j224

Yes, that's what I did. Just a generic DOB and write it all down somewhere safe.

I agree with the above about iPads having apps better suited to education. We have recently got a set of 16 iPads to share around our Junior school. Teachers can book out, in advance, a few or the whole set using the booking form- the same way we do with our 32 laptops. It was a conscious decision for us to go for iPads instead of cheaper Android tablets after lots of research. I personally have a Nexus 7 at home and it works great for what I need it for (casual browsing, watching videos, Twitter, Feedly, etc.) but it wouldn't work so well at school.

Credit card.

Lol. I am quite new yeah, 3 years so far. But I guess I'm lucky because my Head of ICT and the Headteacher both rely heavily on my advice and would never buy something tech-related without me agreeing.

I wouldn't say iPads are poor at creating content. If we're talking Office type work then yes. But if we're talking Garageband, iMovie taking photos/videos, etc. then they're extremely user friendly and effective tools.

But you are the ICT Technician so you're the best informed member of staff when it comes to tech, so 'they' should take your advice.

There is an app called Smart Office 2 which I managed to download while it was free, usually £6.99. You can view, edit and create Office documents with it but we haven't used it yet. You can also download your files directly from Box, Dropbox or Google Docs if you use those services. There's also things like Foldr, FileBrowser, iExplorer or a WebDAV setup which could access shared drives but it's not ideal from an iPad. Personally, I don't think they are much good for Office type work. If you have an IT suite or laptops then use them. A physical keyboard is always going to be better for that. iPads are fantastic but it's the educational apps, many of which are free, which makes it a powerful tool. Without decent apps installed, it just becomes an expensive shiny object.

The way we tackle it is to use the SimplTransfer app to take photos/videos off the iPads. I don't think there is a way to copy saved game data. The app shows you the IP address of that particular iPad so you just type it in to your browser of choice on the PC/Mac and you can see and download all or a selection of your files before you wipe them off.

Yeah, need the iPod Touch 5th Gen (taller screen like the iPhone 5), says on the AirServer website.

Really? Works fine for me, I've just this second tested it. I'm using an iPad 2 connected to the school wifi and a Windows 7 PC wired to the same network. Check AirServer is running on the PC, double-tap home button on iPad, swipe right, hit Airplay button and it displays the whole iPad screen on the Windows monitor. I can then go into any app, even Safari and see the whole contents of it and the sound plays through the PC speakers at the same time.

What do you mean about the fundamental flaw? You can access Airplay by double-clicking the home button and then scrolling to the right to reveal the Airplay button. Once it's hooked up to AirServer and mirroring the display on the computer, you can go into any app you'd like.

Not sure if there is a time limit. The teacher can very quickly and easily change the password if need be though, to stop kids from continually connecting to AirServer without being asked to.

Using AirServer ourselves because it's considerably cheaper than AppleTV. Works pretty well.

I'm pretty certain you can't. As soon as you import the app into Configurator it will ask for the codes, or else it won't allow it to be sent to any devices. If you've only bought one copy of each app then that's not a huge problem (both costing £2.99 each). However, if you've already bought 15 copies of iMovie and Garageband and they're installed on the iPads, make sure you go to the Configurator preferences and uncheck the option that says "Remove apps and profiles Configurator did not install" before you connect the iPads. I've not tried this myself as I have used Configurator to install everything but in theory it should work.

You don't need a trolley, it's just helpful to have one if you want to send apps/settings to all of them at once, or charge them all at the same time. You can still use Apple Configurator if you have a Mac (running OSX Lion) but you'll obviously need to attach the iPads one by one. Paid apps work fine. You just log in to the Volume License website, search for the app you want and enter the quantity (20 or more gets you a 50% discount so it's cheaper to buy 20 than it is to buy 15- strange but true!) Download the spreadsheet with the codes, use one code to redeem in iTunes (it automatically starts downloading the app), re-download the spreadsheet to ensure you regain that code, import that app and spreadsheet into Configurator. I just use 1 Apple ID for all iPads. Configurator recognises each device and assigns one code to it.

I can help with Apple Configurator if you like. I've got 16 iPads that we've been using for a couple of months. Setup with Configurator and a sync trolley.

Correct.

What version of Windows are you running? We found that the Windows 7 firewall was blocking AirServer from mirroring. We could see the computer name on the iPad and connect to it, but the screen wouldn't show on the computer until we allowed it through the firewall.

Damn it. I uploaded a few ebooks to Google Drive, installed it on the iPad and then used 'Open With' to to view the books in iBooks. I then created a backup of that iPad with Apple Configurator and restored it to the other iPads. I opened iBooks and there were all of the books, although they didn't show the covers like they did on the 'master' iPad. A few seconds later, all of the books disappeared! I'm guessing the profile that Configurator automatically installs when a device becomes 'Supervised' is preventing the books from installing on multiple iPads. I can still read the books on the 'master' one. Maybe I'd have to manually go to each iPad, sign into Google Drive and open each book in iBooks. Trouble is, next time I install an app, create a backup of one iPad and then restore to the others, it will probably wipe the books off again...perhaps. Like you say, Kindle books might be more straight forward!

Not tried myself. I don't see why it shouldn't work if all of your iPads use the same account. I guess free Kindle books are fine but paid ones would be against the licensing rules as they are meant to be individual devices really.

The easiest way is to create 2 groups within Configurator. In the Supervise section, there's a panel on the left where you can add or remove groups. What I've done is create a group called 'Master iPad' and dragged 'iPad 01' into it. You might have named yours differently. I then created a second group called 'Pupil iPads' and I dragged the rest into there. This helps to keep it tidy in my brain :-) Now when I want to add a new app, I'll connect iPad 01 and click on the Master iPad group. I then go to the panel on the right to assign the profiles, create/restore backups, and assign which apps to put on that device, remembering to hit 'Apply' at the bottom. It then goes through the process, showing the little 'pie chart' icon. I then disconnect the iPad (although I guess you could leave it plugged in if the lead is long enough), move the new app into the correct folder. Reconnect and go to the right panel and click the drop-down next to 'Restore' and select 'Backup'. Give it a name and then wait for it to backup then disconnect. Go to the Pupil iPads group, make sure to tick the new app (because it's a different group, you can install different apps to the master iPad, the backup won't do it for you). Then select the backup you just created from the drop-down menu and click 'Apply' at the bottom. Connect all remaining iPads and it'll go through the process. Even though the backup doesn't automatically install the apps, it holds the information needed to move the app to the correct folder so you won't have to do it for every single iPad. Configurator recognises which device has been plugged in so it knows which code it has assigned to that device. It doesn't matter if you restore a different backup because the codes are not held within the backup data. Hope that makes sense.

No, it shouldn't screw things up. This is how I manage my 16 iPads. I always update one 'master' iPad first whenever I install a new app. I then disconnect it and move the app to the folder I want it to be in. Then I reconnect it and create a backup. I then connect all of the others and restore that backup to them. I have paid apps and it assigns the codes without a problem.

No, you can't get Apple Configurator for Windows, Mac only. You can use the iPhone Configuration Utility though.

Cool. That's pretty much what I suggested in post #36 above, except you used Google Drive instead of 'a website'. You mentioned you're using Apple Configurator? What happens if you setup all of the ebooks you want on one iPad, then connect to Configurator to create a backup of it, then connect the other iPads and restore the backup to them? It should copy the books to all of them like it does with the apps/folder settings. Will save you a lot of time if it works!

We also have 16 iPads and I've used Configurator to set them up with 1 iTunes account. I removed the profile which had the restriction for blocking access to the app store and installing apps, but I still wasn't able to download any books from the iBook store on the iPad. I can get into the bookstore and search for a free book. I then hit download and it prompts for the password so I enter that and then it says "Cannot connect to iTunes". I don't know what's wrong with it. The internet is working fine on it and all the other apps.