Tablets in schools...which one and why?

[Little-Miss]

At some point i'm going to have bite the bullet and accept tablets into the school. I have no issues with them, more the management bit.

 

One of our AHT's is keen to try out twitter in a class and thinks it's more likely to be used if it's on a tablet type device (and hes probably right).

 

Now i'd really like a Surface Pro to try out because of being able to put it on a domain and Target Tracker would work on it, but i dont think our PTA is going to pay for one of those (could still try). What would you recommend?

 

Also, my disseration for uni is about Tablet use in schools so might as well use this for that too, so i would be grateful if you could answer the questions below. Don't have to write an essay, i just want a feel for what devices are popular and why.

 

Primary/secondary?

What are you guys using in your school?

How are they used?

Are they managed?

Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

[sted]

if you want windows (and have ees or other volume lics) there are cheaper (though slower) tablets out there than the surface pro

 

Dell Venue 11 Pro HD Windows Tablet | Dell UK

 

ASUS Transformer Book T100 Convertible Notebook Tablet, Specs & More

 

both atom based (but my older spec me400c is USUALLY fast enough and that's cloverleaf not baytrail atom) and the dell you can go silly and spec with 8gb of ram 256mb storage and an i5

[X-13]

We have learnpads for nursery, Galaxy Tab 2s for certain members of staff [for the 2simple app], standalone iPads for certain smt staff and acer iconia W510p's for other staff who NEED windows [i have one, they're nice.]

 

[On phone, add other bits later]

[SovietRussia]

We went for iPads, where I had to learn about management etc, which I am now really good at (If i say so myself *smug face*)

 

I would personally go for a Windows based tablet though, at least there is some form of login. Great Windows tablet is SAMSUNG Ativ SmartPC Pro, we got a couple of them and they are beasty.

[Marci]

One of our AHT's is keen to try out twitter in a class

 

Twitter requires users to be of legal contractual age in their country of residence. Beware. Encouraging staff to get students aged 15 or less on to Twitter may not be perceived as a good move. We only allow staff to use twitter with pupils in lessons if they're Yr12 or 13.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Marci

[simpsonj]

1, Primary/secondary?

2, What are you guys using in your school?

3, How are they used?

4, Are they managed?

5, Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

 

1, Secondary School

2,We have iPads and Android (Some Nexus 7s, and some NATPC tablets) devices for staff and student use.

3, The iPads are used by the SLT as standalone devices. We also have managed iPads for our TAs to help with SEN intervention and a set of 4 iPads in the library for general use (largely research). We tried using a classroom set of NATPC tablets, but they are cheap, slow and extremely hard to manage, so they are now sat in my office. We also have Cisco tablets, but I've yet to find a use for them as neither they, or the NATPC tablets, can run the latest version of Android, making them redundant. I might use the Cisco tablets as glorified cameras. Finally we have Nexus 7 tablets that were used for research until one went missing. They are now used to control our Sphero units.

4, The iPads are managed, both through Apple configurator and Meraki. One of the Nexus's is managed, the other I will add to Meraki later, but as there are only two, it's not a high priority.

5, I didn't have much say in the device, though I'm not against the iPad as such, it may not be the tablet of choice now, as a Windows based tablet would be much easier to control, and would be able to run SIMS without using an expensive app such as Groupcall. But they do prove popular with the students and LT.

[localzuk]

Primary/secondary?

What are you guys using in your school?

How are they used?

Are they managed?

Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

 

1. Middle

2. We have iPads and Microsoft Surface RTs. We also used to have a Fujitsu Stylistic.

3. iPads - SEN and some teachers, Microsoft Surface RT - classroom use (soon, only just bought them). The stylistic was our head's old device. But he no longer uses it, as he has a desktop and an iPad now instead.

4. Not really, no.

5. The head chose the iPads... I wasn't involved. The Surfaces were chosen by our IT co-ordinator and one of our SMT. I was, again, not involved... The fact they were cheap helped I think! They can be managed *a bit* but not to the level that would make me happy.

Edited November 14, 2013 by localzuk

[chazzy2501]

I've been looking at this with interest:

 

Toshiba Encore Tablet PC - Tablets | Ebuyer.com

 

full windows 8.1 an ips screen and quad core for £208 I bet it's ok.

[fiza]

I've been looking at this with interest:

 

Toshiba Encore Tablet PC - Tablets | Ebuyer.com

 

full windows 8.1 an ips screen and quad core for £208 I bet it's ok.

 

Would it run SIMS comfortably?

[chazzy2501]

I guess it would run fine, although using SIMS on a tablet might be tricky.

[fiza]

I guess it would run fine, although using SIMS on a tablet might be tricky.

 

Was thinking purely for taking registers. PE Dept comes to mind.

[Roberto]

Don't take this the wrong way but getting tablets in just to run twitter in classes sounds like the AHT (deputy head?) has a bad case of "oooh, shiny, I want one now what excuse can I use?".

[Little-Miss]

 

Twitter requires users to be of legal contractual age in their country of residence. Beware. Encouraging staff to get students aged 15 or less on to Twitter may not be perceived as a good move. We only allow staff to use twitter with pupils in lessons if they're Yr12 or 13.

 

I think the plan was, as its only one class at the moment, to send letters out telling the parents about it and giving them the opportunity to opt out.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Little-Miss

[Little-Miss]

Don't take this the wrong way but getting tablets in just to run twitter in classes sounds like the AHT (deputy head?) has a bad case of "oooh, shiny, I want one now what excuse can I use?".

 

I agree, but it's going to happen at some point isn't it? When i get over ruled. So i might as well use this as a trial

[pcstru]

Primary/secondary?

What are you guys using in your school?

How are they used?

Are they managed?

Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

 

1. Secondary.

2. Various. iPads, Android and a few RT's. All are either niche or were bought as trial devices.

3. Badly.

4. No.

5. Mostly shiny baubles but some are driven by requirements, either mobility and ease of use or in the case of the site team, a particular application.

[NotSoFast]

The Asus Transformer mentioned above got a glowing review on the PC Pro podcast on Wednesday. Sounds brilliant for £350 and makes me wonder if anyone will want a Surface.

[yugo]

Primary/secondary?

What are you guys using in your school?

How are they used?

Are they managed?

Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

 

1. Special

2. iPad 2's and iPad Minis

3. Mainly used as a reward for completing work and some used as communication aids. Bit of a push to use them more educationally now though, slowly but surely. No internet access on them at the moment which doesn't help.

4. Had set them up through school itunes initially. Now using apple configurator on a mac mini .

5. Principal likes apple stuff and at the time of purchase they seemed the best option due to range of apps.

[CyberNerd]

1. secondary with 6thForm

2. ipad mini, various androids, chromebooks (x2!)

3. 99% of our apps are web based so in theory they can be used for anything the PC's do, in practice it is mostly registrations + email for staff and internet for students.

4. apple configurator, google apps and (soon) lightspeed

5. price and the apps they run.

[witch]

Thanks for this, @Little-Miss Oddly enough I had a very similar conversation with the HT in my junior school this morning - we were discussing the ageing netbooks and what we should replace them with.

Nothing seems to be leading the pack though, does it?

I want to hear about a non-apple tablet that is easy to manage, can be integrated into a windows network but still runs like the clappers, and isnt too expensive..is that too much to ask

[X-13]

and isnt too expensive

 

Define "expensive"... our Win8 Pro tablets are about £500 each. [inc. VAT]

[MrWu]

Primary/secondary?

 

secondary

 

What are you guys using in your school?

 

iPads and Androids

 

How are they used?

 

We have classes of iPads and Androids (Zoostorm Playtab)

 

Are they managed?

 

For the small class sets we have (15) we use Meraki to control the iPads, we found Apple Configurator a bit of a bind because you can only download stuff from the server that you assigned your iPad with, so we ended up using just iTunes instead. Android we use Meraki and a local app called Surelock to lock down settings and have a uniform home screen.

 

I have now bought a class set of Sumvision Voyager 2 tablets for a month trail where the year 7s take them as if it's 1:1, what we learnt from the others were Tablets are really designed for personal use and off multiple users it was a pain. These trial tablets will be able to login to our Windows 2012 R2 Remote Desktop with a touch optimised Metro interface, office 2013 and be able to print and save to home drives, an Office 365 account for email (still waiting for SkyDrive Pro to come out!) with local apps such as Photoshop Touch, a Groupboard and Lino.

 

Incidentally all these apps could be done on the iPad also, because we want to be platform agnostic.

 

Why did you choose that particular device?

 

iPad the SLT liked it, Android for cost and a bit more flexible (ie USB drives and keyboards)

 

Also Wireless and infrastructure is important, for example, teachers let kids bring their phones into class and we end up having 50 devices hanging off one UniFi!

[dhicks]

Nothing seems to be leading the pack though, does it? I want to hear about a non-apple tablet that is easy to manage, can be integrated into a windows network but still runs like the clappers, and isnt too expensive.

 

As NotSoFast pointed out, the Asus Transformer Book T100 got a very good review by PC Pro yesterday:

 

What's on this week's PC Pro podcast? | News | PC Pro

 

The link has both audio and video reviews. For under £400 you get a tablet and detachable keyboard, both with separate batteries - have a few spare keyboards ready and charging and you can swap round any tablets that need more battery power. Full Windows 8.1, latest Atom chip with out-of-order execution - they even had it running Crysis (3D first-person action game) at a reasonable frame rate.

[pooley]

Primary

 

We have around 100 Learnpads, Staff have a Nexus 7 each. The teachers took a while to get over the fact we didn't buy lots of iShiney devices. But the management side of the learnpads and the way they can be controlled and locked down for teaching has sold them to the staff. Class set (30) was about £5500 with a charging trolley

[witch]

That's interesting. One of my suppliers has been pushing Learnpads at me - you rate them then, @pooley ?

[SovietRussia]

Primary/secondary?

What are you guys using in your school?

How are they used?

Are they managed?

Why did you choose that particular device?

Price? can be managed? SLT made me? other

 

1. Secondary

2. iPad 4's

3. Used a lot in DT for just browsing web, not sure about other departments

4. Of course, using own tools and protocols

5. £400ish? They can be managed, with a fist.