School District to Implement iPad Pilot Program

The Parsippany-Troy Hills School District aims to improve its technology program by purchasing $415,000 worth of computers and other hand-held devices, such as iPads.

The devices will be used as part of the district’s instructional programs for a limited number of students wherein all textbook content will be loaded onto an iPad, which Superintendent LeRoy Seitz deemed “more user-friendly for today’s students” during a Board of Education meeting Wednesday night to discuss the preliminary 2012-2013 budget.

To illustrate the point, Seitz mentioned being in a classroom earlier in the week reading to a group of students with limited learning skills who had trouble paying attention.

“What was so amazing about trying to interact with these students is they were very passive and unemotional until I mentioned the iPad,” he said. And then they got really excited and started talking about their favorite programs.”

He said most of the programs were very simple but that it was amazing how easily kids are able to connect to the technology.

After Seitz presented the district’s plans for the budget, audience member Pat Petaccia—noting the price of the devices and her reluctance about taxpayers picking up the bill—inquired as to why the district is paying for iPads instead of simply using textbooks.

Seitz noted that most textbooks are fairly expensive and said that, by loading the texts onto the devices, the technology costs will be offset by savings on the books.

The superintendent also said the costs of the iPads would be anywhere from $500 to $1,000, based on the software that would be loaded on the device.

“This current year, we purchased an iPad for a special education student for assistive technology,” Seitz said. “Our technology department looked at the situation and, based on the student’s needs, felt that we could provide good assistive technology through the use of an iPad with specific apps on it.”

Board member Susy Golderer questioned Seitz as to who will get these new iPads, how they will be used and how they will be implemented over an extended period of time.

Seitz explained that the iPads given to students this year will just be part of a pilot program the district will try in select classes to see how it works and to determine how to implement the devices if the program goes beyond the pilot stage.

“We’re not at a point where we’re going to give all students an iPad if we replace all their textbooks,” he said.

Seitz promised that he will make sure Barry Haines, the supervisor of district technology, gets on the board’s meeting agenda  in the near future to explain the district’s multiple-year technology plan.