Apple giving old iPads to Teach for America teachers

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When people upgrade from the iPad to the iPad 2, and soon from the iPad 2 to the iPad 3, where do the previous-gen iPads go? Yes, there are plenty of trade-in programs out there that will throw you a couple bones for your used tablet, but what if you could actually help people when upgrading and getting rid of your old iPad? Apple invited iPad 2 upgraders to donate their iPads to Teach for America.

Teach for America places recent grads into low-income public schools all over the country. From the people I know who have been a part of Teach for America, they all say it’s a rewarding but extremely challenging experience. Teachers get just five weeks of training before they’re put into classrooms in some of the roughest public schools in the country.

When the iPad 2 was released last spring, Apple initiated a program that would allow first-gen iPad owners who were upgrading to the iPad 2 to donate their tablets to teachers in the Teach for America program. We’re sure that donation was tax deductible, but it’s definitely nice to know you’re putting that old tech to good use instead of selling it to offset the cost of a iPad 2.

Apple has yet to release the exact numbers of how many tablets it collected through the public service program. However, in August, every Teach for America corps member was offered a free first-gen iPad. There are more than 9,000 teachers across 38 states, so it’s safe to assume that Apple received at least that many donated iPads. Those iPads were then distributed over the past two weekends.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell, is one of the Teach for America board of directors, so it’s no surprise that this program came about while Jobs was still CEO. We’re not entirely sure how much one iPad can do in a classroom full of kids, but according to Katie Remington, a teacher in a St. Louis school, the iPad is used as incentive to get her students to finish their work in a timely manner so that there’s still time for “iPad time.”
 
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