pran Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 The school is planning to give iPads to each student in the future and wondering what kind of tools are available for deploying and managing these devices from a centralized or a decentralized setup?
dhicks Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 The school is planning to give iPads to each student in the future and wondering what kind of tools are available for deploying and managing these devices from a centralized or a decentralized setup? The iPad is designed as a personal device, intended for consumers to buy and use in a one-to-one fashion. There's a slew of new tablet computers now out, some of which might be more suited to being used in a managed environment - RM's new slate PC looks like a good device in that context. -- David Hicks 2
GrumbleDook Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 The iPhone Deployment Kit can be used or if they are school devices used in the classroom them set one iPad up and then restore that setup onto the other devices. There are a few folk on twitter who have some experience around simple setups ... you can follow me and I will intro you to some more Tony Sheppard (grumbledook) on Twitter 1
tech_guy Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Far from being a personal user device, a lot of organisations have taken them up and are using them, from schools, to banks, law firms and hotel chains. I went to my dentist the other week and there was the receptionist using one to log patients in and book appointments. There's a school in NZ who has given one to every pupil that makes an interesting case study. I'll see if I can find the link. 1
pran Posted January 8, 2011 Author Posted January 8, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the input, David. Will keep this in mind. I hope Apple or some company come up with a way to manage these devices. They're pretty cheap and would indeed be a great tool for teaching. Edited January 8, 2011 by pran
dhicks Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 The iPhone Deployment Kit can be used or if they are school devices used in the classroom them set one iPad up and then restore that setup onto the other devices. How locked down can you get an iPad these days? For a school, I'd want a device that can be set up so that every time you turn it on it worked in the same way - I'd be tempted to have iPads do VNC, RDP and web-browsing only. -- David Hicks
GrumbleDook Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 If you are at BETT I will show you. I'll have an iPad with me and my MBP ... but will try and find a different one so I can keep mine based on my home settings (long story ... I'll explain when I see you).
m25man Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 If you are at BETT I will show you. If his profile is correct that will be one heck of a train fare... 1
bodminman Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 If his profile is correct that will be one heck of a train fare... LOL - I recon it will cost more getting from a UK port/ airport than it does getting from the Philippines to the said uk port! UK public transport for you!
FN-GM Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 How locked down can you get an iPad these days? For a school, I'd want a device that can be set up so that every time you turn it on it worked in the same way - I'd be tempted to have iPads do VNC, RDP and web-browsing only. -- David Hicks You can do it with the software GrumbleDook. Also you can block the install of applications right out of the box with the software restriction settings they have built in. You can easily get them to do what you want. The thing that attracts me to the iPad is that they will need little maintenance. Possibly a software updates every now and then and maybe some applications should you need them. Proxy settings for them can be managed centrally using .pac files. If you get something that runs Windows such as the RM option they will need more maintenance with mobile classroom and laptop trolleys that can be a real pain at times. 1
dhicks Posted January 9, 2011 Posted January 9, 2011 The thing that attracts me to the iPad is that they will need little maintenance. Possibly a software updates every now and then and maybe some applications should you need them. Is there a way to centrally buy and distribute apps around a set of managed iPads? For instance, using an iPad as a controller for a projected screen - I know there's a paid-for app available that uses VNC to control the keyboard and mouse on a target PC from the iPad. I'd need a way to buy 30-odd copies of that app, get it installed on each iPad and set each iPad's app to connect to a different PC, each of which would use a different randomised password. If a teacher loses / drops / etc an iPad, I need to be able to replace it with something that has identicle settings, preferably within an hour or so. -- David Hicks
Max_Power Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Very interesting thread! Were having an extension built to our junior school to add to the intake and as part of this we are looking at other ways to teach younger students ICT. Slates, tablets, ipads have all come up in conversation, but the installing of apps on the devices and securing them is something i was hoping to see at BETT.
FN-GM Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Is there a way to centrally buy and distribute apps around a set of managed iPads? For instance, using an iPad as a controller for a projected screen - I know there's a paid-for app available that uses VNC to control the keyboard and mouse on a target PC from the iPad. I'd need a way to buy 30-odd copies of that app, get it installed on each iPad and set each iPad's app to connect to a different PC, each of which would use a different randomised password. If a teacher loses / drops / etc an iPad, I need to be able to replace it with something that has identicle settings, preferably within an hour or so. -- David Hicks Pass, i will leave that to an expert
AngryTechnician Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 If you're on Twitter it might be worth getting in touch with @FraserSpeirs, who is a big iPad in schools advocate and has been managing them in his school for some time now. 3
rdsc Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 (edited) I haven't had a lot of experience with iPads yet but our SMT are lusting after them so I've been checking out the management options - the iphone configuration utility is a good place to start (as mentioned above) it's pretty straight forward - the help file is here you can disable the music store, pre-populate wifi settings/active sync, restrict explicit media and in-app purchases etc pretty simply. A more full on Enterprise Deployment guide for Ios4 is here Edited January 10, 2011 by rdsc
gwendes Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 LOL - I recon it will cost more getting from a UK port/ airport than it does getting from the Philippines to the said uk port! UK public transport for you! Take longer too? I spent longer getting from Heathrow to Waterloo than Heathrow to Berlin last week. And even longer still from Waterloo to Portsmouth!
Max_Power Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 If you're on Twitter it might be worth getting in touch with @FraserSpeirs, who is a big iPad in schools advocate and has been managing them in his school for some time now. As AngryTechnician points out FraserSpeirs has deployed the worlds first 1:1 student to ipad ratio! He has a very good blog here -> Fraser Speirs - Blog that details how he updates his ipads and maintains them, and what issues hes had etc! It is a very good, informative read! 3
soveryapt Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 This is something that really interests me as we've just bought 4 iPads to test how well they are recieved. We are a SEN School and I think that they will enhance the learning for a lot of the pupils here (in my limited expertise as a IT Technician combined with my previous roles in disability advice networks), but the management of them is obviuosly a big thing for them @Max_Power - that link to Speirs is brilliant with the info. Thanks
GeneS Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 (edited) I work for a school district and we are doing several iPad pilots. We manage our iPads using JAMF's Casper Suite (can't believe it hasn't been mentioned yet). Using Casper we have the ability to create mobile profiles for staff and students, send out remote commands, such as "Remote Lock", "Remote Wipe", "Remove Passcode". We can deploy in-house apps, as well as apps that have been downloaded/purchased from the AppStore. Casper keeps track of all of our purchase codes and assigns them to iPads as users request certain apps. By running "inventory" on the device, I can look up information such as available hd space, iOS version, installed apps, users, model, last IP, and much more. I don't work for JAMF but I've been managing our Macs using their software for more than 5 years now. Edited January 25, 2011 by GeneS 1
GrumbleDook Posted January 25, 2011 Posted January 25, 2011 That looks very interesting ... what district are you working in?
RBrooks Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 There is a company in the US that has multiple solutions for auto-syncing and charging iPads in the classroom environment. Check out www.ipadcart.info
rbance Posted March 16, 2011 Posted March 16, 2011 If you're on Twitter it might be worth getting in touch with @FraserSpeirs, who is a big iPad in schools advocate and has been managing them in his school for some time now. I have read this a few times and am not sure how accurate his assessment is....suspecting a fan boy here....fraser that is.... Having a MS shop (yes inherited it), I find it hard to make a tech choice based on MACs with the requirements I am given....
laptopsandspares Posted July 25, 2011 Posted July 25, 2011 (edited) this is an interesting thread. Can I assume from the responses on here, iPad adoption isn't as widespread as I first thought? I'm researching mass charging & syncing options for these devices over the quieter summer period. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who is trialing these devices, or has trialed them (looking at the date the thread was started), and what sort of feedback& experiences you have had. I see/hear lots of people theorising the potential benefits of this type of tech in the classroom, I'd be interested to see who's actually using it, apple or otherwise and how you've addressed mass charging/synch issues. Interestingly, the limited solutions I have seen on-line seem to all utilise the same circuit board developed by a UK firm in cambridge. Seems it can be used for iOs or android based products. I was in an apple store this weekend (I avoid them normally as I just want to buy things I can't justify/afford), and was interested and probably naively surprised to see each product on display was accompanied by an iPad/2 with all the techspec and FAQ's relating to it. Clever use of tech, expensive though (If you weren't apple and had to buy them retail!!) David Edited July 25, 2011 by laptopsandspares typo's
RBrooks Posted September 13, 2011 Posted September 13, 2011 There are lots of products available that help you manage and deploy several iPads. You can get cabinets, carts, sync & charge stations, and other products that help you automatically charge and sync up to 49 iPads. These products make it easy to sync and charge an entire classroom of iPads at once. If you're interested, you can get more info at www.ipadcarts.com
mellowip1983 Posted September 21, 2011 Posted September 21, 2011 In OS X Lion server, there is profile manager which uses apple push notifications to deploy over the air profiles, just need a mac running server app and the application to be switched on. this will work for pushing settings but doesn't look like it will deploy apps. Im looking forward to iOS 5 which should sync all apps via iCloud account.
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