[iPad] Deploying and managing iPads

[pran]

The school is planning to give iPads to each student in the future and wondering what kind of tools are available for deploying and managing these devices from a centralized or a decentralized setup?

[dhicks]

The school is planning to give iPads to each student in the future and wondering what kind of tools are available for deploying and managing these devices from a centralized or a decentralized setup?

The iPad is designed as a personal device, intended for consumers to buy and use in a one-to-one fashion. There's a slew of new tablet computers now out, some of which might be more suited to being used in a managed environment - RM's new slate PC looks like a good device in that context.

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David Hicks

[GrumbleDook]

The iPhone Deployment Kit can be used or if they are school devices used in the classroom them set one iPad up and then restore that setup onto the other devices. There are a few folk on twitter who have some experience around simple setups ... you can follow me and I will intro you to some more Tony Sheppard (grumbledook) on Twitter

[tech_guy]

Far from being a personal user device, a lot of organisations have taken them up and are using them, from schools, to banks, law firms and hotel chains. I went to my dentist the other week and there was the receptionist using one to log patients in and book appointments. There's a school in NZ who has given one to every pupil that makes an interesting case study. I'll see if I can find the link.

[pran]

Thanks for the input, David. Will keep this in mind. I hope Apple or some company come up with a way to manage these devices. They're pretty cheap and would indeed be a great tool for teaching.

[dhicks]

The iPhone Deployment Kit can be used or if they are school devices used in the classroom them set one iPad up and then restore that setup onto the other devices.

How locked down can you get an iPad these days? For a school, I'd want a device that can be set up so that every time you turn it on it worked in the same way - I'd be tempted to have iPads do VNC, RDP and web-browsing only.

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David Hicks

[GrumbleDook]

If you are at BETT I will show you. I'll have an iPad with me and my MBP ... but will try and find a different one so I can keep mine based on my home settings (long story ... I'll explain when I see you).

[m25man]

If you are at BETT I will show you.

If his profile is correct that will be one heck of a train fare...

[bodminman]

If his profile is correct that will be one heck of a train fare...

LOL - I recon it will cost more getting from a UK port/ airport than it does getting from the Philippines to the said uk port! UK public transport for you!

[FN-GM]

How locked down can you get an iPad these days? For a school, I'd want a device that can be set up so that every time you turn it on it worked in the same way - I'd be tempted to have iPads do VNC, RDP and web-browsing only.

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David Hicks

You can do it with the software GrumbleDook. Also you can block the install of applications right out of the box with the software restriction settings they have built in. You can easily get them to do what you want.

The thing that attracts me to the iPad is that they will need little maintenance. Possibly a software updates every now and then and maybe some applications should you need them. Proxy settings for them can be managed centrally using .pac files. If you get something that runs Windows such as the RM option they will need more maintenance with mobile classroom and laptop trolleys that can be a real pain at times.

[dhicks]

The thing that attracts me to the iPad is that they will need little maintenance. Possibly a software updates every now and then and maybe some applications should you need them.

Is there a way to centrally buy and distribute apps around a set of managed iPads? For instance, using an iPad as a controller for a projected screen - I know there's a paid-for app available that uses VNC to control the keyboard and mouse on a target PC from the iPad. I'd need a way to buy 30-odd copies of that app, get it installed on each iPad and set each iPad's app to connect to a different PC, each of which would use a different randomised password. If a teacher loses / drops / etc an iPad, I need to be able to replace it with something that has identicle settings, preferably within an hour or so.

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David Hicks

[Max_Power]

Very interesting thread! Were having an extension built to our junior school to add to the intake and as part of this we are looking at other ways to teach younger students ICT. Slates, tablets, ipads have all come up in conversation, but the installing of apps on the devices and securing them is something i was hoping to see at BETT.

[FN-GM]

Is there a way to centrally buy and distribute apps around a set of managed iPads? For instance, using an iPad as a controller for a projected screen - I know there's a paid-for app available that uses VNC to control the keyboard and mouse on a target PC from the iPad. I'd need a way to buy 30-odd copies of that app, get it installed on each iPad and set each iPad's app to connect to a different PC, each of which would use a different randomised password. If a teacher loses / drops / etc an iPad, I need to be able to replace it with something that has identicle settings, preferably within an hour or so.

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David Hicks

Pass, i will leave that to an expert

[AngryTechnician]

If you're on Twitter it might be worth getting in touch with @FraserSpeirs, who is a big iPad in schools advocate and has been managing them in his school for some time now.

[rdsc]

I haven't had a lot of experience with iPads yet but our SMT are lusting after them so I've been checking out the management options - the iphone configuration utility is a good place to start (as mentioned above) it's pretty straight forward - the help file is here you can disable the music store, pre-populate wifi settings/active sync, restrict explicit media and in-app purchases etc pretty simply. A more full on Enterprise Deployment guide for Ios4 is here