The iPad as well as older cousin the iPod Touch have been adopted in schools like they were the next no. 2 pencils.
We’ve been following the roll-out in schools as well as the on-going woes that parents are having with in-app purchases – so a story about schools waiting to see how the lawsuit brought against Apple caught our attention.
At the Chambersburg Area School District in Pennsylvania, administrators try to restrict app downloading to just the librarians and teach kids that if they accidentally download something to report it.
“If the student knows how to cancel the order directly, the librarian still needs to be informed so she can follow through and check that the credit is applied to the account,” says Joanne Hammond, head librarian for the district. “It is also possible for the librarian to call customer service and get an accidental purchase canceled.”
For the Kindle, library staff uses gift cards instead of credit cards to buy books for the device.
“It is a bit of a sticky problem,” said Carolyn Foot, district librarian for the Eanes Independent School District in Texas. “I’m glad Apple has decided to password “in app” purchases as that will make it much easier for schools and parents to keep a handle on that.”
Sure, a few examples does not an epidemic make – anyone with kids or who works in a school spot similar issues with iPads or iPods?
Source: School Library Journal
