Ipads or Windows 8 Device for Educational Use

[jamiesev]

We are currently investigating mobile devices for students and which way to go. I have no strong feeling either way but was hoping that you could give me some idea as to what you use, any pitfalls you encountered, or any good working practices that came out of your roll up. My biggest concern with the apples is there lack of functionality within our domain environment. My dream scenario would be for students to be able to access their network areas in the same fashion as they do now (via mapped network drives). Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received!

Many Thanks

[jack1121]

We are currently investigating mobile devices for students and which way to go. I have no strong feeling either way but was hoping that you could give me some idea as to what you use, any pitfalls you encountered, or any good working practices that came out of your roll up. My biggest concern with the apples is there lack of functionality within our domain environment. My dream scenario would be for students to be able to access their network areas in the same fashion as they do now (via mapped network drives). Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received!

Many Thanks

To be honest, I'd rather have Windows 8/RT (Windows on ARM) devices such as the Microsoft Surface. This is mainly because it is easier to transfer student work off the device. In our case, we use a RealSmart powered website which uses a Google Domain. This means that students would be able to upload work from the tablet to Google Drive and then share with teachers. Also the Windows environment will be very familiar to Students anyways. We have started to get iPads for learning, but we do have a bit of an issue on getting students work off the device and onto Google Drive, unless they use the Drive app (a pain to sign into using RealSmart SSO atm) to create the documents instead. Also, if the tablets run full Windows 8 Pro/enterprise or w/e (not RT) they can be joined to a domain, so they can put documents in their home folder and be locked down with GPO too. I'm not a fan of Windows 8 on the desktop, but I'd rather use it over iOS or Android (especially in an educational environment) on a tablet. Couple Windows 8 Pro devices with a excellent wireless system such as Meru, then you'll have a winner on your hands

-Jack

[Steveduk]

We're almost totally mobile here with 1200 users. The Windows devices are by far easier to manage if you're a predominantly MS network (which we are). As Jack mentioned we also use Realsmart but it breaks the Google drive SSO - I raised this with their support some time ago and they said they were fixing it soon. If you're already using Google for Education I would stick with their authentication and not go the Realsmart route due to the authentication system they use(unless they fix SSO) - it will also break any Google apps/utils you have developed in house to manage users etc.

We have some iPads and Macs too and the biggest problem we have is management of the devices from a multi-user perspective. They're ideal if owned by an individual but a pain if they're used by more than one person.

Give me a shout if you want more info.

[north-ict]

We have some iPads and Macs too and the biggest problem we have is management of the devices from a multi-user perspective. They're ideal if owned by an individual but a pain if they're used by more than one person.

Give me a shout if you want more info.

Funny you should mention this i was just literally on the phone to someone with regards to ipad management and they told me about this! JAMF Software: Products - Casper Suite

[Steveduk]

Funny you should mention this i was just literally on the phone to someone with regards to ipad management and they told me about this! JAMF Software: Products - Casper Suite

We had looked at a few management suites but decided if Win8 will do the trick it keeps things simpler rather than adding more complexity. Last time I spoke to Apple they were also developing something specifically for UK education but I can't remember what it was called!

[jack1121]

Looks like we will be locking iPads down with policies set in Apple Configurator running on our Mac Pro Server (which we are also using for AD/OD integration with our new iMacs) But this requires us to plug every iPad (we are getting around 300-ish) into the Mac Pro and install the policies. Luckily we have employed a new tech who I will be working with who knows a hell of a lot more about OS X and iOS than I do

Jack

[ZeroHour]

I just had a thought, I have heard of people saying RDP is not too bad on them with the right app, you could disable everything but X RDP app which has preset settings to connect to 2012 to get the W8 experience, hmm I wonder.
No worrying about getting users tagged with devices (aka internet logging) as all the traffic would be ran on RDP where they log in and no messing with files. Give them a keyboard and your done although it would be nice to have a mouse (do they have such a thing) and usb but you dont need the latest ipad to do it.
Once you get going with managing them you can always go back or add apps later but the nice thing with RDP is you dont have to worry about documents etc.

[Steveduk]

I just had a thought, I have heard of people saying RDP is not too bad on them with the right app, you could disable everything but X RDP app which has preset settings to connect to 2012 to get the W8 experience, hmm I wonder.
No worrying about getting users tagged with devices (aka internet logging) as all the traffic would be ran on RDP where they log in and no messing with files. Give them a keyboard and your done although it would be nice to have a mouse (do they have such a thing) and usb but you dont need the latest ipad to do it.
Once you get going with managing them you can always go back or add apps later but the nice thing with RDP is you dont have to worry about documents etc.

We use 2x on our iPads & Android devices over wireless which works really well (when the wireless system doesn't collapse). It also got round the problem of having to install apps on user own devices.

[DavidScott]

We have some iPads and Macs too and the biggest problem we have is management of the devices from a multi-user perspective. They're ideal if owned by an individual but a pain if they're used by more than one person.

Quite true. Not to mention file management and cost control issues. And I wouldn't touch Windows 8 until SP1 comes out either unless you want bugs too!