Over the last few days I’ve been working with my school’s technician to rollout 30 iPads; 10 for staff and 20 for pupils. We’d both never done this before, and didn’t really know what we’d find along the way. But we finished today, and I wanted to share the process we went through.
Why iPads?
iPads have huge potential for use in schools. Their intuitive interfaces allow anyone to access them on any level, meaning that some of the barriers to learning that other devices often bring, do not exist. They’re famous for being devices that rarely need technical expertise, even to perform quite complex tasks. Apple’s App store contains a wide variety of education Apps, allowing the iPads to be used by all age groups.
We chose to deploy 20 of the iPads to Key Stage One as we felt that the children would use them well across the curriculum and that, due to there being few barriers to access, they would be able to use them quickly. We have a separate plan for Netbook deployment in Key Stage Two.
We also chose to give 10 iPads to senior staff. We wanted them to start to use the devices across their roles and within their teaching, and to start to think about Apps which may be useful within the classroom.
How we did it
We used the iPhone Configuration Utility tool to quickly distribute settings (such as network and proxy details) to the iPads to save us having to enter the settings on each device separately. We used different profiles for pupils and staff; we set restrictions (such as not allowing App downloads) on the pupil devices for safety and consistency reasons, and changed a setting on the staff profile which forced staff to set up an access pin for privacy reasons.
We used one iTunes account for the student devices, and registered every iPad using these account details. There are a number of benefits of doing this, including that when an App is downloaded on one device, it is automatically pushed to all the other iPads which use the same iTunes account. We did find out that this is not the same for music and books – you can’t sync these to multiple iPads without buying them again.
We asked the staff to set up their own iTunes accounts for their devices as we wanted them to have the freedom to download Apps by themselves. This also enables them to pay for their own ‘out of school’ Apps – some of the teachers wanted this. The downside to the staff each having their own account is that if we find a paid App that we want all staff to use, we’ll have to buy that App on each device.
For fun and consistency, we created both home and lock screen wallpaper using our school logo for the iPads. They look great, and will hopefully help people feel proud of our school when they are using them.
Security
We set the iTunes email address that we used to register the iPads for the pupils as internal only, meaning that children can’t email in or out of our school when using them. We felt that this was important, as we didn’t want any email sent to that address to be displayed on all 20 devices and we didn’t want children emailing third parties.
We purchased two iPad storage docks for our pupil iPads. These are racks of 10 trays which charge and sync the iPads. Our docks also contain a lock bar, with a padlock, which prevents the devices from being removed easily. We also bought hard-back cases for each device.
We turned on ‘Find my iPad’ within the iPads’ settings; this could enable us to track any iPads which go missing and are connected to the internet. We may also be able to remotely wipe any devices that are stolen via ‘Find my iPad’.
Wishes
- It would be beneficial if Apple released more management tools for schools that are using iPads. We wanted to prevent students from removing Apps, but can’t. This will lead to some inconsistencies.
- I’d like to be able to sync folders between iPads.
Summary
The iPads arrived on Friday; it’s Wednesday today and they’re ready to go. We were impressed with how easy, with a little time, multiple iPads can be deployed. I’m even more excited about how they’re going to be used to enhance and transform learning.
