Current Students
A closed system is by definition consistent, as much as any system of technology can be. By using Apple Macintosh OS and iOS on any platform the district chooses from pre-school to graduation, the district ensures that the system the child uses at an early age will carry a consistent look and feel throughout the child's development. This enables the district to maintain a focus on the content being taught rather than distracting with the tool being used to teach it. For instance, a student does not have to learn Microsoft Word, then maybe Apple Pages, then maybe Google Documents--the student can stick consistently with Apple Pages for word processing only and get to know it very well. Since students move through the system with an interface provided by one source, they can use their early learning as scaffolding to support their use of the tools in a more complex way later in their development.
Prospective Students
The benefits of a closed system to students who grow up in and move through one district using one type of system may be apparent, but what of a student who transfers into a district? They may not transfer from a closed system like an Apple district would present to its students, so how could they manage in such a system? In a closed system, the student's peers will be able to provide guidance to the new student since they have grown up using a consistent, unified system that the transfer student may not have had. Furthermore, even if the transfer student did not come from a closed system district, if the transfer student is familiar with any technology, they are most likely to be familiar with Apple's devices, the iPhone and the iPad, since they are so prevalent in our current society.
Tech tonic: Towards a new literacy of technology. (2004). Alliance for Childhood: College Park, Maryland.
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