The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has informed Apple Inc. this week that it will not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its iPads. It is further seeking a multimillion-dollar refund from the technology giant for the iPad that have been issued to students under the Instructional Technology Initiative (ITI), which the school claims, students have hacked the iPads to visit less academic sites. Under the $1.3bn Instructional Technology Initiative (ITI), LAUSD purchased iPads for every student in the district. Now the ITI agreement is committed to dustbin and the district wants to recover its expenses from Apple. If the Cupertino based giant does not reach into an agreement with the district schools body, it may end up taking Apple to court. “While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it,” David Holmquist, the school district’s attorney, wrote in a letter to Apple’s general counsel. However the students who had been issued the iPads hacked their way into Facebook, Twitter and other websites which are banned on school campus. When LAUSD bureaucrats subsequently demanded kids return the tablets, only two thirds were actually handed back. Apple has thus far not commented on the issue.
