Dive Brief:

• The Chicago Tribune took a closer look at NewsCorp's $1 billion investment in Amplify and the hurdles and failures the company's education vision has run into.
• A major narrative in the story follows the struggles in North Carolina's Guilford County Schools where a deal to rent Amplify tablets (at $165 per tablet) went so sour that the school decided to resort back to paper and pencil. The district has since renewed its contract with Amplify, after the company made several changes to rectify the situation.
• The article documents NewsCorp owner Rupert Murdoch's initial forays into education in 2010, and how his empire has struggled to both make money and an impact in that arena.

Dive Insight:

The article follows a January piece in Education Week that checked in on Guilford County Schools as they entered their second contract with Amplify. The initial relationship was placed on hold after a slew of issues like broken screens and a melted charger led to second thoughts.

The article brings up the interesting uses that schools believe Amplify can fulfill. For example, some schools, like Guilford, use Amplify for its tablets but forgo its curriculum, which wasn't ready in 2013 when the district rented the tablets. Others, however, like Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Florida, use Amplify games, but on iPad tablets, since the games are — oddly enough — are only compatible with iPads.

There is also the question of Internet connections. Greenwood Lakes Middle School struggled because its connection wasn't powerful enough, and while that technically isn't the fault of Amplify, it does point to growing requirements to be a digital school and how marketing these products to districts that don't have all the resources in place can be detrimental. Students with a bunch of tablets and insufficient Internet to complete work can ultimately result in a waste of money.