Pros and Cons of teachers using laptops or iPAD's in school...

You could also look at previous use of new technology that was going to "transform lessons".

Did your school buy a load of DSs (DSes?)? If so, are they still regularly used? In that case you've at least got a chance of getting some use from the iPads. If, like 2 of my schools, they are stuck at the back of a cupboard after the novelty wore off then you could probably save yourself a lot of time and money.

I'm sure someone has posted this story before, but if not: The school that swapped its laptops for iPads… and wants to switch back | PC Pro blog

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SYNACK

Rubbish, readingeggs.com, mathlettics, all those other edu apps that are out there that will never be upgraded, etc.

---

If they are not being updated at which point are they naturally obsolete regardless of the platform you are using? You could argue that relevant replacement are/will be developed in HTML5?

Quote:

---

As an added extra, just like everything else in apple land

---

Meh.

Quote:

---

No available fixes either, they break and your stuffed, they must be different to the Macs, I have tonnes of support calls to get stuff working on a mac or setup/repair email etc on iStuff. They are not as intuitive as some people think and they do break.

---

I'm sure a broken iPad is as end user repairable as any tablet device/mobile phone regardless of name badge on the front or OS it's boots into. Unfortunately ATX towers and CRT monitors are not exactly portable...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LeMarchand

I'm sure someone has posted this story before, but if not: The school that swapped its laptops for iPads… and wants to switch back | PC Pro blog

---

Interesting story; but the first half dozen comments sums it up - It's not the technology that's the problem, it the implementation of the technology. Most of these "issues" could be avoided by planning and knowing the technologies limitations before opening the cheaque book!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

If they are not being updated at which point are they naturally obsolete regardless of the platform you are using? You could argue that relevant replacement are/will be developed in HTML5?

---

Yea, you just have to find them and hope they are free then get the staff to adapt to them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

Meh.

---

Interesting response to the most important part, that gear will eat your budget in seconds, buying an iPad is not enough, you need a mac, a stack of adapters, probably an Apple TV and whatever individual apps you actually need. Nickle and dimeing may as well have been invented by them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

I'm sure a broken iPad is as end user repairable as any tablet device/mobile phone regardless of name badge on the front or OS it's boots into. Unfortunately ATX towers and CRT are not exactly portable...

---

True but it does not mean they break any less, I have friends that work in retail. The most common return for failure is Apple gear and they sell maybe 20% Apple stuff as opposed to 80% of everything else. Whether this means the Apple stuff is less robust or just that its users are less careful/sensible I do not know.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

Interesting story; but the first half dozen comments sums it up - It's not the technology that's the problem, it the implementation of the technology. Most of these "issues" could be avoided by planning and knowing the technologies limitations before opening the cheaque book!

---

Exactly, why begin with a flawed and limited technology to start with.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SYNACK

Exactly, why begin with a flawed and limited technology to start with.

---

:doh: (must use more characters :doh:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

If they are not being updated at which point are they naturally obsolete regardless of the platform you are using?

---

This question posted today shows how reluctant some staff are to seek out new methods: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/educat...tml#post872606 (TuxPaint does a lot of the same stuff, and is free and I wouldn't be surprised if had been suggested and overruled - it certainly has been in some of my schools where they'd rather wait for XP Mode to boot so that they can stick with Dazzle).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

Interesting story; but the first half dozen comments sums it up - It's not the technology that's the problem, it the implementation of the technology. Most of these "issues" could be avoided by planning and knowing the technologies limitations before opening the cheaque book!

---

Isn't that what the OP is investigating? besides which, surely if the tech has limitations (compared to the previous tech) then it IS a problem with the technology? Unless, I guess, if the shortcomings are outweighed by the new benefits...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tmcd35

My pleasure ;)



Ahh, start from the negative. Why not start from the positive? Buy one, give to a teacher and ask them a week later - "how did you use it?". We have bought 10, one for each department, which we are distributing as a trial just to see if/how they can use them.

I have my own ideas, but I'm an evangelist (I'll happily admit my bias):

We have staff asking for slates to go with their IWB's as near £150-£200 ago. Not far off the price of an entry level iPad with a VNC viewer to the laptop?

You can IWB apps for an iPad. An iPad is 1/3 the cost of a Smart Board.

What about using the webcamera as document scanner or, with AppleTV/AirServer, as a document visuliser.

And that's just putting them in a teachers hands, we haven't even started looking what can be done if the teacher handed the device to a pupil.

---

I am really interested in the feedback you get from the teachers on their use in the classroom.
But can I ask this : are they able to take them home and use them ? I bet this clouds their judgement on whether they are a good educational tool :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kennysarmy

I am really interested in the feedback you get from the teachers on their use in the classroom.
But can I ask this : are they able to take them home and use them ? I bet this clouds their judgement on whether they are a good educational tool :P

---

At this stage, definately not. There is talk though that laptops might get fixed to classroom desks and then yes, they take iPads home. A few years off from that yet I think ;)

We've been trialling iPads for over a year now. Nearly half of all staff have them now. I think about 45 in total.

I've never had a complaint about a flash website.
The absolutely love them from the feedback I have received.
The VGA cable costs 20 quid Apple Dock Connector to VGA Adapter MC552ZM/B | Insight UK It really is no problem to buy them with the ipads which is what we do.
In the entire trial I have not had one maintenance request for an ipad. Literally not one at all.
Some staff have used them to replace the genie visualizers with great success.
We let staff take theirs home and install all their own software, again no problems with that.

Amazing devices that are going to change the face of education forever I reckon :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zag

We've been trialling iPads for over a year now. Nearly half of all staff have them.

I've never had a complaint about a flash website.
The absolutely love them from the feedback I have received.
The VGA cable costs 20 quid Apple Dock Connector to VGA Adapter MC552ZM/B | Insight UK It really is no problem to buy them with the ipads which is what we do.
In the entire trial I have not had one maintenance request for an ipad. Literally not one at all.

Amazing devices that are going to change the face of education forever I reckon :)

---

I bet if I was to walk down the road to a local business and offer all their staff an iPAD they would LOVE them too :P

Where is your evidence it's increasing the teaching and learning??
Maybe you work in a private school and you can do what you want with your money.
I am spending public money and as such need to see a benefit....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kennysarmy

I bet if I was to walk down the road to a local business and offer all their staff an iPAD they would LOVE them too :P

Where is your evidence it's increasing the teaching and learning??
Maybe you work in a private school and you can do what you want with your money.
I am spending public money and as such need to see a benefit....

---

Try to ask why they love them? :)
I work in a normal school, iPads are actually cheaper than laptops :)
We have loads of evidence, we ran a proper trial for the last 6 months. Not one person has chosen a laptop this year above an Ipad which just shows the success. I see them used everyday by over half our staff in classrooms.

Registration is quicker and has revolutionized the accuracy and speed at which its taken.
Some of the apps used by our classics department are awesome. All ancient Greek interactive stuff, its amazing to watch.
Geography are using them in every lesson, imagine google maps zooming in on a projector. Prezy interactive presentations, switching to websites instantly. Interaction with the students.
Email is instant, people actually read them now!
They work perfectly on our proxy server unlike the androids we also tested

Saying all that I'm by no means an Apple fanboi either, I just think they have been an outstanding success for our teachers. I was more reluctant than anyone to introduce a "toy" it was first suggested by a member of the SMT. But I'm happy to say I was proved wrong.

Quote:

---

Connectivity to network and standalone printers

---

Try "fingerprint". You install it on your server and then the iPad treats all printers on the network as if they're AirPrint. Works really well.

I think that quite a lot of it is a mindset thing - if you expect an iPad to do everything a laptop does, it will fail. The question is what else are you going to get from them? Some of the capabilities they have for music production are fantastic. And I'm seriously looking at them to replace Smartboards. I think they could end up being far more interactive as well as quarter of the price. The cost model is also quite different - at the minute you seem to be able to legitimately buy one copy of an app and share it across 30 devices, so you might pay more for the device, but spend less on software.

They do seem to be very stable compared to anything with a MS OS.

On the other hand, am I desperate to integrate them into my network? Not really, tbh. Maybe that will improve once Apple has to compete with MS for the corporate market for tablets.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jmak

I think that quite a lot of it is a mindset thing - if you expect an iPad to do everything a laptop does, it will fail. The question is what else are you going to get from them?

---

100% agree, they are not laptops and comparing them is setting up for a full. This is something that I dont think Microsoft have really understood. Tablets require a different mindset to your approach in using them over laptops.

Quote:

---

at the minute you seem to be able to legitimately buy one copy of an app and share it across 30 devices, so you might pay more for the device, but spend less on software.

---

I dont think thats quiet right. Im sure each iPad is supposed to have its own subaccount on the iTunes store. You gift money to the subaccount from a master account which is then used to purchase apps for that iPad.

Quote:

---

On the other hand, am I desperate to integrate them into my network? Not really, tbh. Maybe that will improve once Apple has to compete with MS for the corporate market for tablets.

---

It'll never happen. Apple have never been interested in the corporate market. They used to be a prosumer company but that nearly bankrupted them. When Jobs returned in '97 he changed their focus to a very much consumer focused company - the original iMac, iPod, iLife and the whole "digital hub" idea. A bit of an understatement to say it saved the company and they havent looked back since. In recent years they have been slowly killing of their prosumer product lines.