IPAD2 for use in an Education environment

[lmgtfy]

After having use of an IPAD2 with IOS5 for a week here are my early conclusions. I may well be wrong on some of the points and am interested in your views or ways around some of the problems and indeed in need for more good uses for them in the classroom.

 

For:

• Sleek interface engaging for children

• Easy typing for a touchscreen

• Good battery life generally lasting 6-9 hours depending on use

• Good screen with good colours although a little reflective in direct light

• Good range of educational apps

• Good app integration in OS

• Very portable

• Great for web surfing with the exception of plug-ins requirements.

• Great for reading EBooks

• Can be remotely wiped using exchange if linked to an account

• Great for instant on research

 

Against:

• Expensive £200 more than Netbook for 32gb WIFI model

• Need cover with stand to make it portable and useable otherwise you have to hold device as typing whilst flat is difficult and causes neck strain

• Expensive connectivity for example connectivity to TV or Projector requires £40 cable.

• No USB for flash drives or memory card readers

• No locking of own apps, for example if you setup settings in apps bought this could be changed or deleted by students.

• No locking of settings - a big issue is WIFI where a student could tether their own mobile to the IPAD and allow the whole class to access full unfiltered

internet. Other examples are password lock settings, wallpapers in fact you can’t lock down hardly anything.

• Desirable to steal and quite easy due to size

• Limited free apps

• Pay for apps have to be purchased individually needing multiple apple ID’s as you can only buy app once per ID.

• Pay for apps have to bought individually at full price not an volume discounts or with site licences.

• Limited printing need to print Airprint or need additional software

• Limited saving via the cloud, or via Frog which takes a long time to access and upload using touchscreen.

• No locking of app layouts students can move icons easily.

• No automatic upgrade of apps or IOS without additional software

• No flash which is still required for lots of websites such as BBC, MyMaths etc

• If you enable restrictions if a teacher wants to take them off all folders and layouts are deleted.

• Charging port easily breakable if inserted with wrong way up

• Charging multiple devices will need expensive trolley.

• Ultra droppable

• Not yet jailbroke so can only install authorised Apple apps, as there are some apps which can get around some of the above.

 

Let me know what you think, although I am really enjoying the IPAD to use, I just think Apple has overlooked some really essential problems for schools to use them in real life situations. I know you can send out configuration XML files but still the locking down seems mainly geared for businesses which is a shame.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[FN-GM]

Need cover with stand to make it portable and useable otherwise you have to hold device as typing whilst flat is difficult and causes neck strain

 

To be fair this applies the majority of tablets not just the iPad

 

Limited free apps

 

There are loads out there.... - Also for Windows allot of the software used you have to pay for.

 

Pay for apps have to be purchased individually needing multiple apple ID’s as you can only buy app once per ID.

 

You can buy and app once and use it on 5 devices.

 

Charging multiple devices will need expensive trolley.

 

YOu would get this with laptops or netbooks. Infact to buy additional chargers for the iPad it will be cheaper than laptop ones (providing you do not get them from apple)

 

Ultra droppable

 

Again you get this with a laptop or netbook

 

I think you can buy a mac server to manage the iPads. You could get a Mac Mini and buy the server software seperate and use that.

[Jamman960]

a friend of mines kid has just started at one of the new academys and gets an Ipad2 for £16/month. I'm interested in how long the "oooh look at the shiny new toy" phase lasts - he's currently glued to the thing perminently.

 

Seems they use it for notes and push work to it at, haven't seen him much since the start of term but am interested in how useful they actually are educationally.

 

I'm pretty sure its not locked down, he's got all sorts installed including call of duty and various other games

Edited October 30, 2011 by Jamman960
spelling!

[GrumbleDook]

I'll comment inline where possible. I do have another article being checked over for factual accuracy at the moment which should help on some of your points ... but I can add some comments now.

 

After having use of an IPAD2 with IOS5 for a week here are my early conclusions. I may well be wrong on some of the points and am interested in your views or ways around some of the problems and indeed in need for more good uses for them in the classroom.

 

For:

• Sleek interface engaging for children

• Easy typing for a touchscreen

• Good battery life generally lasting 6-9 hours depending on use

• Good screen with good colours although a little reflective in direct light

• Good range of educational apps

• Good app integration in OS

• Very portable

• Great for web surfing with the exception of plug-ins requirements.

• Great for reading EBooks

• Can be remotely wiped using exchange if linked to an account

• Great for instant on research

 

Many of the above can be used as positives for the idea of any mobile device, not just iOS based devices ... if you are looking at mobile devices or iOS devices you might want to fine tune which ones can be delivered by other mobile / handheld devices too.

 

Against:

• Expensive £200 more than Netbook for 32gb WIFI model

Is this for the same battery life? What OS is on it?

• Need cover with stand to make it portable and useable otherwise you have to hold device as typing whilst flat is difficult and causes neck strain

• Expensive connectivity for example connectivity to TV or Projector requires £40 cable.

£25 for VGA to iPad connector or £35 for HDMI to iPad connector but not many people connect to projectors using HDMI yet. You might want to also add in the option about connecting to an AppleTV too ... more expensive but as an alternative to a Media device to show presentations / movies / audio ... as well as allowing learners to push a presentation / connect their device without having to come up to the front of the class ... just another option ... the same way some other schools have run 1-to-1 schemes which connect to wireless projectors to allow learners to present remotely.

• No USB for flash drives or memory card readers

£25 for Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit but I was recently shown how easy it is to make use of WebDAV services.

• No locking of own apps, for example if you setup settings in apps bought this could be changed or deleted by students.

To lock the deletion or adding of apps you can't do it centrally but you can do it on each device. Settings > General > Restrictions ... enable restrictions and then turn on or off what you want to control.

• No locking of settings - a big issue is WIFI where a student could tether their own mobile to the IPAD and allow the whole class to access full unfiltered

internet. Other examples are password lock settings, wallpapers in fact you can’t lock down hardly anything.

If you use the iPhone Config Utility to have the right settings, this is chosen (pulled down) by the user, then if they delete the settings then there is no access to the Wifi, etc. You can have a guest network to link to a server to pull down the settings in the first place ... no access to anything else. If they delete settings then it is a classroom management issue, the same way if they rip up a textbook. Technology can only sort out so much!

• Desirable to steal and quite easy due to size

• Limited free apps

• Pay for apps have to be purchased individually needing multiple apple ID’s as you can only buy app once per ID.

• Pay for apps have to bought individually at full price not an volume discounts or with site licences.

• Limited printing need to print Airprint or need additional software

Printopia for the win! Not looked at how it is licensed in education though ...

• Limited saving via the cloud, or via Frog which takes a long time to access and upload using touchscreen.

• No locking of app layouts students can move icons easily.

• No automatic upgrade of apps or IOS without additional software

• No flash which is still required for lots of websites such as BBC, MyMaths etc

• If you enable restrictions if a teacher wants to take them off all folders and layouts are deleted.

• Charging port easily breakable if inserted with wrong way up

• Charging multiple devices will need expensive trolley.

• Ultra droppable

• Not yet jailbroke so can only install authorised Apple apps, as there are some apps which can get around some of the above.

 

Let me know what you think, although I am really enjoying the IPAD to use, I just think Apple has overlooked some really essential problems for schools to use them in real life situations. I know you can send out configuration XML files but still the locking down seems mainly geared for businesses which is a shame.

 

Cheers

 

Chris

 

Locking out for businesses ... isn't that the same argument used with AD and GPOs rather than using RM CC3/4? I know what you mean though ...

 

Have you had any conversations with schools already using it on a large scale or spoken with any ASEs?

[Arthur]

No USB for flash drives or memory card readers

The dock connector handles USB, so all you need is one of the following adapters...

 

• Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit
  
• PhotoJojo's iPad CF and SD Card Readers
  

From what I have read, you can also connect USB microphones and headphones too.

 

Limited printing need to print Airprint or need additional software

Have you seen Printopia and FingerPrint? The latter app is available for Windows and is very cheap (you would only need one copy).

 

Charging multiple devices will need expensive trolley.

Although not as good as a trolley or dedicated charging device, you could get a 10w USB power adapter for each iPad and plug them into an extension lead?

 

Expensive connectivity for example connectivity to TV or Projector requires £40 cable.

Which cable were you looking at? Apple's Digital AV (HDMI) adapter is £29.08 ex. VAT, and the VGA adapter is slightly cheaper at £20.83 Ex. VAT.

 

You can buy an app once and use it on 5 devices.

Not quite...

 

The rule of thumb

 

At home: You need to buy one license of an app per iTunes account and can then use that app on all of the iOS devices you own or control and sync with that iTunes account.

 

Everywhere else: You need to buy one license of an app for each iOS device if that device is used by multiple users or one license of an App per user if that user is using multiple iOS devices.

 

The low down for educational institutions, other organizations and commercial enterprises?

 

1. You need to buy one license for an app for each iOS device if that device is used by multiple users or one license of an app per user if that user is using multiple devices.

 

2. Your organization can authorize a single iTunes account on up to 5 computers. Your organization can thus store the purchased Apps on up to 5 computers and synch iOS devices from those 5 computers. There is thus no need to buy an App multiple times just because your organization wants to store and synch that App from a single employee's laptop and desktop computer.

 

3. You can authorize a single computer for more than one iTunes account and then synch Apps from up to 5 iTunes accounts to your iOS devices. On the iOS devices in the Store section of the Settings app you can log out of one iTunes account, log into another iTunes account and then purchase or redownload Apps using the App Store app. It is thus possible to put Apps on a employee's iPhone that were purchased with the employee's personal iTunes account as well as those purchased with a company iTunes account. (Source)

 

Edit. GD beat me too it.