[ipad] Tablet - BYOD - Parents leasing them???

[Hefferzzzz]

Hi Everybody!

 

Had a call from one of my suppliers this morning and they were saying that they have a new scheme where all the pupils in school can get their own tablet through a portal and the parents pay for it over a period of time. Obviously the head loves this idea as everyone will have a nice shiny ipad and it wont come out of the school budget and to be honest I quite like the idea of being able to use it as a reason to updgrade some of our switches and wireless.

 

Has anyone else gone through this sort of BYOD scheme? Did it work out? Any pitfalls to look out for??

 

Cheers!

[AngryTechnician]

#1 rule of going to a 1:1 or BYOD provision: consider the learning you want the technology to support.

 

Throwing tablets at a school does not, in itself, improve teaching and learning. Before any money is spent (by you or parents), you need to sit down with SMT and have a careful discussion about how teaching is going to change to make effective use of 1:1. If the parents are paying for them they are going to be extremely annoyed if they end up not being used well.

[Hefferzzzz]

Yes, there will need to be a suitable case for it but the head is adament that its a good idea so I think it will be going ahead regardless.....

 

I dont know anyone that has gone through this already so wanted a bit of a heads up really. Adding another 800+ devices to the network will cause issues that will need addressing, not to mention the MDM side of it.

 

It looks like we will be setting up a meeting to get a bit more info about it anyway.

[IrritableTech]

My two biggest issues (after the issues @AngryTechnician outlines) are insurance and the length of the lease.

 

Insurance needs to cover accidental damage - people will drop the things. It's often the same person who drops theirs over and over too.

The lease should not be any longer than the device is likely to last for. Many resellers are leasing iPad 2's on three year leases. I can't see apple supporting them with updates for that long.

 

It's not going to go down well when parents are still paying a lease in two and a half years if the item is broken or not able to run the app the teacher requires for the lesson.

[gshaw]

Be careful of these lease schemes, some of them make the school ultimately liable for the lease if the parent \ student doesn't pay. Check the small print with a fine toothcomb!

[Jamman960]

My friends kids go to an academy that gets parents to lease iPad's, they leased the first one which has been broken and repaired several times(as to be expected) but have recently been told they can only have one more repair, they also found any repairs took too long and there were often not enough temporary ones to go around.

 

When their other son went to the same school they purchased an iPad mini outright along with applecare so they just need to take it to the apple shop who carry out repairs quicker