Devices for Students in a Primary School

[vimagoes]

Hi everyone,

 

I am looking for some ideas about devices meant for students in a Primary School. Currently we are using laptops, well it's 0k but I am thinking in moving to something more suitable for a kid's needs. The trend is moving to touchable devices easy to move and tough enough to last in a school environment. I am not for IPads or Chromebooks, my environment is based in Microsoft, Servers and Clients are running Windows OS, so I would like to keep running Windows OS and have every device domain-joined. I have found something that looks really interesting here,

 

https://www.one-education.org/

 

and I am wondering whether you know of something similar here in the UK.

 

As well I would like to read your implementations.

 

Thanks.

[steveg]

We are a primary school that was primarily Microsoft based many years ago, but now have a fairly even split of ipads and Windows based devices (laptops and desktops).

 

I wouldn't rule out other platforms just because you have a windows network at the moment, they each have their positive and negative points. The ipads here are far easier to manage than the windows network, and are generally more reliable.

 

On our next upgrade cycle I will seriously look at Chromebooks as well, they have the advantage of being easy to manage, cheap and reliable. With a lot of our software we use moving online, the operating system on the end user device is becoming less relevant.

 

Exposing children to a wide range of devices and technology (while keeping it manageable for support staff) is the best approach. Especially for primary age children we have no idea what technology they will be using by the time they reach employment, so need to teach general skills on a wide range of technology.

 

Steve

[vimagoes]

We are a primary school that was primarily Microsoft based many years ago, but now have a fairly even split of ipads and Windows based devices (laptops and desktops).

 

I wouldn't rule out other platforms just because you have a windows network at the moment, they each have their positive and negative points. The ipads here are far easier to manage than the windows network, and are generally more reliable.

 

On our next upgrade cycle I will seriously look at Chromebooks as well, they have the advantage of being easy to manage, cheap and reliable. With a lot of our software we use moving online, the operating system on the end user device is becoming less relevant.

 

Exposing children to a wide range of devices and technology (while keeping it manageable for support staff) is the best approach. Especially for primary age children we have no idea what technology they will be using by the time they reach employment, so need to teach general skills on a wide range of technology.

 

Steve

 

Thanks for your reply,

 

It's not that I want to ruled out another platforms apart from Microsoft, it's because I don't think children are going to find IPads when they start working in the real world, IMO IPads are for entertainment and of course for many brilliant apps you can find for education, but besides that when you have to do serious work you use a Microsoft OS or a Mac OSX. We don't have the budget to buy apple products and to be honest I don't see the point in paying double to get the same result. So, my option is Microsoft OS. We have Tablets for children, Android and OSX, both, but for computing I still don't see the point in tablets. Neither I see Chromebooks as a good option in my school, O365 is our choice so adding G-Suit is not a good idea and without time for training staff and children is not an option for me, maybe in schools where IT staff are hired full time but I am a part time guy, no time at all.

 

100% agrees with you in that we need to expose to a wide range of devices and technology, but again, without the time (and low budget) of training staff is really difficult. I have tried before and the staff just ignore those technologies although they are so simple to use just because they haven't receive a 2 hours training. Sometimes I think this country is so bound to training, people stops using their brain to try to solve a problem just because it's not written in a piece of paper.

[HTCPCP]

In primary, I always found a blend of ipads and laptops were great - iPads because there are some great apps for education out there, they are great for learning about how to do research. Also really good for getting kids out and about (if you buy good cases)

Laptops - useful life skills, office, using keyboards etc. In primary, I was moving away from the full size laptops too, moving towards 14" and 13.3" laptops.

 

If you are a microsoft email based school, don't muddy the water with G-Suite. It really isn't worth the agro!

[jmak]

O365 works really well on Chromebooks [emoji3]

 

In terms of familiarity with an OS, when I was at school Windows 3.1 was just coming out when I left. By the time I was working in a job using PCs it was Windows 95. It's a pretty big leap from 3.1 to 10 - I reckon Chrome OS is closer for users. I do agree that exposure to a range of OSs is ideal, but that might be difficult due to budget constraints.

[synaesthesia]

Round and round we go.. back to netbooks!

[LeMarchand]

We bought a batch of 30 Lenovo Miix 320s last year, and these were great value at the time. A 16 months later, 3 are now dead - 1 definitely user-inflicted, 1 probably (keyboard dock definitely had rough treatment, but the screen won't power on) and another has a black screen. That said I would have probably gone for the 60 used at £80 each that I was recently offered for the next trolley, had it been my choice. These are still popular with students and teachers.

 

The new batch are Linx 12v64s. Only just setting them up, but the "tablet" build is much better than on my early Linx 7". Keyboard seems pish.

 

With these sort of options, you need to think about charging and storage. Luckily SMT made it the teachers' responsibility to ensure they were returned to the trolley for overnight charging. Also, unless you already have everything deployed by GPO, imaging can be... interesting.

[yac2016]

In primary, I always found a blend of ipads and laptops were great - iPads because there are some great apps for education out there, they are great for learning about how to do research. Also really good for getting kids out and about (if you buy good cases)

Laptops - useful life skills, office, using keyboards etc. In primary, I was moving away from the full size laptops too, moving towards 14" and 13.3" laptops.

 

If you are a microsoft email based school, don't muddy the water with G-Suite. It really isn't worth the agro!

 

Don't agree with this at all. What issues have you had. We have a plenty of schools using both.

[DrBeaker]

Round and round we go.. back to netbooks!

 

I was still having to fix netbooks up until 2015! Some were ASUS with soldered on 1GB RAM - guess what the complaint about them was? They're slow. No Sherlock!

[DavR]

I was still having to fix netbooks up until 2015! Some were ASUS with soldered on 1GB RAM - guess what the complaint about them was? They're slow. No Sherlock!

 

Netbooks. ARGH. The number of times we had a school turn up and say they'd just bought thirty, can we set them up. Short answer, no. They won't go on the domain, they won't run office....

 

But on topic, the last Windows student devices we bought were the Dell Latitude 3380 - https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/13-3380/spd/latitude-13-3380-laptop. They have the foldover 2-in-1 types as well in that range, but for Windows use we didn't think they'd be much good.

 

We did get the 2-in-1 Latitude 3189 for our Chrome devices though, and will be getting more next year if we can - https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/chromebook-3189-education-2-in-1/spd/chromebook-11-3189-2-in-1-laptop

We've been very happy with both!

[atcoates]

We have hundreds of the Dell latitude range from 3340 to 3380 all really well built and ideal for Primary schools as tough as nails!

[synaesthesia]

I do love the 3380's. Solid as anything.

[DavR]

I do love the 3380's. Solid as anything.

Defintiely, proper education oriented design. I was particularly impressed after bad experiences with the E5520 and E5530, but they seem to have learnt from their mistakes.

 

They're solid and rubberised, I'm pretty sure they'd bounce! (I am not going to test this theory)

[atcoates]

They're solid and rubberised, I'm pretty sure they'd bounce! (I am not going to test this theory)

 

They do I've seen it plenty of times!

[HTCPCP]

Don't agree with this at all. What issues have you had. We have a plenty of schools using both.

 

Huge number of issues with users - "But I want to use word on them", "It works on the other laptops" and also logging in with an email address, rather than their username.

 

In secondary, they were brilliant, to the point where we had 64 of them for the 6th formers to use, we had departments that had banks of them, and it worked really well. In primary however, the value and agro factor and potential confusion imo is just not worth it

[witch]

We've got Lenovo Yogas and they do very well. They are small, but not too small (my Samsung netbooks are still going - all deployed out as one-to-one devices) and of course they are touch screen, and fold to be used as a tablet.

That last...hmmm.. many teachers said they wanted tablets for the children. I held out for laptops. I am not sure I have EVER seen them used as tablets but they are used every day as normal laptops.

 

I'm sure there are cheaper options out theer as well

[dhicks]

I am not sure I have EVER seen them used as tablets but they are used every day as normal laptops.

 

We have similar (probably cheaper) foldable devices, the Asus C100PA. I've not seen them used in full-on tablet mode, but in our year 4/5/6/7/8 classes they often get used in "tent" mode, with the pupil using the device stood on their desks for reference while they hand-write something.

[DavR]

Huge number of issues with users - "But I want to use word on them", "It works on the other laptops" and also logging in with an email address, rather than their username.

 

In secondary, they were brilliant, to the point where we had 64 of them for the 6th formers to use, we had departments that had banks of them, and it worked really well. In primary however, the value and agro factor and potential confusion imo is just not worth it

 

Interesting. I was anticipating a lot of confusion when we launched Chromebooks here (primary), especially as it meant every child being issued with a rather clunky username and password. But in the event, we didn't really have much trouble at all. There was a bit of a learning curve, but they love them now.

 

Different environments get different results I suppose. We only use ours with Year 5 and 6, must admit I'd be wary of giving them to lower years.

[berry117]

We use a mixture of both both PCs and iPads, with Meraki to manage the iPads and it all works rather well. Also, the chances are the users are already familiar with how to use them.

[jmak]

Interesting. I was anticipating a lot of confusion when we launched Chromebooks here (primary), especially as it meant every child being issued with a rather clunky username and password. But in the event, we didn't really have much trouble at all. There was a bit of a learning curve, but they love them now.

 

Different environments get different results I suppose. We only use ours with Year 5 and 6, must admit I'd be wary of giving them to lower years.

They work fine in Reception and KS1 for us. For those users I have them set up in kiosk mode opening onto the sign in page for Purple Mash. Even for the older users, the username doesn't have to be clunky - you can set it to auto-populate the domain.

 

Current models can run Android apps; I have one at home and use the Word for Android app (although usually only when working offline - the web app is pretty good nowadays). It's not as full featured as a full fat laptop running Windows 10 with MS Office installed, but if you're a "power user", a cheap Windows laptop won't be much fun either.