Honest views of Learnpads please

[DaveVlad]

We are looking at a suite of 24 Learnpads for our Junior School. Up until now, we have been quite happy with the Samsung 8" Android Tabs, which we wiped and installed the Learnpad software on them. However, I am advised that Learnpad have now blocked this, and the only way to use their software is to buy their hardware as well. With VAT, their machines come in at a price not that far below something like an iPAD mini. We want something that is easy to use and control, and were happy with the original Learnpad solution, but our hand is now being forced because of a change of policy from Learnpad. Are any of you using the new Learnpads with wireless charging? (no doubt the total price is big because of the bespoke cabinet and chargers too).

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

Dave

[jmak]

I replied to this last night, but lost my internet connection just before I submitted and the whole lot disappeared when I clicked submit, so I'll try to remember what I said...

 

As with any tech, there are positives and negatives. I'll start with the positives:

 

The deployment and management of the devices is staggeringly good. I've never deployed anything so easily or quickly. The whole Learnpad ecosystem is brilliant for schools and integrating them into a Windows network is straightforward. I've also been impressed with the OS/software updates we've had: the last one implemented browser choice when preparing lessons/resources. This means that if you find a web resource that works better in Chrome, you can specify that the lesson uses that particular browser. One of the other major improvements was the way integration with Windows Home Drives works. You can now create Office documents from the built in apps as well as saving them. I was surprised that this wasn't part of the original functionality, but it indicates to me that they listen to users' requirements and respond to them. The integration with AD so that pupils can log in to the network using their normal AD credentials is also useful.

 

The classroom control is second to none as well. Being able to immediately change the lessons from a teacher console is excellent and something I haven't seen anywhere else. Freezing screens and sending messages is useful too - I know that software like impero can do this on Windows, but this is free and already set up for you. We use it to recall students to the classroom when they've been using the devices elsewhere in the school.

 

On to the negatives: The screens aren't the best - not as responsive as an iPad and less accurate. Drag and drop isn't always accurate, although I think that part of that is due to accessing Flash based resources - as you all know, Flash wasn't designed to be used on Android, but there are lots of educational resources that haven't been updated yet, so it's a trade off between having access to the resources and how well they work. There doesn't seem to be any pinch to zoom - zooming the screen is achieved by double tapping the screen and then repeating to zoom out. This doesn't give as much control and isn't intuitive for many of our users. The biggest single problem we have is the volume (or lack thereof) on the devices. I guess that it's limited to minimise disruption the classroom, but it's set so low that you can't really hear them. Using headphones doesn't improve it much and I checked with Learnpad and they say it can't be changed. I've also had problems with the chargers for the 8 inch tablets (Octavo), but this is an inherent problem with the design of micro USB. The pins which grip the socket wear out and then the cable falls out. This happens to me at home with personal devices, where it takes a few months. With 30 children plugging and unplugging several times a day it's inevitable that they'll fail more quickly. The upside is that there doesn't seem to be a problem with the sockets. I then get reports that the devices aren't charging. This is overcome by buying replacement chargers - the devices came with hard wired adapters. I now have chargers with standard Usb>micro USB cables, so I can cheaply replace them in future.

 

Overall, I think the downsides are outweighed by the upsides - it's the right compromise for us. MDMs seem to be improving for iPads, judging by what's reported on here, but it's not nearly as simple to manage as the Learnpads and they can't match the way you can reconfigure the devices for different users and purposes within seconds.

 

One other thing you could consider would be buying Toshiba tablets - I believe they are still supported. Learnpad told me that they had made the decision to stop supporting all Android tablets because the huge variation in hardware made it too difficult. That seems fair comment to me. You might find that you could transfer your current licences to new devices...

 

Hope that helps.

[DaveVlad]

Thanks for your comprehensive answer, Jmac. From what I understand, the latest ones don't physically need to plug in to charge, which might be of help in overcoming the wear on the charging socket.

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[snagrat]

Only issue I have with the wireless charging is that sometime the LearnPads do not turn on

 

The fix? Take the wireless charging plug out of the USB micro port and plug it in again.

 

It's like it is shorting it or something.

[jmak]

Thanks for your comprehensive answer, Jmac. From what I understand, the latest ones don't physically need to plug in to charge, which might be of help in overcoming the wear on the charging socket.

 

Regards,

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave

 

That was part of my reply last night......I knew I'd forgotten something I looked at the wireless charging cabinets at BETT and thought they looked good and very reasonable compared to other cabinets I'd looked at. Ours sit in the ICT cabinets we already have in the classrooms, so I spent the money on having more tablets. If we didn't have cabinets I would have seriously considered it. They're much cheaper than the other charging cabinets I've looked at.

 

I think wireless charging could be brilliant in schools - was dubious when it originally came out as couldn't really see the point at home. Might be worth looking to see what Ikea do - they now do cabinets with built in wireless charging. There are also lots of wireless charging pads available on eBay from about £2.99 upwards. I'm thinking of trying some and maybe knocking up some cabinets myself.

[biz]

Hi Dave

 

That was part of my reply last night......I knew I'd forgotten something I looked at the wireless charging cabinets at BETT and thought they looked good and very reasonable compared to other cabinets I'd looked at. Ours sit in the ICT cabinets we already have in the classrooms, so I spent the money on having more tablets. If we didn't have cabinets I would have seriously considered it. They're much cheaper than the other charging cabinets I've looked at.

 

I think wireless charging could be brilliant in schools - was dubious when it originally came out as couldn't really see the point at home. Might be worth looking to see what Ikea do - they now do cabinets with built in wireless charging. There are also lots of wireless charging pads available on eBay from about £2.99 upwards. I'm thinking of trying some and maybe knocking up some cabinets myself.

 

I like the wireless charging cabinets, but they aren't very secure. As a storage solution they are excellent, but they would be very easy to break into.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with everything @jmak said above, I think that sums up our experience too - I'd definitely recommend them.

[MMPS]

The USB charging ports on the learnpad devices are very flimsy, as jmak mentioned above. We had the USB port break on one device within a few months, mainly due to us re-using an existing laptop trolley which meant the tablets were standing vertically in the trolley, there was too much movement inside the trolley. I think looking at the wireless trolleys will solve this problem for us. I've heard about issues with wireless chargers, if the device isn't centred correctly they wont charge, has anyone else experienced this?

 

Personally, I don't think security of the trolley is an issue. If someone is going to break into the school to steal the tablets, a slightly stronger door on the cabinet is still not going to stop them. We have very secure metal Lapsafe trolleys for out netbooks, I'm sure they would not only delay a thief by an extra 10 minutes or so.

 

One piece of advice with the learnpad software is make sure staff are not just trained in the use of the classconnect software, but in creating lessons and adding resources too. I found after weeks of use that most of the teachers had completely ignored all the training and they began complaining about the lack of apps, because the devices were on the default "general" lesson, completely unaware that there were dozens of pre-made lessons with resources for all their curriculum topics.

[TC-1927]

Agree with most of the above.

 

The web-based management side of them is excellent and is what really sells them. Once staff have been given a ten-minute overview they really take to it.

 

The hardware is very sketchy. We've had a number of problems with devices (wireless charging) not powering on. In fairness their support has always been very good, but I haven't been advised of the fix above from @snagrat. Will try that next time the issue pops up.

[edutech4schools]

I've heard about issues with wireless chargers, if the device isn't centred correctly they wont charge, has anyone else experienced this?

 

The LearnPads wireless chargers are magnetic and pull the device into the correct place.

[MMPS]

The LearnPads wireless chargers are magnetic and pull the device into the correct place.

Thanks. The problems I've heard weren't specifically with the LearnPad Tectus chargers but with wireless charging in general. Using magnets to hold them in place seems like a pretty obvious solution to the problem. We're definitely getting wireless charging for our existing learnpads.

[jmak]

Thanks. The problems I've heard weren't specifically with the LearnPad Tectus chargers but with wireless charging in general. Using magnets to hold them in place seems like a pretty obvious solution to the problem. We're definitely getting wireless charging for our existing learnpads.

 

Can you report back when you're up and running with this. I'd be very interested to hear what you buy and how you get on with it

 

Thanks

[pooley]

I work in a Learnpad leader school in South Wales. We have 3 Tectus charging machines (soon to be 8) and it has made a massive difference to how the staff use the Learnpads. As there will be a Tectus in every junior classroom the teachers are more confident that the devices are charging. Why they just can't check the cables are plugged into them while they are in our Lapcabby's is beyond me but hey ho.

 

Not had any issues with LP not switching on from charge, we use the smaller Octavo device (our children were given the choice and they preferred the 8" model) although I am aware of a static issue on some of the older Quarto models.

 

I have 2 of the very latest Quarto models here (we had a training session for other schools last night and were given them to demo) and they are almost identical looking to the new Ipad Air.

 

When we take our new delivery in the next couple of weeks it will take us to around 200 units.

 

Pro's

 

Manageability - update devices remotely

Ease of setup

Cost

Teacher ownership of content - they can upload/create their own resources, no need for me to install individually like I have to on our ipads.

Wireless charging (they are releasing a wifi charging solution for ipads shortly along with learnpad for ipad app)

 

Con's

Build quality in earlier devices wasn't great (joys of being an early adopter)

Can lock up/freeze at time - a long hold of the power will shutoff and allow you to reboot the device. (Even staff can manage that "fix")

Camera not great on older models

 

It's take a while but staff are 90% on board and confident in their use, we have support staff creating lessons and content for their intervention groups etc.

 

I'm told there are 3 stages to getting to grips with new devices, Adopt, Adapt and Innovate. We are finally at the Innovate (well some staff are) stage.

 

IF you have any questions just ask, or live locally pop across

 

Si