Suite of Tablets?

[RobD]

Hi,

 

So the SMT at my school have come to me and asked how I would feel about supporting a suite of tablets specifically ipads.

 

In theory I think its a great idea but I'm a need to go back to SMT with my thoughts and I'd appreciate other schools input, initially I'm thinking:

 

1) Do they have to be ipads, would a windows tablet or Android tablet be better suited?

2) How would I manage them? I'm thinking either the Citrix MDM or Lightspeed MDM but I've no idea on costs.

3) Extra's costs such as a charging trolley, cases, insurance?

 

If anyone could give me some idea of costs (sorry no quotes at this point) and any helpful tips I'd really appreciate it.

 

Thanks

 

RobD

[Norphy]

The first question has to next: what, exactly, do they intend to do with them? Do they have a specific plan or are they buying them because shiny shiny? If they do have a specific plan, are the iPads capable of carrying it out?

 

We have a trolley of iPads and I am using profile manager to use them. It's adequate but of course you can't use it to manage anything other than Apple devices. You might also have difficulty using it if you're sitting behind a proxy server. The Meraki mdm is quite a good one.

 

We have our iPads in a Loxitv charging case/trolley thing, it's quite good

[unixman_again]

+1 Meraki. That's what we use. We have a trolley of iPads for MFL but exactly what they do with them is unknown. This might seem strange, but since we rolled the trolley in there at the start of the year, we haven't heard a peep from them. Best support job ever! Some of our staff have iPads and these are controlled by Meraki too. Apart from them wanting the odd update, they don't cause us any bother. This is the trolley we have Compucharge iMate32 iPad Charging Trolley

[Sagima]

We have two sets of iPads for classroom use which we support. We have so far supported them without an MDM but that was/is a mistake and will be rectified over the summer - probably meraki. We only have charging bays for them - I would have preferred a sync option but there's no budget for that as well.

We currently take them back each half term and update them. Printing is done by the papercut app.

[RobD]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for the replies, I really dont think staff have a clue what they will use them for its definatley more a case of ooooh I want ipads...

 

Looking at the devices I think Android are the cheapest but Windows tablets would fit in fairly seemlessly but ipads are really user friendly.

 

I've looked at Meraki but I dont think its the total management solution I'm after unless I'm missing something?

[scotyboy56]

I manage over a hundred iPads spread across my schools, some in trolleys and some in cabs.

 

At one school I have just started using Casper Suite which seems to work well and does everything I need it to. I also have Foldr so they can access there Documents and shared drives either from iPad or from home (Well worth the cost I think).

The downfall with android tablet's is how will you manage them and push apps to them, as when I was looking last year I couldn't find anything that could do it, yet iPads there and loads out there that work okay.

 

 

What sort of management solution are you looking for as that might give us an understanding so we can suggest something else

[Joanne]

OMG look at learnpads.... get a demo, show people...

 

Also WIRELESS CHARGING!

 

I really want a set of these to compliment our ipad banks... expose the children to a wealth of operating systems!

[scotyboy56]

OMG look at learnpads.... get a demo, show people...

 

Also WIRELESS CHARGING!

 

I really want a set of these to compliment our ipad banks... expose the children to a wealth of operating systems!

 

I saw one of your posts the other week about learnpads, as when I looked at them a few years ago they weren't particularly great, but my schools have already invested a lot into iPads etc, so don't really want to have a mixture of two. If I get a job at another school that don't have tablets yet, I probably will go learnpad route

[Joanne]

I saw one of your posts the other week about learnpads, as when I looked at them a few years ago they weren't particularly great, but my schools have already invested a lot into iPads etc, so don't really want to have a mixture of two. If I get a job at another school that don't have tablets yet, I probably will go learnpad route

 

I was responding to OP

 

hehe!