London school children to get free loaner iPhones in experimental, educational trial

It's not the first time we've seen the iPhone used as an experimental means of education, but a London school's recent announcement of its plans has caught our attention. The Gumley House Convent School -- a small, Christian School for girls ages 11 to 18 -- in London has laid out its plan to use give Apple's smartphone to a select group of 30 students as a test educational measure. Previous efforts we've seen to rope the iPhone into modern education have been mostly at the collegiate level, but Gumley's plan is still a bit vague. The girls will have free access to all of the phone's features with the exception of actual calls, and the trial will last until the end of the school year. Like we said -- the school's not given out details as to what the actual rules of use will be -- but we have a feeling this will all end in some wild bout of texting overload.

[Harrison Posted Dec 9th 2009 9:41PM]

@zpning Finally! A spammer selling a product that's actually useful for people reading a tech blog!

Still, go die in a fire started by your KIRF batteries.

[LordDarkGoose Posted Dec 10th 2009 4:58AM]

@zpning Please die.Thank you.

[PhoenixFox Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:49PM]

I see this having a mainly detrimental affect, and probably heightening the e-bullying problem

[safetravels Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:03PM]

@PhoenixFox
...how? 12 to 18 year olds having iPhones is hardly a new thing. e-bullying? really? get a grip. what I find more interesting is that they're basically just handing out free iPod touches, which have limited educational use, considering that the vast majority of apps that that demographic is going to use are going to be time wasting instead of productivity fostering things. For that matter, why not give them iPod touches instead of iphones with phone capability disabled?

the whole thing reeks of trying to be 'down wiv da yoof'

[PhoenixFox Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:09PM]

It's a serious problem in some areas. Granted, a catholic school probably isn't one of those areas, but 12 to 18 year olds can be mean little fucks, and will use anything they can to hurt somebody they don't like

I should know, I AM one.

[Schmitty338 Posted Dec 9th 2009 7:38PM]

@PhoenixFox

Actually, it's WORSE in catholic schools, much worse. Maybe it's the uniforms they are forced to wear, or the constant feeling of guilt smooshed into them from an early age by a pedophile priest, but catholic school students are often much more mean and get into much more trouble than public school kids.

[Harrison Posted Dec 9th 2009 9:39PM]

@PhoenixFox

e-bullying? There's an app for that.

[kamikazeshrimpy Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:51PM]

i don't get it.

so if they're going to use iphones solely to use the apps (i assume), why not use ipod touches? it could save a lot of money too.

[CT Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:00PM]

@kamikazeshrimpy They are likely testing use with mobile networks.

[Accidental Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:08PM]

@kamikazeshrimpy It's cheaper to provide the girls with the iPhones (vs. iTouches) since the carriers have an influx of returned iPhones due to crappy service/disgruntled customers. The school probably received these phones for pennies on the dollar.

[yulebellow Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:27PM]

@Accidental

A brand new 32gb iPhone 3GS is 299, same price as an iPod touch of the same size...the cost comes from the crazy data and unlimited txt charges per month...an iPod touch costs 0 per month

[Accidental Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:10PM]

@yulebellow As I hinted at above, these are most likely refurbished iPhones with no cellular/carrier accounts

[CJ Posted Dec 9th 2009 8:33PM]

Er... no.

The 32Gb iPhone is more like 6-700 dollars, without a plan.

[electron Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:56PM]

lucky kids... I don't even want/have an iPhone, and I still think they are lucky... -.-

[Peter F Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:56PM]

What idiot thinks of these trials?
This is bound to fail. If I take my laptop to class I just end up screwing around on the internet and not paying attention. If I don't take it, I screw around on my phone sometimes. Most of my friends are like this.
Any kind of communication device in a classroom will hurt a student's learning ability, not strengthen it.

[Jordan Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:25PM]

@Peter F:

Completely agree. I used to think my laptop was there to help me take notes faster, it's not. I look around during class and the vast majority of students with laptops are not paying attention and just on the internet. Then you have the phone section. They're either on their phones texting or, with the increase in the iPhone, again just wasting time on apps or the internet.

Laptops can have a place in the education world if used correctly, but I strongly believe ipods, iphones, and any other cell phone don't, whether they're there for the apps or not.

Any electronic used in a child's educational world were surely be used for the wrong measures. This trial will failllll.

[copeys Posted Dec 9th 2009 6:34PM]

@Peter F,
I agree.

To be honest, I think it's a fail. I got a laptop for my final year of schooling and only used it at home. Those who took theirs to school didn't for very long - it became to distracting. My laptop had 4GB RAM, massive HDD, 802.11n etc, but no dedicated graphics card - it kept me off games when I needed to be working.

[gyung Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:57PM]

Hook 'em while their young.

[gyung Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:58PM]

Whoops, I mean they're.

[ThePengwin Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:54PM]

@(Unverified)

Mother: What did you learn at school today dear?
Daughter: I learnt how to be a consumer whore!
Mother: And how!

[Dafrety Posted Dec 9th 2009 11:19PM]

@(Unverified)
That certainly is the McDonalds business model.

[surfernerd6987 Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:59PM]

I think the experiment is to see if these kids will wear turtlenecks and grow headphones from their ears, haha.

[yulebellow Posted Dec 9th 2009 3:59PM]

Good luck getting them from a group of 11-18 year old girls!!!

[rob47 Posted Dec 9th 2009 8:54PM]

@yulebellow lol Don't 90% of the customers in my local Apple store are girls checking their makeup in the glossy screens or using the iSight to take photos..

[CJ Posted Dec 10th 2009 12:31AM]

@(Unverified)

Those aren't customers.

Their wealthy parents are the customers, they're just the customers' whiney puppetmasters.

[DownBringer Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:03PM]

I wonder how many of these are going to wind up getting "lost".

[raionyuki Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:09PM]

You have to have teaching content to have technology make and effect. This is a communications and content delivery device. I hope they have some o-some content they wish to deliver or this will be an epic fail. I work for a school I've seen this happen time and time again with different technologies.

[Hydra Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:10PM]

"class your assignment is wireless sync data and music, and also bluetooth files too and from your computers with this iphone, good luck!"

[gettysburg11s Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:10PM]

Yeah I agree with the iPod Touch idea. It would solve the texting problem for the most part, and they could set up a restricted wi-fi network for educational purposes. Giving them iPhones is like giving a arsonist matches!

[ShyTownFantasy Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:25PM]

iTouch

[Peter F Posted Dec 9th 2009 7:38PM]

@(Unverified)
iPod Touch. No such thing as an iTouch.

[MarkAnderson Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:25PM]

A small Christian school?

It really is the Jesus phone!

[Scape3d Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:35PM]

Well, there goes their multi-tasking skills.

[r3loaded Posted Dec 9th 2009 6:42PM]

@Scape3d Should hand them N900s for IT classes - it would certainly make programming fun!

[idlemind1999 Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:45PM]

"Hey Teach.... Dog ate my iPhone..."

[djmapper Posted Dec 9th 2009 4:53PM]

I agree that tech can aid teaching but did they really think that hard about this before they said 'hey lets just hand out a bunch of iPhone's, the kids will practically teach themselves' iPhone's are overkill for targeted learning !!

[oawalker Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:18PM]

they should get a android phone instead

[andrewh12 Posted Dec 10th 2009 6:52AM]

@oawalker I don't see any iTunes U content on Android, do you?

[oawalker Posted Dec 10th 2009 3:47PM]

@(Unverified) Yea it's called amazon mp3 :)

[Adiuvo Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:27PM]

This thing will fail miserably. As aforementioned, cell phones will NEVER help learning, or grades unless they use them to cheat.

[wako Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:29PM]

wtf is so hard with pen and paper these days?!

[Scape3d Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:53PM]

@wako

What's that?

[ch3burashka Posted Dec 9th 2009 5:46PM]

In unrelated news, London muggings have increased by a factor of five.

[ENGplasmaman Posted Dec 9th 2009 6:50PM]

I sense a major resurgence of the fart apps

[BigD145 Posted Dec 9th 2009 7:51PM]

Incoming cheap iPhones on ebay.

[Steve Jobs Posted Dec 10th 2009 2:42AM]

Don't blame me when this doesn't turn out well...