Technology in the Schools - Ipads for Kindergarteners??

Kids in classroom using Ipads

I remember back in the 80's playing the games like Oregon Trail, Where is Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Oregon Trail taught me that life on the trail was hard and you may die from dysentery! Carmen Sandiego taught me my geography and crime solving skills. The grade school child inside me is thrilled to see these games back on Facebook. Today kids have the iPad and hundreds of educational games to choose from right at their fingertips. 
     However, when I was young we had computer lab two or three times a week for maybe one hour but today we are starting to see how things have changed and sometimes not in the best ways, I feel. Some schools are starting to use the iPad as the main way to teach children.  I am all for having technology in the schools and my son learning with it but not at the expense of losing the social aspect that school is there to provide.  Kids today come to school all to often with little social skills for being in a group setting or inappropriate skills. Having an iPad teach my child would cause more harm then good if the teacher is going to use it as a babysitter. Bonnie Blagojevic, a research associate at the University of Maine's Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies stated in a April 25, 2011 Education Week Digital Directions article:

"It can open up new worlds of learning for some students. But you need to have balance. You need to have intentionality. You need to have conversations about this."

     Recently in Auburn, Maine there was a project through the University of Maine to get every kindergarten an iPad in the classroom. This has drawn debates, cheers and mainy people asking "who is paying for this?" The cost is going to be over $200,000 (roughly 400 iPads) which the district says will come from grants mainly then from the school budget. With most public schools struggling with funding, I find this crazy. If this was my son's school district, I personally would rather see the money used to hire more teachers and purchase less Ipads for the classrooms (maybe 5 per room vs 30 per room). Also, to give any 5yr old a $500 piece of equipment is insane. They say they will have cases but really - they lose their gloves, shoes, homework and small toys. What makes them think they will care for a iPad when they have no sense of the value of money.
     I like that my son is learning with computers but I firmly believe that the basics need to be taught from a teacher or parents. A child should know how to read, write, do simple math problems and comprehend what they are reading before an iPad is given to them. Basically, the horse should go before the cart as my grandmother would say. Children need order and instruction not the latest greatest fad in technology.

Video from Fox News about ipads in schools