RBrooks

The best way to manage the iPads is to purchase a charge and sync device. There are a variety of products out there that do all the work for you by charging all of your iPads and syncing them all to one computer. There are carts, cabinets, and smaller transportable devices that can be shared among classrooms. The cabinets and carts also offer storage and security from theft. We got our products from Datamation Systems: www.ipadcarts.com

Wireless syncing sounds nice, however Wifi is typically 56Mbps (megabits per second) datarate at best. USB2.0 datarate is 480Mbps (approx 10 times quicker). Wifi syncing is fine at home but for it to work in a business or school there would need to be a robust wifi network infrastructure in place. In summary, it's slow, needs robust wifi infrastructure and can be a security issue since the students will have access to the school wifi network which may not be desirable for a school.

Sam, you do not have to install apps on each individual iPad. There are devices that allow you to sync the applications from one computer to up to 49 iPads simultaneously. There are iPad carts that secure the ipads, smaller ipad cabinets, sync-charge devices that are portable, and USB hubs used for mass syncing. Most of these solutions sync and charge a classroom set of iPads, making your job much easier. We have a few of these devices at our school and it's been such a time saver. I'd recommend checking out www.ipadcart.info if you're interested.

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

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

I think the 11 inch screen is just too small. The 13 inch is perfect and still very portable. A downside to the Macbook Air, however, is that there is no included CD drive.