iPads for all?

#iLongfield

Summary and ideas

Went to see a school that has pushed out 1000+ iPads in Kent primarily to see the logistics and ethos surrounding the project.

On a personal note don't ever fly to City Airport because its geographically closer, but that's another story.

On arrival you a greeted by the destruction of their old school and the beauty of the new one. It is a magazine picture of the 'modern school' with large open areas, double teaching rooms, beautiful architecture and of course a ridicules amount of the top tech. When you pay 26m for a brand spanking new academy you certainly impress. Although I'm not sure if the other schools in the county will see the spending of that cash in the same way. Anyway....

The notes from the course are linked here (7.3MB)

The opening used some videos found on youtube (already introducing 'controversial' social networking, like it) found here & here (they did excuse the copyright in the second video). It was explained that it was a whole school donations scheme so everyone in the school had an iPad and after 3 months, so far so good.

They did trial different products before and students were almost angry if they didn't receive the iPad, some laptops were never claimed in the trial. only 1 in 60 students in the trial didn't have the internet at home.

A very useful document was referenced form Australia which all the Twitterers and naughty children at the back looked up straight away and realised it was more a Bible for 1-2-1 setup. So obviously here is the link, directLink, PDF 4.2MB

There were several slides about the ethos and decision making ideas for the arrival at the iPad but I won't bore you with those.

Then the technical presentation, the one I'd been waiting for....

....."this presentation won't be too technical" Oh, right, there were some practical pointers about making a Genius Bar for the students and weekly Apps magazine for staff with the cutting edge reminder that an iPad isn't a Laptop, thanks. My disappointment from the lack of technical requirements was displaced for a while as there were some useful tips/hints towards having to change the eSafety Policy in school to make these work. This is something I have been pushing in my LEA for some time. It is impossible to stop children accessing inappropriate material! Even if your school network is the most secure 90+% of students have the internet on their phones now, they will just access it there, was the likeminded opinion at Longfield. Is it better we catch them trying on a managed network or they do it unrestricted on 3G? I'm not saying open the internet totally unfiltered but just not to go to the nth degree to stop 1 child theoretically doing something they shouldn't. They do anyway, that's the nature of children. How are we going to stop then writing swear words on paper, I know stop giving them a pen and paper, sorted! (Rant over)

The technical challenges faced were surprising, the distribution of apps was the hardest. Unlike the US that has a 50% off bulk buying process, we do not and each app had to be manually gifted to all 1000 iPads! Oh.

Unsurprisingly broadband usage is maxed out on their 100MB dedicated line. Oh dear I have 6MB! Must upgrade (Jersey must do better)

Throughout the presentations it was mentioned that Staff, SMT and Parents must be consulted early doors and buy in, otherwise you are doomed to failure. For staff particularly the ongoing CPD must be regular.

The donation model was interesting, Longfield assumed 80% total purchase 20% no purchase to wards the cost of the iPad. The actual model was:

Full One Off 2% Deficit £0

Full Payment £16 54% Deficit £0

Donated £8-15 20% Deficit £28800

Donated £1-7 23% Deficit £99360

No Donation 1% Deficit £5760

Total Cost £576000 (based on £16 x 36 months) - Deficit £133920 (23%)

While my figures are based on various assumptions 23% sounds high. If you factor in the fact that paper/printing costs (including maintenance) will significantly reduce and that you will not need to invest as much into computer replacements that cost my not be too astronomically high. I have not even mentioned the cost against the inferred benefit to teaching and learning which would of course be 'priceless', but in reality, doable.

A useful fact is that the 1% who though it was a rubbish idea still wanted the iPad! *Disclaimer - I added the crude deficit mathematics and made some assumptions about the spread of contribution and calculations are based on 1000 iPads.

It was then mentioned to keep a good relationship with the Press as Longfield had some very negative early press, with just lies printed (see linked notes PDF). So get in early with them and build that relationship. Remind them its not just the initial price they should look at (although a good headline) they need to be aware of the longterm cost savings on IT replacement and printing.

There were a good list of questions you should expect to get from parents (check the initial PDF link) and a time frame of all the parents assemblies they did and the transparent online reporting of the process, publicly available.

It was made clear that there was a risk of allowing the students/parents to own the devices, what happens if they leave the school, new intakes & parents defaulting on payments. All valid but the scheme is simply not viable if the school is expected to buy them all and replace each year & be responsible for the insurance.

They did show a video which I can't find on Youtube demonstrating a staff meeting were some people were on iPads making notes/doing other work. Ideas were being shared and while it looked a little chaotic it was probably the most productive meeting they have had. Does everyone, Staff & Students, need to always be silent watching the front or can the way we teach evolve and become much more group oriented? Other ideas or changes in teaching used Twitter (Students can follow staff but not vice versa) and recording teachers demos and intros (a very scary though for some). The iPad stopped being important and the type of learning became the focus. We ban photo camera phones because of sly photos that go on Facebook but actually if we encouraged students to use them wisely, like taking photos of the board for extra notes, wouldn't that be a change? Think about what they are doing, they are so interested in your teaching and your notes that they want to keep them and use them to learn.

Twitter particulary creates a whole new dimension to learning, while you present, students are asking virtual questions silently having side conversations (about the topic at hand), debating, arguing...... learning. It looks strange from the outside, not everyone is looking at the teacher, they are all typing away but the engagement is huge. It's exciting!

Another impressive comment was that Students are now coming to the teachers at Longfield saying "have you seen this app?" and they don't mean games, actual educational apps and tools. Would you see a student saying, "I have this new revision book...." or "look at this great pen". They are simply excited about the tech because that's there 'Push button' generation.

There was a basic demo of some core Apps that failed to impress so I will add my own top hits soon on this blog. We then had a student/teacher 'speed dating' session (a few teachers laughed at posting 'going speed dating with pupils' and refrained) where we asked may questions that were truthfully answered, particularly by the students. They do find typing long documents hard on the iPad but love visually everything else, especially emailing teachers questions/work instead of having to find them or print off. One student even said, I don't go on my phone as much now. I do wonder if that's because the apps he like are on his iPad but I will choose to trust him, after all that is the only way ICT will develop in this country.

Extras & Ideas -

Things to ponder:

- Lesson audio notes and recording made by students (actually keep them quieter)

- Video Intros from Staff (Much more appealing with a nice background track)

- Finish my ePubs for topics

- Beaulieu YouTube Channel

- Staff Blogging and Twittering

- Survey internet at home and honesty on in school phone use

- eSafety Policy rewritten and risk assessment to write up

- Only school emails on devices? (Or block personals when in school)

- Sirius used for WLAN in other schools

- lesson planner Apps to replace A4 books (lesson plans can then be emailed to HoD)

I was asked about ePubs so I have linked here an original Pages link and the ePub that can be exported from it:

ePub

Original Pages Document

Overall I came away enthused and excited at the possibilities it could hold for my school. I made some extra Twitter links and have a better model in my head now that I can start to transfer to paper. Thank you Longfield.