of schools spending money on iPads.

Here's the gist: the iPad is a big iPod Touch. Yes, it's the slam du jour, but it's true. It runs the iPod Touch OS. There have been no functional updates to the OS. It still doesn't multitask. It still doesn't run Flash on the internet. The only hardware updates are held back by those software limitations. The faster processor adds little to the experience as the iPad still only runs one 3rd-part app at a time. The big screen is great for surfing the "internet." Engadget has coined a term for what you'll get used to seeing on your iPad: The Blue Lego Block of Ambiguity™.

This isn't a post about the downfalls of the iPad, though. It's about why schools in particular would be foolish to spend their precious dollars on iPads.

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The iPad looks sweet. I'm still a gadget geek. I have a first-generation iPhone plugged into a first-generation MacBook right now. I'm a sucker for shiny Apple products. I'd be happy to have an iPad around, but that's because I already have those other gadgets I just listed.

The problem for schools starts there: the iPad is so marginally better than an iPod Touch and so much worse than a netbook that schools would be foolish to buy iPads. While I already have an iPhone and a MacBook, schools don't. Do I really have to write about why schools that are already 1:1 with laptops or iPod Touches shouldn't buy iPads?

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So here's my context. I'll go with two scenarios.

1. A school has funds enough to go 1:1 with iPads.
2. A school has funds enough to buy 1 classroom set of 30 iPads.

1. It's a pretty simple argument from here. If you can afford to go 1:1 with iPads ($500), do your students a favor and buy them each a $300 netbook and a $200 iPod Touch. The netbook has a real OS (I'd go with Linux, personally) and a webcam (important for networking with the world). The iPod Touch is their instant-on, ubiquitous access to content.

2. If a school can afford a set of 30 iPads, that means they can afford 75 iPod Touches. Outfitting 2.5 times more students with iPod Touches is....it's 2.5 times more students!

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Now, Bill hasn't written his post yet, but I can anticipate some of his possible arguments. One is that students can't just be creators of content, they also need to consume. Agreed. But I can get students a creation tool (netbook) and a consumption tool (iPod Touch) for the same price as an iPad. Another is that the next version of the iPad might have a webcam. The next iPad OS might have multitasking. Apple might allow Flash in Mobile Safari at some point. These things might come true, but they aren't true yet. 

Schools cannot be beta testers for Apple's newest projects. Not when there are better alternatives already out there.