The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to give all of its students free iPads by the end of 2014 as a part of a program launched by the district, reports CITEWorld. The program, which will see a total of 640,000 iPads handed out, is part of an initiative to improve education for students and to ready them for the workforce by enhancing their technological skills and comprehension.
The district plans to distribute 31,000 iPads to 49 of its 1,124 K-12 schools to begin with during the first phase of the program, with plans to begin distributing the rest throughout 2013 and 2014. Each of the iPads will come preloaded with digital textbooks from educational books publisher Pearson.
“The most important thing is to try to prepare the kids for the technology they are going to face when they are going to graduate,” said Hovatter. “This is phase one, a mix of high school, middle school, and elementary students. We’re targeting kids who most likely don’t have their own computers or laptops or iPads. Their only exposure to computers now is going to be in their schools.”
Apple has long had a heavy focus on the educational market, discounting its product lineup for students. Last month, Apple announced that it had been awarded a $30 million deal from the LA Unified School District to bring iPads into its schools and the company has also been in talks about a huge educational deal with the Turkish President.
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