A Risky Social Experiment

Scotland, late 2020. Covid-19 and the closure of schools had disrupted education and obliterated the yearly exam schedule. Uptake of online education had proved patchy at best. The government and the education authorities were worried about the effect on social inequalities: that children whose families lacked the technology at access online lessons, would suffer deepening disadvantages as a result.
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So, every child over about age 8 was given an iPad to use at home and at school. Teachers could set classroom tasks and homework digitally, and every child would have the tools to access online lessons if ever schools had to lock down again. The constant day-to-day use of iPads would extend everyone’s IT skills, and what with text-predicting note-taking apps, they would hardly need to write with pens on paper any more… 

It sounded amazing. Expensive, but oh so 21st-century, so technologically advanced, so sci-fi-utopian, pro-equality… for every child would have the same device in their hands. The same learning tool, the same opportunities. 

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