Primary school might get ipads but I am onsite only 4 hours a week and have no time.

[edutech4schools]

One of my primary schools would like to get some tablets for the pupils and are looking at different options. From my point of view a LearnPad would be the better option but wanted to know how realistic it would be for me to manage some ipads in a school of 200 pupils on very limited support time. They have not decided if they should get the parents to contribute and be able to offer a 1-2-1 system for all 200 pupils. If they do not go down the 1-2-1 path they would probably get about 25.

 

I have a few schools already on LearnPads and once up and running they need zero support but I do not think this is the case with an ipad.

 

I am at the school for 4 hours per week and am already flat out. Not having done this before I am wandering how much of my time will these things take up.

 

Please give as much advice as possible so I can feed this back to the school.

 

Thanks.

[achedgy]

Hi,

 

Most of my schools only have 3 hours a week of support, most have ipads, either a trolley or two, not been an issue

Ipads have been very low maintenance all in all, really wouldn't worry too much.

[achedgy]

It will obviously take time to setup (depending on what they want/how many) Make sure your wireless is good (Unifi is a fab option for a primary) keep things simple at first and you'll be fine!

[Gibson335]

For Primary use, you can probably just connect them up and wipe them once a week...it all rather depends on what they need them for. That's if you're talking 25 of course and the school owns them.

 

I love the fact that LearnPads can be remote wiped from the portal.

[Meldrew]

Definately go for LearnPads. We're just about to setup 30 iPads for a primary school that didn't know better and it's going to take us we reckon a day and a half to do it to begin with. Really depends on how strict the school is about students using them as to how much support time is needed afterwards.

 

Also with LearnPads, they're cheaper and you get all the extra stuff with them to help the teacher manage their lessons using them. To me its a no brainer; go LearnPads.

 

Meldrew

[hardtailstar]

Ive just set up Learn pads at one of my schools and I told them to set them up would take extra hours, they agreed to factor this in.

 

maybe you could ask for extra time if you could fit this in?

[Crumpet]

It's worth giving them alternative options.

 

My experience of staff with iPads is that they've already decided that they want one and anything else incuding what they'll actually use if for is a secondary consideration.

[edutech4schools]

If they do decide on ipads will they need to get an apple server and a mac?

[SovietRussia]

If they do decide on ipads will they need to get an apple server and a mac?

 

Not really, you can do lots of configuring from something like Meraki

[edutech4schools]

For Primary use, you can probably just connect them up and wipe them once a week

 

So I would need to work on them about once a week. What does wiping them actually involve? How long for 1 ipad to get it back with apps and accounts?

[edutech4schools]

Could someone give me info on my question in the post above.

 

Also if they get 1-2-1 ipads would they be best setting them up with one iTunes account or each primary school pupil having their own account on each one.

[Brimstone]

Not really, you can do lots of configuring from something like Meraki

 

 

You want the school to lose ownership of apps and content they have purchased...? Until DEP arrives you can only Supervise using Configurator

[edutech4schools]

You want the school to lose ownership of apps and content they have purchased...? Until DEP arrives you can only Supervise using Configurator

 

So does configurator need a mac or apple server or can it run on Windows?

[Brimstone]

So does configurator need a mac or apple server or can it run on Windows?

 

Apple Configurator only runs on Mac OS, so runs on nay Mac.

 

You could get a server for longer term but personally I do not like Profile Manager for the following reasons...

 

Does not scale well, more than 160 iPads you will find it starts to fail miserably

Mac OS X Server costs £13.00 to buy (you get what you pay for)

If you are going to use an MDM you would be better off with Meraki, Lightspeed or Casper.

[howartp]

For 25 iPads, Meraki should be fine.

 

For 200, I'd look elsewhere - it gets more and more sluggish the more you put on it.

[edutech4schools]

Thanks for all the info so far. I have got to pass all the info on to the school later this week and have another few question. These are going to be used in a primary school and I am very confused around creating accounts. Am I going to have to create an account for each student? and what about credit card details, how does that all work or get managed?

[Joanne]

You'd have to set up an account with the Volume Purchase Program

 

https://www.apple.com/uk/education/it/vpp/

 

You then have one account and you purchase apps through that. You get a discount for bulk buying.

 

You get a 'product key' for the apps and you can push them out through Meraki.

 

Students will not be able to install apps. You will have control of the itunes account.

 

You could give credentials to the IT Coordinator and they could install things as and when required.

[edutech4schools]

@Joanne Thanks for a nice simple explanation.

[edutech4schools]

Is it true that when locked down with something like Meraki the pupil can still get into a few of the settings like the pass key?

[Joanne]

Yeah it doesn't fully lock them down. Make sure you set them all up with itunes initially and then they will be easy to restore if any of the little darlings do that.

 

I've found that it doesn't happen in primary schools. I've yet to come across one that has been locked by a student