[iPad] Looking for Secondary Schools using iPads

[Drapec]

Hi

 

I am looking to try and find out how secondary schools in either Nottinghamshire or Derbyshire are using iPads. We have just given some of our teachers iPads and a lot of our staff are bring in there own. But are not really sure what to do with them or how best to use them during a lesson to engage the students. So what I have been trying to find out is if there are any schools in our local area that are actually using them on a day to day basis and if they have been using them for a while. Meeting up with somebody and seeing them being used in day to day environment.

 

We are looking into the possibility of giving out iPads to faculties/students but nobody can really say what they want them for all they say is can we have an iPad.

 

We are only looking at iPads as we have tested other tablets and we have found them to be far better for us.

 

Chris Draper

Ashfield School

Kirkby-in-Ashfield

Nottinghamshire

[mrdolan]

How are iPads far better for you than other tablets if you don't know what you want to do with them?

 

The best idea might be to look at how people want to impact teaching and learning with technology and then see which device is the best fit for the purpose, rather than what is the most shiny or what people use personally (which is often a different use case to in school).

 

Sorry to be a bit negative. I have (and teach with) an iPad, but I think there are lots if reasons why they are often not the best device for schools.

[Meldrew]

We have much the same want vs need here. The few departments we have purchased one for, it ends up sitting gathering dust in a cupboard. For the money it would cost, I would want to know from them exactly how it would improve exam results for the spend.

 

Meldrew

[nmw10]

We are in the process of rolling them out. We are writing a blog documenting our journey and findings- still early days though. The address is sjbsurrey.wordpress.com

[Drapec]

Thanks for the info. The blog is great. I would still like to go out and visit some schools that have been using iPads on a daily basis for nearly 1 year or more to see how they find them and how they use them on a daily basis. Our LT Team are very happy with there iPads and we have given them to our ICT department and they seem to be using them quite effectively. We have one that has been out on loan to various departments and they have expressed an interest in get some (waiting on new budgets etc.) so the demand for them is there its just seeing them in a school environment that would be useful. I did think about trying to get in touch with essa academy in Bolton to see how they are getting on and how they use them. (Just not got round to it as of yet)

[Achandler]

There is a school in Harrogate doing 1:1 iPads, they are meant to be a really good place to visit, they held the conference recently. I would recommend them from what I have heard, our Head and Head of IT have been.

 

ESSA academy is using them, but our Head of IT wasn't impressed at all, I have seen them with iPods and I thought it was wasted money.

[Drapec]

thanks, do you know the name of the school?

[Achandler]

Nope but I will ask and PM you.

[Drapec]

thanks

[IrritableTech]

ESSA have just been featured on the Apple UK site: Apple (United Kingdom) - Essa Academy

[Achandler]

As I mentioned above, ESSA is underwhelming compared to Harrogate Grammar (been confirmed), though depends on your school which may be best.

 

I would say it was even disappointing, iPads turning a school round is properly deceiving to. ESSA spend the equivalent to half out schools entire income on IT every year. If you spend literally 10s of millions on a new school, then spend millions more then most schools get every year on a school, the results should increase. Last time I went they had an external contractor for IT support which they didn't use, but was costing them £100k+ a year, this has now changed. But how can one school afford that?

[IrritableTech]

1:1 is a very expensive model.

 

I'm slightly concerned that the technology is coming before the learning though in some of these cases. Tell me the learning need, and I'll find a technical solution. It's wrong in my humble opinion to find a device, and then look at how it fits into the T&L.

[Achandler]

I haven't been to Harrogate, so I can only tell you want our Head of IT reported. He said Harrogate was being done extremely well and they started with just teacher, he didn't like ESSA's approach, he thought Harrogate was more thorough.

 

Whether it is the best approach is another question, I can only give feedback to the original question.

[Gibson335]

Pads certainly have a place in education, but I often think it's the cart before the horse scenario in schools - rather than figure out what they want to do and then choose the best tool, it's choose the shiny new tool and then figure out how best to use it. In so many cases, a laptop is still the better solution, simply because it offers so many more options to the user. The problem is, some have decided laptops are passe, and we must all now bow to the pad/cloud/BYOD philosophy or be run out of town by technophiles clutching virtual pitchforks, decrying us as luddites and philistines.

[caffrey]

The other problem is the short shelf life these things have, Apple have a new model every 6 months or so - also damage costs can be expensive.

[Gibson335]

TCO would probably favour laptops over pads - ours go on to have a decent old age as stand-alones.

[caffrey]

Also forgot to mention app costs too, soon mounts up and takes chunks out of the budget.

[Drapec]

thanks, We are not really looking at the 1:1 basis at the moment(and we probably won't) as we have nearly 2500 students it starts to get expensive. But it might be interesting to go the conference and see how they manage all the devices and they are being used

[Aethon]

As has been kindly mentioned by @Achandler, we are using iPads and while we are outside Notts\Derbyshire we do have another conference coming up on the 26th of June (more info here: Harrogate Grammar School | iPads for Learning | 1:1 iPads for Learning Conference).