School entirely running on wireless

[gshaw]

I think any design where there's a one size fits all approach is crazy and it's been on here time and again with wireless, thin clients, cloud... the list goes on and you know what...

 

...a hybrid approach tends to come out as the most sensible solution!

 

Far too many gimmicks out there that companies latch onto, people get taken in by the shiny shiny effect and before you know it a lot of £££ disappears on a whim with no consideration into long-term effects. Why rip out and throw away working tech, build on what you have and use each bit of kit to its strengths.

[psydii]

@angelav

 

Kanal von merunetworks - YouTube

[enjay]

@localzuk and @synaethesia are both right with (most of) the negatives they raise, however I don't think they are reasons not to do this, merely issues that need to be addressed. For example, you have legitimate concerns that your wireless won't be able to cope with it, but that can be easily addressed by upgrading the wireless (if you bought another 200 desktops, you would upgrade the wired infrastructure so the same should apply with wireless). Concerns over security and theft are valid, however they are not new to a school with iPads; schools have desktops nicked all the time too. Typing on a touch-screen isn't something I would want to do for an entire essay, and voice recognition would make for a very noisy classroom (possibly too noisy for the voice recognition), however this can be solved by providing keyboards for those instances where lots of typing is required, these can be ignored or removed for all those other times. Access to existing resources could be an issue, however if you can get everything into the cloud (VLE, web-based apps and web-based virtual desktops (I saw some interesting companies offering just that at BETT)), then it shouldn't prevent an impossible barrier.

 

I do think you should go in with a broader mind than asking "how do we make iPads work?" and instead ask "how do we make tablets work?" - the end goal should be a device-per-pupil/BYOD system using the tools which enable the best teaching delivery, therefore do consider other platforms as well (that said, IMHO, Android isn't up to the task yet and Windows 8 will likely be another ME or Vista). Could those tablet/laptop hybrids be the best of all worlds?

 

Your school needs to be aware that this is a major shift in the style of education delivery, not just doing the same thing with different hardware, and that it will come with an enormous cost (both hardware acquisition and user training) and should only be done if the perceived benefits are clear, but if thought through properly this could be really good.