Apple's new iBooks 2 textbooks are touch-friendly and interactive -- but require an iPad. Teachers and schools may need to raise money for the devices themselves.
One way to help bridge the gap: nonprofits like DonorsChoose.org, which matches donors with teachers in need of supplies. The New York-based organization is already predicting a spike in teacher requests for iPads following Thursday’s news. Such a surge is “certain” to happen, said DonorsChoose.org Founder and Chief Executive Charles Best in an interview.
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Apple devices are already in great demand at DonorsChoose.org, which lets U.S. public school teachers list classroom projects and needed resources on its site. Donors can browse the project summaries online and make contributions via credit card or PayPal. The donations are aggregated until the requested amount is raised. At that point, DonorsChoose.org steps in to buy the classroom materials. The items are shipped directly to the appropriate school.
On the DonorsChoose.org website, there are currently 439 listings that include iPads and iPad accessories. One typical example: a first-grade teacher in Little Rock, Ark. who wants an iPad 2 for “independent practice in reading, writing, and math [and] whole group instruction.”
“Many of my students do not have a home computer,” the teacher notes in her proposal. “[An iPad 2] will prepare them for a future of using technology.”
Such listings are proliferating on DonorsChoose.org. During the 2009-2010 school year, Apple products made up $50,000 or 0.2% of all the classroom supplies DonorsChoose.org purchased on behalf of its registered teachers, said Best.
The following year, that amount increased 16 times. During the 2010-2011 school year, Apple products made up $800,000 or 3.2% of all the classroom supplies DonorsChoose.org purchased.
Best attributes the huge year-over-year boost in Apple device requests and fulfillments to the April 2010 launch of the original iPad. (DonorsChoose.org measures school years from July 1 to June 30.) The organization is currently in the middle of its 2011-2012 school year but already sees that figure rising. So far, Apple products make up 3.3% of DonorsChoose.org’s 2011-2012 classroom orders, according to Best.
Some of those products were other Apple devices, such as iPod touches and MacBook laptops but Best said the majority were iPads. “A really large number of teachers contact us offline testifying how valuable iPads are for their students,” he said. Teachers of special-needs classes have particularly found the iPad’s touchscreen and easy-to-use software makes a “monumental difference” in their students’ education, he added.
There’s a lot more teacher interest in iPads than DonorsChoose.org’s statistics indicate. The site requires teachers to be proactive about listing their projects and communicating with donors. That number is growing but is far from including the majority of teachers. Best said about half of all U.S. public schools have at least one teacher who has posted a project on DonorsChoose.org since the site went live in 2000.
