iPad Training - How have you approached it?

[Jamman960]

We're in the process of discussing a future 1:1 rollout, iPads appear to be the device of choice and I'm starting to come round to the idea.

 

Training is one area we can't seem to agree upon, we've had a company come in and recommend 5 group training days with an ADE at a cost of ~£10k for our 55 staff. Not only is finding 5 days going to be impossible but the cost is also on the extreme side - also how are we going to induct new staff to a similar level?

 

On the opposite side of that my line manager has visited a school who sent their teachers home with iPads over the summer break with brief instructions and told them that pupils would be bringing them in from September, apparently this worked??

 

My thoughts would be to work out what our key apps are going to be and deliver some training ourselves to ensure that our staff are ready to deliver successful lessons when the pupils get hold of them, How has everyone else approached training? I can see 1:1 devices being a fantastic addition if done correctly but at the same time it could easily go the other way and end up affecting our pupil numbers (We're an independent) as well as being a huge waste of money.

[Garacesh]

After what's recently happened at Honywood, I hope you've gotten some iron-clad policies written, first!

[Meldrew]

Presumably its not just staff training either - aren't your faculties going to need to pretty much start from scratch with their Schemes of Work? When's that going to happen?

 

Meldrew

[Jamman960]

AUP's are certainly on the agenda, we're essentially starting from scratch and building up from there and involving a number of SLT members in the process. Xirrus's AP level filtering may be a good solution as it'd be possible to allow skype/whatever in selected areas and not others.. I haven't yet ventured into costings for this though

 

Yep it'll certainly involve huge changes to existing schemes of work and lesson planning, I really don't see how a sink or swim approach would work out well for anyone.

[Garacesh]

If you don't use iPad's already, this is really going to be a baptism by fire for you, no?

 

Perhaps get a set of 30 first, use them to really figure out the ins-and-outs of managing them, then hand them to a class for a month or two and see how they're actually getting used. The kids, I'm sure, will happily provide some involuntary QA and you'll get a good grip of what you've missed. With that knowledge, you can move on to buying more now that you know what you're doing with them.

 

Bear in mind I actually have very little iPad/1:1 experience, I just figure this would be a better approach thank going from zero to 1:1 overnight.

[Leeoakley]

From personal experience of handling training logistics for organisations (educational and commercial) setting up the training will be more a nightmare for you than delivering it.

 

Could you, along with a number of key teaching staff, come up with something?

 

Perhaps work with a 3rd party, if needed, to come up with something you deliver in twilight sessions?

 

The issue will be making the training relevant to the staff at your school, that and teachers are always a demanding bunch to teach

 

I'd advise if you go it alone you get some sort of sign off from the powers that be to make the training mandatory

[Brimstone]

We're in the process of discussing a future 1:1 rollout, iPads appear to be the device of choice and I'm starting to come round to the idea.

 

Training is one area we can't seem to agree upon, we've had a company come in and recommend 5 group training days with an ADE at a cost of ~£10k for our 55 staff. Not only is finding 5 days going to be impossible but the cost is also on the extreme side - also how are we going to induct new staff to a similar level?

 

On the opposite side of that my line manager has visited a school who sent their teachers home with iPads over the summer break with brief instructions and told them that pupils would be bringing them in from September, apparently this worked??

 

My thoughts would be to work out what our key apps are going to be and deliver some training ourselves to ensure that our staff are ready to deliver successful lessons when the pupils get hold of them, How has everyone else approached training? I can see 1:1 devices being a fantastic addition if done correctly but at the same time it could easily go the other way and end up affecting our pupil numbers (We're an independent) as well as being a huge waste of money.

 

 

Your training plan will come down to whether you are pushing the button of hundreds of devices at once or looking at rolling them out to year groups (many schools typically do this, I've not come across one that went all in one go)

 

Giving the teachers iPads before you even consider any others is the way to go, it lets them get to grips with the basics.

Once they have got to grips with them you can then think about 1 or 2 days training with an APD which lets you identify your "Digital Leaders" and might be useful to set up a "Digital Leaders Group" so you can then put together another critical part of this which is a "Vision and Plan" for your school. I would then recommend that you have at least another couple of days training with an APD.

 

Having a steering group allows you to see where the "gaps" possibly are and formulate which areas you would like to address first. Once you start deploying iPads to those year groups you have identified you may what to appoint some digital student groups.

 

It may be useful to go and see other schools that have done this, here's an independent that have done just this and are running an event next week...

 

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