1:1 iPads in School

[storey_25]

Hello

 

Does anyone know a high school in the North West who have 1:1 iPads currently in place?

 

Thanks

[STK91]

Yes, I used to work at Morecambe Community High School and the sixth form were all given an iPad. Not sure if they are still in use though.

[mjk]

Hello

 

Does anyone know a high school in the North West who have 1:1 iPads currently in place?

 

Thanks

 

Presumably, you're a Chromebook salesperson then!

[Andycat]

We have in Blackburn

[AlanD]

no; but we do have BYOD - and the largest numbers of users are ipads…..but of course unmanaged by us (except for their internet access)…..and we have some school ipads which we just use free configurator and profile manager MDM for....because we are far too mean to pay for an MDM...

[storey_25]

No I work in a High School and want to go and visit one too see how well they are working!

[RLR]

Probably not much help but we're a 1:1 iPad school based in the East if you don't mind travelling! We have quite a few people visit us about iPads.

[peej2k]

Essa Academy in Bolton were 1:1 iPad a few years ago. Don't know if they still are though.

[psydii]

Essa Academy in Bolton were 1:1 iPad a few years ago. Don't know if they still are though.

 

I suspect you know full well

 

As is often the way with schools that have invested heavily in technology, a new head comes in a throws out the baby with the bath water. Mostly because they didn’t believe there was a baby in there.

 

Has any 1:1 programme survived the departure of its leadership team sponsor/Head of School?

[mjk]

No I work in a High School and want to go and visit one too see how well they are working!

 

Sorry I thought you were being disingenuous. Most schools starting out on this path wouldn't bother looking at ipads because they are so expensive and limited compared to chromebooks (many of which are touchscreen, run mobile apps and use styluses). I think it would be a bad move to go down the ipad route now. 3 or 5 yrs ago it would have been a fair bet but for now most would be looking at chromebooks. In a few years time it will be something else, but for now ipads are really quite limited in what they can do for education.

[AlanD]

...well I could understand state schools having a difficulty with the cost of the iPad route....but there are certainly independent schools that do it...usually making students buy an iPad - or iPad mini when they join the school in Year 7.

 

Despite being an avid defender, enthusiast and support of Android and Chrome, I would have to admit there is something slick and polished about the whole iOS platform...stuff just works...and works well...from sync between phone and tablet to airserver...airdrop...airprint....icloud, etc etc. And while the same things are "do able" on Android and Chrome..there is always a learning curve and not as intuitive. And although they are late to the party - the Apple classroom app with its ability to monitor screens and manage multiple users is beginning to look like the kind of product that is required in the classroom.

 

I have a contact with a school in spain - who have a 1:1 chromebook scheme...which I thought was brilliant....but the reality is that the kids truly hate it...alarmingly so.....and for that matter so do the staff. At any and every opportunity they sneak out their iphones and mini ipads and use those instead of the chromebooks they are issues with....I don't understand the logic of what is wrong with their chromebooks or why they hate them so much...but if I wanted a scheme to work - that experience would make me think twice about not using ipads - even if they were twice the cost.

[boomish]

With respect I agree with AlanD, our experience is much the same, mjk's anti iPad post is typical of someone that hasn't seen iPads working in a school, they have and continue to be loved by students and teachers, apps work well, they are fast and make the lesson move so much faster. Chromebooks are cheap and thats important to us but the experience is not the same, it's a glorified browser with basic apps and the kids don't respond the same because of that. I'm not saying one is better than the other or iPads have no faults, but you can't compare and running down iPads seems ignorant and simply anti-apple which I'm so tired of hearing, I don't care what it is if it works.

[peej2k]

I suspect you know full well

 

As is often the way with schools that have invested heavily in technology, a new head comes in a throws out the baby with the bath water. Mostly because they didn’t believe there was a baby in there.

 

Has any 1:1 programme survived the departure of its leadership team sponsor/Head of School?

 

God's honest truth. Honestly, I had no idea!

Whenever I went to Apple events they were marched out in front of us. Since we moved away from Apple (new headteacher, less of a magpie "ooh shiny shiny" attitude to IT) I've not been to many Apple events.

 

I don't see why some schools are so hesitant about 1:1 schemes.

The only reason that you wouldn't go as paperless as possible in this day and age is teachers refusing to do it, and that's really a tail wagging the dog situation you need to avoid.

By not allowing students access to these devices regularly, we are really letting them down with their future careers... It's the second most annoying thing to me (The first being "Oh we need Microsoft because that's what they'll use at work" like we're all Microsoft training centres paying licenses for the privilege of doing MS's work for them!)

[peej2k]

Chromebooks are cheap and thats important to us but the experience is not the same, it's a glorified browser with basic apps and the kids don't respond the same because of that.

 

Funnily enough glorified browser is the exact experience we've seen with iPads. All they are ever used for is quick access to the internet. No one really uses the apps, and the kids just spend their time messing around with selfies rather than getting work done. The first real engagement we saw in years with the children were with Chromebooks. Children and staff are really engaged and love the platform, whereas previously they couldn't stand getting the iPads out because they never worked properly and were a nightmare to manage.

Edited June 11, 2018 by peej2k

[mjk]

With respect I agree with AlanD, our experience is much the same, mjk's anti iPad post is typical of someone that hasn't seen iPads working in a school, they have and continue to be loved by students and teachers, apps work well, they are fast and make the lesson move so much faster. Chromebooks are cheap and thats important to us but the experience is not the same, it's a glorified browser with basic apps and the kids don't respond the same because of that. I'm not saying one is better than the other or iPads have no faults, but you can't compare and running down iPads seems ignorant and simply anti-apple which I'm so tired of hearing, I don't care what it is if it works.

I spent a good deal of time visiting other ipad schools and looking at how they worked before we decided upon Chromebooks. my post wasn't at all anti ipad or anti apple, but based upon how we saw them being used (poorly) in the four schools that we visited.

The main issues that we had were:

 

 

• We saw no evidence of ipads being used effectively for writing essays or use with any sort of document management system
  
• The devices were more expensive
  
• The back office capabilities were poorer and less well thought through as an O365 or Gsuite backend would be required.
  
• We saw no evidence of any applications being used that were not already available on Chromebooks when used in android mode
  
• The college felt that the Google handwriting input feature was more effective than the ipad version.
  
• The college felt that an addition of a bluetooth keyboard was impractical and costly
  
• An additional MDM was required, increasing the costs to the college.
  
• Provision for using ipads as word processors in exams is inadequate
  
• Provision for using ipads for the computing curriculum was inadequate
  

 

 

Please don't put down our findings as anti-apple ignorance, we spend a lot of time researching apple, microsoft and Chromebooks before the unanimous decision that Chromebooks were the way forward.

[Ditto]

Clearly there are successful Apple based setups and successful Chrome/GSuite based setups, and I guess perceived versions of the same. What @storey_25 is doing by going to talk to schools already running one of these is spot-on. I'd recommend spending a good deal of time on making sure you have a good support arrangement to deal with installation and setup - check out reference sites - unless of course you're lucky enough to have the technical and PM skills in-house.

[Andycat]

Hello

 

Does anyone know a high school in the North West who have 1:1 iPads currently in place?

 

Thanks

 

I can try and arrange a visit here if you want? Blackburn, 6 years into a scheme, 1600 ipads.

[psydii]

[*]Provision for using ipads as word processors in exams is inadequate

[*]Provision for using ipads for the computing curriculum was inadequate

I'm intrigued to hear/see a link to how ChromeBooks are better on these two points.

[psydii]

...they couldn't stand getting the iPads out because they never worked properly and were a nightmare to manage.

"never worked properly" is almost the exact opposite of our experience. What problems were you seeing?

 

"nightmare to manage" Truth. But then we have very old iPads and the legacy Meraki, with a bit of configurator thrown in for good measure. What platform were you using and was it matched the the version of iOS running?

[peej2k]

"never worked properly" is almost the exact opposite of our experience. What problems were you seeing?

 

"nightmare to manage" Truth. But then we have very old iPads and the legacy Meraki, with a bit of configurator thrown in for good measure. What platform were you using and was it matched the the version of iOS running?

 

Settings from the MDM not pushing through properly (Yes, including the other side of the firewall, they were taken out to homes to test when they started this)

Constantly asking for passwords for apps when we were assured that the MDM would handle it all (Lightspeed before you ask)

Updating themselves to the latest iOS and we had no control over it.

Ignoring of network traffic rules, so they started to update during the day and just swallow all the school's bandwidth.

Weren't able to lock backgrounds down so children couldn't change them.

Weren't able to stop children adding PIN codes.

No easy way of sharing them between multiple classes.

 

Now I know they've attempted to fix some of these things (botches in some areas, especially the shared iPad thing - 4 or 5 kids per device and that's about it) but it was enough of a put off to turn our backs on them. I know Apple fans will attempt to tell me it was the old days and they're much better now, but as a device to roll out for shared use, they're not good enough.

Edited June 11, 2018 by peej2k

[mjk]

I'm intrigued to hear/see a link to how ChromeBooks are better on these two points.

 

It pretty much comes down to the keyboard and display with exams. You can run digiexam on ios too, but then you need a monitor or a stand stand and a bluetooth keyboard which adds to the complexity of the setup.

With the chromebook you just turn up for the exam with a full battery and you are good to go: more reliable and more simple to setup.

All out computing lessons are taught on Chromebooks programming python, yet a college up the road uses ipads and they need a separate itsuite to do the same.

[boomish]

Funnily enough glorified browser is the exact experience we've seen with iPads. All they are ever used for is quick access to the internet. No one really uses the apps, and the kids just spend their time messing around with selfies rather than getting work done. The first real engagement we saw in years with the children were with Chromebooks. Children and staff are really engaged and love the platform, whereas previously they couldn't stand getting the iPads out because they never worked properly and were a nightmare to manage.

 

I think as GrahamB put well there are success stories for both , simply no point having the endless discussion this one is better than the other discussion, both have great benefits. I've also seen schools where the iPads are used as browsers. But you get out what you put in, we use the iPad apps extensively, documents, ebooks, music, video editing, animation, the list goes on & on, pretty much all are fast and simple to use, we can save to each pupils google drive or the school iCloud & with Apple Classroom it's simple to control a whole class, display their screen or lock down or mute all devices instantly. We also use Google Classroom to post all their homework the combination of the iPads & Chromebooks work well but you it's difficult to compare the two if either of them are not fully utilised. As for kids not liking iPads..well half the kids in our school know them inside out because they have them at home and they love them.

[AlanD]

.

No easy way of sharing them between multiple classes.

 

..I thought this was 1:1 ...

 

I agree, iPads have not had any facility for this - prior to their new "classroom" app...which is so greedy on memory - you can only shared them between a small numbers of students before you run out of space...needs to have the "user space" sync'd and loaded from the cloud....

 

..and that's with a 32GB ipad….almost impossible to use 16GB iPads,....

[peej2k]

..I thought this was 1:1 ...

 

1:1 in some schools doesn't mean each child is assigned a device, but that a device is always available to them. So therefore a shared setup is important

[AlanD]

1:1 in some schools doesn't mean each child is assigned a device, but that a device is always available to them. So therefore a shared setup is important

 

...Well...if a device was always available to everyone...why would there be a need to share?

 

...I think I get what you mean - but I am a little surprised to hear it given the "1:1" label. So its a bit like every classroom has sufficient tablets for any class that arrives there....but when students go to the next classroom they have a different device - so they need to logon all over a again to google or O365 ...tedious but doable....

 

And without apple's classroom management bit...the next student will find the previous student's details cached and sessions open....and will have an eclectic mix of messages and pictures left for them to discover....

 

1:1 as interpreted by Apple would mean every user has their own device.