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ASM is being updated in July I think, it was in a keynote last week. Yep we use Apple Classroom its fab, we know what an MDM is, apologies I didn't make it clear, I mean as far as setting up a new MDM in ASM to manage all existing and new units. Spoke to Lightspeed who said no need for a setup fee, they would do it remotely for free.

I think as GrahamB put well there are success stories for both , simply no point having the endless discussion this one is better than the other discussion, both have great benefits. I've also seen schools where the iPads are used as browsers. But you get out what you put in, we use the iPad apps extensively, documents, ebooks, music, video editing, animation, the list goes on & on, pretty much all are fast and simple to use, we can save to each pupils google drive or the school iCloud & with Apple Classroom it's simple to control a whole class, display their screen or lock down or mute all devices instantly. We also use Google Classroom to post all their homework the combination of the iPads & Chromebooks work well but you it's difficult to compare the two if either of them are not fully utilised. As for kids not liking iPads..well half the kids in our school know them inside out because they have them at home and they love them.

Thanks Dom & CHSGM, I did wonder how hard can it be, Meraki was easy enough, I've heard Apple's new School manager has also been simplified so seems straightforward enough.

Thanks I shall, I'd never heard of it..I don't think we mind having a separate MDM for each as long as they work

Ahh ok fair enough..thanks for the quick reply, funny Meraki was relatively simple to do by ourselves. A rep I spoke to said Apple suggest Jamf but thats got even higher setup costs. Out budget is minimal and were only buying 15 more iPads , so it's seems a bit ott but we have 60 existing mini's. Maybe it's best to keep Meraki for a bit longer.

We are going to be expanding our iPads (and chromebooks before anyone mentions) but will move from Meraki (free) to Lightspeed or JamF , I have no experience of either but we need something that works, I got a quote for some new iPads and license's to combine our existing units to the new ones but they want £650 setup fee for 1 day with an MDM engineer thats not optional, is this correct?

With respect I agree with AlanD, our experience is much the same, mjk's anti iPad post is typical of someone that hasn't seen iPads working in a school, they have and continue to be loved by students and teachers, apps work well, they are fast and make the lesson move so much faster. Chromebooks are cheap and thats important to us but the experience is not the same, it's a glorified browser with basic apps and the kids don't respond the same because of that. I'm not saying one is better than the other or iPads have no faults, but you can't compare and running down iPads seems ignorant and simply anti-apple which I'm so tired of hearing, I don't care what it is if it works.

Thanks again for the reply, we use Classroom but minimal use & only for 1 year group..thats taken 2 years. I feel the priority is Fast boot times, easy login, quick apps, battery life and a rugged machine, but even with that I doubt the teachers will like the change, they don't understand the cloud & learning new apps is an uphill struggle. If they perform quickly on our network then that will be a huge benefit, the laptops are continually installing updates 24/7..(win 7). I'll have to grab a machine & test it..

Many thanks for the tip off, that would be good to see, my fear is there are so many apps that will be lost and the teachers aren't tech savvy at all, just getting them to save to Google drive was tough, also I have heard of Chromebooks becoming obsolete after a few years. Mind you anything is better than our current laptops 2 mins + to boot is ridiculous. My PC at home is 30 secs and my Mac is under ten!

Thanks for the quick reply, we have G-suite yep we've been running Classroom & calendar apps for about 2 years, we use G drive on all the iPad's etc. We would have to replace older software that won't run on Chromebooks but I think thats probably overdue especially all the old flash software. CPU heavy apps are a concern however but we have been doing things like video editing on the iPads and thats much simpler. Can you tell me where you got the licenses from? & what problems you've had changing over? I know there are lot of advantages & disadvantages I'm just wondering if the Chromebooks are the same money as the new Windows 10 machines whats the point. Are they really so much faster because it's all in a browser? what happens if there is a network problem ours is dreadfully slow at times.

We are a small school running old Lenovo Thinkpad's, they have got to the point where they are so slow it's almost unusable, (2 min boot times) we are talking to our IT supplier who are suggesting replacing them with Chromebooks we could do a trial but we still have to buy a license for £19 per laptop. I've looked at possible SSD upgrades and battery refurb options & we should move to Windows 10 next year but it would be good to see what options there are for new machines. Currently our thinking is running a mixed system of 30 or so of each, new Laptops & Chromebook and our existing iPad's, the new low cost MS/ Lenovo 300E (sub £300) looks good but no idea on the Chromebooks. Any suggestions from people that have done this already? I'm concerned at all the downsides & limitations to Chromebooks, if these new Win10 low cost Lenovo's are going to be good for the same price why bother risking it. I presume the Chrome license is a one off Device management fee. Appreciate any advice..

we had a passcode on ours, we may have restored ours, it's far simpler than trying to get Meraki to work sometimes.

We used lost mode for a missing iPad, it turned up 6 months later when a teacher discovered it in her desk and quietly slipped it back into the charging station, I found it with the lost notice on the screen, followed the instructions on Meraki and disabled the lost mode & it updated fine. Took no more than a few mins to sort. I know this doesn't help much but it does work. I'm sure it's recoverable, it's Meraki thats a law unto itself!

Thats exactly what I did..

Bit of an old thread but I fixed this today, the offline files had reached it's max limit so wasn't syncing the Smart home folder, once I increased the cache size and cleared the conflicts the smart custom tools error went away..

exactly what I thought, our iPad advisor said that then causes a problem if we ever have an issue with resetting the iPad. I think thats mad..but he's the expert..

Can anyone tell me their procedure as a junior school do you allow pupils to unlock iPad's or do you disable sleep and the teacher unlocks the iPad's and hands them out? I was told thats how "all school's work" I can't believe a teacher has time to unlock every iPad .. This is to stop children changing pass codes etc..

Don't forget the Genee Smarboards, we thought the demo was the best and the software "Spark" seemed a little better than Octopus. Free training, 7 years guarantee etc etc. but most important is the cost is cheaper than CTouch.. We are about to order 4.

Our school is still deciding on a Geene or a C-Touch, the Geene is a much better price , the difference didn't seem to be that big between the two demo's. In the long run it's going to come down to the software as I think the school will switch from Smart, both open Notebook files so be interesting to hear how people get on with a move to Spark (Geene) or Oktopus (C-Touch).

FWIW had the Genee demo today and it looked fab, Spark software looks very good, seems better & faster than Smart Notebook, but it works with both and is very responsive.

Thanks Ben & Rob, I do understand what they do, we have 1 new Smart screen here I was simply wondering how people are getting on with screens other than Smart, trying a screen in a demo is different to actually purchasing one then using it on a day to day basis. So am looking for feedback from people that have bought & installed them . As much as a discussion on licenses is important it would nice to hear user feedback & opinions on Ctouch & Genee..

Thanks for all the replies about the license, yes I wondered about using it with 3rd party boards. But how well does Notebook run compared to the native software ? be interested how people have got on actually using it, thats the main point do these boards work ok with the software. Last think I want to do is buy cheaper boards that are slow & laggy.

We are getting demo's of Genee tomorrow and C-Touch next week, we have been told Smart Notebook (yes all on 11.4) will run fine & as the staff won't move to anything else I wondered how others have been getting on using the old Smart software with these screens? The Genee rep tells me their software will load notebook files as well as the screen running Smart Notebook anyone use it? Also be nice to hear how people who have chosen Genee over Ctouch & vice versa are getting on with their new installs? We are a small school replacing all of our projectors so be nice to try and get it right first time, so would appreciate any advice.

Can you mention who that is Zipsterr, I'm looking for 4 boards to replacing some aging Smart Whiteboard/projectors, we have 1 Interactive Smart screen but I am concerned they are overpriced for what they are so have been looking at the alternatives. I've had a guy chasing me form Interactive-Education for a no of years but we have never had the budget, they sell Gene screens but I simply don't know much about anything other than Smart. The staff don't use all the features so we might eb able persuade them to change if it's as good as others say.

Fair point but it's fairly obvious for users of Google Classroom, where it might be common for multiple users on one device, as previous poster put, a simple sign out button would be a big help.