Sometimes, despite your best intentions, your plan to add technology to the classroom via eLearning can simply fall flat and fail. It could be issues with the technology, the content itself, or even a lack of marketing and excitement around the project.
In the news recently there was a story about a $1.3billion eLearning scheme in the US that has been unsuccessful. It was a 2013 project aimed to provide education via iPads to 650,000 LA students – a great idea, and a great way to bring technology into the classroom.
According to netimperative, however, the iPad school project is in turmoil, having been deemed incomplete and unsecure – content provider Pearson has been accused of failing to fulfil their side of the bargain in providing the eLearning materials, and Apple is under fire for letting pupils bypass security features.
In March it was revealed that only two out of the 69 schools involved were regularly using Pearson’s eLearning materials on their iPads, while the rest had ‘given up on attempting regular use of the app’, an internal memo stated.
The schools involved have since approached Apple and its project partners (including Pearson and Lenovo) to request refunds.
It’s terribly sad that what might have been children’s first experiences of eLearning have been so disappointing. It certainly doesn’t give the kids a good impression of eLearning or the use of technology in learning in general.
Unfortunately, bad experiences like this can ruin a person’s view of online learning for good. If we enjoy learning as a child, we’ll be more receptive to continuing our education as adults. One of the reasons we have such trouble with training as adults is due to poor experiences as children: stuck in stuffy classrooms, bored by distracted teachers, teased by other children, forced to sit through boring or ineffective learning – these things stick with us and even the words ‘training’ and ‘learning’ can fill us with dread in adulthood.
With any luck, the bad experiences that these LA schoolchildren have had with their eLearning will fade from their minds, replaced by a joy to learn – whether it’s on iPads, in classrooms, on Learning Management Systems or at work as adults.
We’ve written about the problems poor classroom training can cause in the past – just click the button below to read more and find out how to bring eLearning into the classroom easily and effectively:
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