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Secondary education

Experiences with School iPad Schemes

16 replies

treas · 05/07/2013 10:51

DS is due to move up to his next school to enter Yr9 in September, he's 13 y.o.

School are pushing the use of iPads through an external company scheme.

There are 3 possible options to choose from with the most expensive working out at £665 over 3 years for a 16gb capacity - currently there does not appear to be the choice of buying outright.

The scheme includes -

1/ 3 years warranty and insurance for theft or damage
2/ technician support
3/ e-safety device management
4/ full training on iPad use, e-safety, personal safety
5/ access to school intranet, email, school virtual learning environment
6/ internet access at school
7/ access to educational apps and digital books (many are free - whoopee!)
8/ ownership at the end of 36 months

Additional extras: case, stylus

The school stated that iPads don't need to be bought via the scheme and ones from home could be brought in.

If buying through Apple the model in the most expensive scheme costs£399 and includes 1 yr warranty and technical support for 3 months and free laser engraving of name

Extension of warranty for 2 years and tech support for additional 9 months costs approx £70

£20 a month on personal items on home insurance would cover theft or damage - depending on the level of excess you have to pay this may not even be worthwhile taking out especially as we know of a firm that can fix cracked screens etc at less than £100 and with a 3 day turn around (just had iPhone fixed - sent Monday back Wednesday)

We would have to pay for e-safety device management at £6 a year (total £18) - this gives school control over what the children can access in class

Now as the school have said iPads external to the scheme can be used items 4 to 8 should be a given to all children.

Therefore, if we used the scheme we would be pay £180 extra than buying outright (£60 a year) - which actually doesn't appear to be too excessive.

However, those of you with some experience of using iPads at school I would appreciate your thoughts and opinions on the purchasing, pros and cons of using in school, is 16gb enough capacity? Etc.

As this will be the introduction of the scheme school were a little airy fairy on how they were to be used so I'd loved to hear about others experiences about that as well, teachers as well as parents. Are there teachers who use iPads in school but hate them?

Sorry it is so long and thanks to those of you who have got through this farGrin

OP posts:
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Ladymuck · 05/07/2013 11:04

I think that I would definitely be asking what will happen to the children who don't have ipads. Either school will have to provide them for lessons, or they will be of limited use within school as I would assume that teachers aren't going to teach two parallel lessons, one for those with ipads and one for those without.

Ds's school has a rack of ipads for use within class. Still at experimental stage I believe, as they are looking at how they would best work within school, but at least they are trying to see what would happen before asking parents to make £££ investment.

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Talkinpeace · 05/07/2013 17:07

DCs school has racks of ipads
I refuse to buy one even though I could make it tax deductible
they use them loads and loads in lots of subjects in really creative ways.
Shame that the Apple OS does not have the admin lockdown rights that Windows does : teachers regularly have to clear dodgy pictures off them!

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Floralnomad · 05/07/2013 17:13

ladymuck if its anything like the school my DD went to ,the children that don't have the equipment share with someone who does . So basically you pay and then your child has to share because someone else's parents didnt want to pay . ( if they couldn't afford the computer because of low income they were given one ) .

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Loshad · 07/07/2013 12:42

Scheme should offer option for upfront purchase/voluntary donation. Not sure why you think if you provide your own iPad you should get all the apps the school has paid for Hmm
£100 for cracked screen covers the excess cost for more than 18 months, easy for kids to do ime.
Students whose parents refuse to sign up should be able to borrow one daily, but must return each night.
Really really enhance teaching and learning ime.

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ReluctantBeing · 07/07/2013 13:00

A lot of schools are currently in love with iPads. It will pass.

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EliotNess · 07/07/2013 13:01

you know bugger the ipads. IME its bloody printers that kids need

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snozzlemaid · 07/07/2013 13:12

My dcs secondary school is buying all pupils iPads from September. They remain school property and are covered by their insurance. As parents we just have to buy a suitable case in the first year, then pay £20 a year thereafter.
It seems to be a very well thought out scheme.

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treas · 07/07/2013 20:59

Loshad - the school has stated that own iPads can be used instead of the scheme iPads but £6 a year has to be paid for the e-safety device management which they will use to block all personal apps and switch of cameras unless required in the lesson.

So what will the children who bring in their own iPads use if they can not use the school's intranet, email, school virtual learning environment and internet access.

The school hasn't paid for any apps it states - access to educational apps and digital books (many are free) so additional charges along the line at some point.

Really really enhance teaching and learning ime - find this statement really interesting could you expand on how?

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splitbrain · 09/07/2013 13:20

Bump as I too would like to know more about this last question...

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Loshad · 13/07/2013 22:34

More self directed learning, students become more resilient learners and engage far more with their own learning, starting to take control of their learning (this is really exciting for me as a teacher)
For afl - instant feedback, using apps such as socrative where the students take a quiz, and you get the whole classes results emailed to you immediately, with their names appended to their answers, allows you to easily switch tack mid lesson if needed, same app allows students to write a longer response, you can project them all and get them to vote on the best answer, and then of course why and expand. Use showbie for feedback, can give verbal or written, they can respond and you can respond back having a whole learning dialogue. With verbal feedback i find i say far more than i might write in their books, and they can listen to that at any time.
Get them to make animations of complex topics to ensure they really understand it, eg plasticene chromosomes undergoing meiosis, use any of the animation apps for this.
Little things like it is easy to email out questions for homework, which can then be completed electronically and emailed back in, access via dropbox to your powerpoints and supporting information, calender appointments to remind them to come to revision sessions at lunchtime, you want 5 mins of internet search time in a lesson, no need to book an IT room and spend all lesson there.

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cricketballs · 14/07/2013 08:11

Whilst your post Loshed speaks volumes about using this technology and its benefits I have an issue with the need to spend £££ on overpriced Apple products! We recently had some Ipads at school to evaluate their potential in lessons; there wasn't a single use, app etc that wasn't also available for android tablets. When I proved this during a meeting our lead on the project then brought in nexus tablets to trial.

Guess what we are purchasing as a school, spending far less than predicted but receiving far more machines than initially planned

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celticclan · 14/07/2013 09:00

What is so great about iPads compared to say a laptop?

Staples have a really good deal at the moment for £279 you can get a Toshiba laptop with windows 8, Internet security, laptop bag and wireless keyboard and mouse. It is a fairly low spec model which you would expect at that price but surely it's good enough for school?

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Kez100 · 14/07/2013 10:20

I'm not saying its necessarily worth the extra but apple products fire up very very quickly. Very useful in a class environment when you want to get in with learning. Now android might, I don't know, but laptops certainly don't.

I think this love is also partly a competition thing. Schools need to keep their numbers of students and technology like this is very pursuasive to parents on open evenings. If other local schools use it, then you may well lose out in applications next year. Apple will have the greatest effect here.

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ISingSoprano · 14/07/2013 19:20

Dd's school has had a laptop (rather than iPad) scheme running for the last 6-7 years. It is pretty much the same as the OP is suggesting. It works well, the school have a list of those students who don't have their own laptop and have a pool of spares the teachers can book. The laptops are loaded with a LOT of software. There is also a big email culture in the school. Students will readily email staff and get prompt and helpful responses.

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Loshad · 14/07/2013 20:04

cricketballs, may well be true. I was not involved in the decision making to go for iPads (though I am a total convert).
celticclan, the advantage of iPads of laptops are portability (esp weight), long battery life - they easily last all day, and robustness - they can survive being dropped if in their case.

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Loshad · 14/07/2013 20:04

of tsk over

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