[iPad] Deploying and managing iPads

[mellowip1983]

so is it also looking at removing all your PC's and going 100% mac?

[Lone_Rider]

mellowip1983

My gut feeling is yes, although we are having a meeting in a few days time to discusss direction of technology that the school wishes to take.
We currently have some 20 ipads being used sporadically, some 20 iPod touches sitting waiting to be activated and used and iMacs in Music and Art.

[Lone_Rider]

rbance,

I do not disagree with your point of view. I would like to be leading edge and not bleeding edge, I do not want to be the vanguard trailblazer for all to follow.

We have been told that a company can provide insurance for the ipads, but as to support, that we will need to look long and hard at.

[mellowip1983]

Do you have a mac server with your iMacs or are they all managed locally?

if they are serious about moving 100% mac, I would say you need to get in a mac server if you dont have already, try setting it up and getting the features to work with your existing equipment then look to expand the use of them across the network, ideally getting the kit in and testing before replacing the windows machines.

not only that you have the training aspect of swapping OS. If you use electronic registers like we do, does the system work on mac. i.e. we use sims but there is no sims mac client.

[Lone_Rider]

mellowip,

Forgot to metion we have a mac Xserver for running the imacs.

We are a CMIS school and yes the register is electroinic although apparently we will be using "Progresso" going forward, I belive thats web based.

I should say that I am new to the school side of things, (only been here for 4 months) having come from the Business sector, where even by their standards , deployments are a lot more controlled.

What I seem to see all around me is the SLT say this is what we want, buy it and throw it at the IT department to install and get working.

I am trying to introduce best practice procedures in all that is done, starting with this "ipad Deployment"

[GrumbleDook]

I would strongly suggest your school sits down with an Apple Solutions Expert to help with this ... They can help with the design and planning without removing you from the equation (most are geeks at heart anyway) as well as getting with better links as to how iPads can be used in an educational environment.

The other thing for the school to look at is the long term plans of the school to ensure that they consider making sure that how devices like iPads are used can be transferred to other devices in the future.

[Lone_Rider]

GrumbleDook,

I am not going to mention any names, but an Apple Solutions company has been involved in a small way, they are doing the hard sell to the SLT on how bright and easy the future will be with Apple. Everything so far has been, "its easy, dont be a windows slave. ipads and Macs don't break, we do not have to worry about software upgrades" etc etc.

All I am trying to do is work out what is best for the school and the best way to implement it, what ever that solution is and what about the long term as per your last comment.

As they saying goes "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die" only I would like to skip the die bit ! :-)

[enjay]

Why don't you have software upgrades to worry about with Apple? Apps are updated all the time, and the OS itself refreshes every 18 months or so...

[rdk]

We have just (2 days ago) finished our second year-level rollout of iPads making just over 300 in our school - Yr 9s and 10s. The iPads are given to the kids with a $50 iTunes card and a list of apps to buy and install. We don't do any central management of the devices, and they aren't locked down. I'm not actually sure why you would want to lock them down.

We had one semester of iPads last year with year 9s and judged it a success. They are not computer replacements, but as we told the parents they do some things very well. We let the kids install games, music etc and leave it to teachers to control use in the classroom. Recess and lunch are "tech-free" times and iPads aren't allowed to be used in the yard.

[Max_Power]

Interesting that you give $50 voucher with all the ipads in order to cover paid for apps the schools expects students to use. Hadn't really considered that given the cost it would involve with over 1600 students on our site.

We don't do any central management of the devices, and they aren't locked down. I'm not actually sure why you would want to lock them down.

The main reason for locking devices down, certainly within our organisation is because the devices are the schools, not the students and they are not on a 1:1 ratio. If the devices were personal to a specific individual then we would take a route similar to yourself. As the devices are the schools and used cross curricular central management is required in order to download and update apps required and to monitor costs amongst other things.

[rdk]

Interesting that you give $50 voucher with all the ipads in order to cover paid for apps the schools expects students to use. Hadn't really considered that given the cost it would involve with over 1600 students on our site.

Is the cost an issue - I would assume you'd have to buy the apps regardless? Although technically you can sync lots of iPads with the one iTunes account it would be the same as using any other software without a license. Maybe in the UK there is some kind of volume license but not here.

If the machines are not personal, how do you manage student work such as unfinished presentations/reports/movies etc? Do you use something like Google Apps? When we visited schools with class sets of iPads they were used mainly as portable internet access devices, whereas we have kids creating and storing work on them. We have found kids suggest ways the iPads could be used to teachers once teachers start a particular unit and explain the learning outcomes and assessment. Wouldn't really be possible if the kids weren't able to download and test apps, or take photos, screenshots etc and store them for later use.

[soveryapt]

If the machines are not personal, how do you manage student work such as unfinished presentations/reports/movies etc? Do you use something like Google Apps?

We're just investing in a MacMini Server to help with our iPads (I have to say, I thought 30 was a PITA to look after, but reading some of the posts .. I don't envy the ones with more!). This offers the ability to help control the access on them, but more intriguingly, the ability to set up shared drive access points on the devices, so you could (and this is looking at what Apple say and assuming that it is correct as they normally are given I only just sent the order off today) set up shared drives with pupil folders in, or possibly even link it to the student documents folder if you have them, so they could store their work on there and access it from whichever iDevice they happen to use next.

[enjay]

set up shared drive access points on the devices, so you could ... link it to the student documents folder if you have them, so they could store their work on there and access it from whichever iDevice they happen to use next.

How would you control access to the student documents folder? At present, ours is set to use AD group membership, which obviously wouldn't work from an iDevice...

[enjay]

When we visited schools with class sets of iPads they were used mainly as portable internet access devices, whereas we have kids creating and storing work on them.

Using them pretty much just for web access seems the easiest option, but obviously requires a decent online environment for them to work in. Many VLEs offer this, or you could decamp your shared folders into Google Docs, etc. We have remote access, however it isn't really suited to people who never use the "normal" network; it is ideal as a "pen drive replacement" when taking work home to finish off, though.

[soveryapt]

How would you control access to the student documents folder? At present, ours is set to use AD group membership, which obviously wouldn't work from an iDevice...

That part I don't know just yet if it's possible, but you can certainly share a whole folder to a group of devices from looking at the literature about Lion Server. When it arrives I'll have a play and see what can be done.