Does any of this lead to better outcomes for the students?

Screens in general tend to produce less desirable outcomes. Learning goes down, retention, attention, etc.

It doesn't just have to be at school. Screens after school affect learning in school.

the amount of "better education" we would have with kids driving a desktop/tower running a proper desktop (Linux) is immeasurable better than a locked down system like Appleland - tech literacy is literally one of the most discussed/emergent topics, be at the ed. tech field or traditional discussions about pedagogy

[0] probably over hour 600 on pedagogic scientific research and other podcasts talking exclusively about it

I agree with the importance of tech literacy and having a Linux-box could be way to achieve this but I hope you will grant me that its possible that in my subjects (Biology and German language/literature) an iPad is of greater use (as a tool outside, in the lab, to produce something cool with language) than a desktop pc. I don't see them as mutual exclusive.

which solution iPad has that can't be re-created in Linuxland? given AI, the possibility of doing a clone being quite cheaper than 5 years ago... now the trade-off of teaching and promoting freedom principles Linux surf (the GPL itself is a GREAT example) and allow users to have, against something hostile (whatever you say about Apple hardware and it's ecosystem, it's a net negative company for society) by a monopoly-like tech giant, on my opinion it's non-negotiable! i believe education is one of the most revolutionary (effective) acts we can do and just by excluding the dialogue FOSS can promote, make it instantly a great loss

i still tangle my head till today when proprietary musical software discussions emerge, on HN that's even more surprising, and no Csound, pd is cited even when those have decades old mature and updated codebases, with efficient DSP programmed by academics, all free of price with very permissive licenses - Bitwig costs 399 USD and that's like a lot for a lot of people - that's just a silly example, i'm not even getting into ed. tech software (for educators or kids) ecosystem which sometimes i still have a hard time why someone don't just learn Emacs org-mode for 1 week and stop using N services their school have to pay a subscription... Apple hardware, often deprecated much faster than hardware which run libre software, isn't a great monkey-see-monkey-do example on how teaching how important is rights of repair and permacomputing principles

> which solution iPad has that can't be re-created in Linuxland

- The school goes to a supplier and order 500 iPads and says they want them preloaded with X and X apps and be centrally managed by their Device Management software.

I love Linux, but nobody is creating Linux tablets and supplying them to schools at discounted rates and pre-configuring them with MDM ready out of the box.

Again, I agree with you: all the points of your first paragraph are valid to some extent.

But sometimes a totally dumb and closed system like an iPad is a feature. It is so simple that Students (from 10 to 19 years old) and teachers (from 25 to 70) can use it. It is so closed down that the teachers can easily and reliably distribute tasks, apps, restrictions and don't have to deal (they will stand no chance) with students tampering with their systems.

It would be great when all school subjects would address FOSS and the impact of closed systems on society but they also have to address their core curriculum. Here I see the possibilities that the iPad opens up as a net positive.

...you know, being "digital native" means today actually being able to use an app on your smartphone and swipe into the correct direction :-D

> My students can really work with book or materials (make a photo, then annotate, cut, copy paste, extend the pages ...)

What's the point of that? Seems like unproductive busywork. How does it help with memorization and brain training? (Or isn't that the point of school anymore?)

[delayed]