School adopting tablets

DominionZA

DominionZA

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My wife is at my kids school now where the school is talking about introducing tablets from next year. I was too lazy to go.

So far the costs are as follows.
School supplies tablet initially.
Parents have to pay an annual fee of R1,300.
If the child loses the tablet, the parent must pay for lost one, pay for replacement, and continue to pay the annual fee.

This seems unfair. I get the fee is to slowly recover the initial spend on the tablet. If the child however loses it and the parent must now pay a double tablet cost then surely the annual fee should stop?
 
Mike Smit said:
My wife is at my kids school now where the school is talking about introducing tablets from next year. I was too lazy to go.

So far the costs are as follows.
School supplies tablet initially.
Parents have to pay an annual fee of R1,300.
If the child loses the tablet, the parent must pay for lost one, pay for replacement, and continue to pay the annual fee.

This seems unfair. I get the fee is to slowly recover the initial spend on the tablet. If the child however loses it and the parent must now pay a double tablet cost then surely the annual fee should stop?
Click to expand...

Annual fee is still paying off the last tablet. Just insure it under your all risks policy?
 
I see it as the parent needs to continue paying the annual fee to cover the cost of the lost one, but must also buy a replacement. Maybe ask them to clarify?
 
If it is insurance, why should you pay for a replacement?
 
Great. Using the Galaxy Tab 7" is not mandatory. Can supply our own. Can be anything except an iPad.

Nexus 7 here we come.

Annual fee drops to R500 or so if using our own.
 
What grade btw?

Our school looked at tablets and decided rather to go with laptops for the high school. You can do so much more with a laptop- creative projects, etc. I think they are gonna come out of school with superb IT knowledge... A hell of a start in life :)
 
OMG... My brain is switched off tonight.

1 kid got a Transformer and other a Flyer.
Should be fine and no outlay for me.
 
Sinbad said:
What grade btw?

Our school looked at tablets and decided rather to go with laptops for the high school. You can do so much more with a laptop- creative projects, etc. I think they are gonna come out of school with superb IT knowledge... A hell of a start in life :)
Click to expand...

Gr 9 and 10 at Reddam House.

They both got laptops but would prefer they lugged around a tablet at school. Laptop must stay home.
 
Mike Smit said:
Great. Using the Galaxy Tab 7" is not mandatory. Can supply our own. Can be anything except an iPad.

Nexus 7 here we come.

Annual fee drops to R500 or so if using our own.
Click to expand...

One would think that with the ease of use and uniformity associated with a school, they would have stuck with iPads as the de facto tablet...
 
Okay, wifey home and info forthcoming.

The school has entered into a trial with Samsung and Dellro (spell).

Dellro are the publishing house for the text books. They have agreed to put all the kids books on the tablets.

Reddam have been working on this for 2 years and this is a first in SA apparently. Even Reddam Australia could not get it right (electronic versions of the textbooks).

The whole idea here is a textbook substitute and to save paper.

They aim to make the textbooks interactive too. That a little later.

In the next month the whole school will be WiFi enabled for connectivity all over the school. Restricted of course.


To remove the incentive for theft, the pricing is actually damned good (ignore the rant OP). They are making it cheap enough for all kids to get them.

R1,300 up front fee. Fee includes insurance, books and a locker for the tab.
If the tab is lost/stolen they get a replacement. If the repeatedly lose their tablet then the cost of the tab is pushed to the parent eventually. Fair enough.

The school also upgraded their cameras around the school which reduced cellphone theft to almost nothing so should work for the tablets.

This is being introduced for next year's grade 10s only. If successful they are rolling it out for the whole highschool.

Overall it looks impressive. Reddam really taking the lead here.
 
Last edited:
Mike Smit said:
Okay, wifey home and info forthcoming.

The school has entered into a trial with Samsung and Dellro (spell).

Dellro are the publishing house for the text books. They have agreed to put all the kids books on the tablets.

Reddam have been working on this for 2 years and this is a first in SA apparently. Even Reddam Australia could not get it right (electronic versions of the textbooks).

The whole idea here is a textbook substitute and to save paper.

They aim to make the textbooks interactive too. That a little later.

In the next month the whole school will be WiFi enabled for connectivity all over the school. Restricted of course.


To remove the incentive for theft, the pricing is actually damned good (ignore the rant OP). They are making it cheap enough for all kids to get them.

R1,300 up front fee. Fee includes insurance, books and a locker for the tab.
If the tab is lost/stolen they get a replacement. If the repeatedly lose their tablet then the cost of the tab is pushed to the parent eventually. Fair enough.

The school also upgraded their cameras around the school which reduced cellphone theft to almost nothing so should work for the tablets.

This is being introduced for next year's grade 10s only. If successful they are rolling it out for the whole highdchool.

Overall it looks impressive. Reddam really taking the lead here.
Click to expand...

This is really nice actually... Kudos to Reddam
 
Maverick Jester said:
One would think that with the ease of use and uniformity associated with a school, they would have stuck with iPads as the de facto tablet...
Click to expand...

They don't want iPads because of the locked and restrictive nature of them.
This straight from the principle this evening in response to the same question from a parent.

Reddam want to evolve this to become the standard at all their schools and Apple will just stand in the way.

EDIT:If this works out as all parties anticipate, Samsung and Dellro will take it to other schools too. Win win.

The principle said that this is not just a first in SA, but we are one of the first countries to implement this.
Other schools have tablets, but they don't have their textbooks on them. That is the first!
 
Last edited:
Mike Smit said:
They don't want iPads because of the locked and restrictive nature of them.
This straight from the principle this evening in response to the same question from a parent.

Reddam want to evolve this to become the standard at all their schools and Apple will just stand in the way.
Click to expand...

Couldn't help but smile at the principal's foresight :D
 
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