Sonoma State University to hand iPads to students in spring 2022

Wonder if there is a corresponding $300/year increase in some obscure mandatory student fee.

AppleInsider said:

Sonoma State University will be providing students joining the campus in the spring 2022 term iPads and accessories, as part of an expansion of the California State University's CSUCCESS program.

First-year and transfer students joining SSU for the spring 2022 term will be eligible to receive a technology bundle including an iPad Air, Apple Pencil, and Apple Smart Keyboard. The bundle will be provided for use by the students throughout their entire undergraduate experience.

The package is being provided as an expansion of the CSUCCESS (California State Univeristy Connectivity Contributing to Equity and Student Success) initiative, which aims to provide up to 35,000 students in the California State University system with the iPads.

Continuing students will not be eligible to participate, but can still borrow a notebook from the university library's loan program.

Sonoma is part of a second-stage expansion of the program following its fall launch, as one of six campuses being added to the program. Along with students in Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Pomona, and San Bernardino, Sonoma's inclusion brings the group up to 14 campuses out of 23 CSU institutions taking part in the program.

"I'm excited to expand this important program to even more incoming students this spring to help bridge the digital divide and establish a technological foundation for achievement from day one of their college journey," said CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro. "The program shows tremendous promise in advancing our goals of student success and educational equity."

Educational institutions are slowly moving to using iPads as part of a wider adoption of technology used to teach students. In September, Apple said it would provide over 6,000 devices to Norfolk State University faculty and students during the fall, including the iPad Pro, AirPods Pro, and other hardware.

Meanwhile in July, the Berkeley County Board of Education voted to switch from Chromebooks to iPads for staff in its schools, as part of a pilot program to bring Apple products to the secondary level in the coming years.

Read on AppleInsider

My own experience is that an iPad alone (even with keyboard & pencil) is a great education aid.  But, by itself is not sufficient to get the job done (without being a major pain in the ass).  And, that's been substantiated by other reviewers who state that the iPad is not ready for "real work" (basically meaning traditional laptop/desktop type functions).

From a hardware perspective, it certainly has what it needs.  But, Apple has been dragging their feet enhancing iPadOS up to its full potential.   Perhaps this university is looking to the future -- or they assume all their students already have laptops and are providing an additional tool that provides functionality that a traditional laptop can't touch.

AppleInsider said:

Educational institutions are slowly moving to using iPads as part of a wider adoption of technology used to teach students.

Are they really? That's not what I've observed over the past 10 years.

For a start being "provided" free iPads doesn't really count. No one is going to refuse that. iPads used to be the go-to device for educational institutions after they realised netbooks were junk. There was then the discovery that you can't type properly on a glass screen. So with the not inconsiderable cost of a "smart" keyboard at $160 - more than the entire cost of some (admittedly awful, but still usable) Chromebooks - iPads are at least 2-3 times the cost of a Chromebook. Therefore the popularity of Chromebooks exploded, and Apple lost out again, because Cook can't bear to price things competitively. The pricing of the "smart" keyboard is just absurd.

Don't get me wrong, I think the price of the iPad itself is pretty good, but there are cheaper Android tablets out there that are 75% as good for 50% of the price. And if you want to do actual work on a tablet that doesn't fit with Apple's very limited idea of what you should using an iPad for, an Android tablet may be your only option - for 50% of the price. As I've said many times before, I'd love an iPad but they're useless to me since I want to execute unsigned code, diagnose wireless and wired networks, connect to nonstandard third party USB devices, compile software, firmware etc. But Apple thinks everyone apart from them is too dumb to be able to handle that - despite most of the world progressing just fine on Windows and MacOS with none of these restrictions.

GeorgeBMac said:

My own experience is that an iPad alone (even with keyboard & pencil) is a great education aid.  But, by itself is not sufficient to get the job done (without being a major pain in the ass).  And, that's been substantiated by other reviewers who state that the iPad is not ready for "real work" (basically meaning traditional laptop/desktop type functions).

From a hardware perspective, it certainly has what it needs.  But, Apple has been dragging their feet enhancing iPadOS up to its full potential.   Perhaps this university is looking to the future -- or they assume all their students already have laptops and are providing an additional tool that provides functionality that a traditional laptop can't touch.

I completely agree. It can only ever be a companion, certainly not the PC replacement Apple markets it as. Apple's obsessive control over the OS has boxed them into a corner both from a UI and usability standpoint. iPadOS just can't do what people needs it to, everything takes twice as long on an iPad because the OS is so clunky. File management that is a simple drag and drop on macOS is 10 steps on iPadOS.

You're exactly right with the hardware too, it's really solid hardware but right now it's like having a 1000HP V12 in a go-kart.

Do we really know what these universities are paying for the iPads since they are buying them in bulk?