passionate about education not just i.t. · curve to utilise it to its fullest potential. the apple...

Ref: FCS1212-03

www.freshconsulting.co.uk | 01895 77 52 10October 2012

PASSIONATE ABOUT EDUCATION NOT JUST I.T.

FEATURE

Are iPads the future in schools?

Apple iPads are turning up in classrooms moreand more as an educational device rather than afun gadget. Are these tablets a new craze thathave teeth in helping our young children learn oris it just another fad? Shaka, one of the ITEngineers for Fresh, takes us on a journeythrough the portables maze and explains howthe decision was made for the iPad to be used inone of Fresh’s local schools.

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www.freshconsulting.co.uk | 01895 77 52 10December 2012

The ChallengeA school was looking at using portables ineducation and wanted to know whether thesewould be a good route to go and if so, whichportable device would be best for education.Fresh’s consultation services were utilised and theschool was provided with the options below forportable devices (Google Nexus was not out atthe time but would have been included if it was):

• Apple iPad with iOS (Apple’s own Operating System (OS))

• Netbook with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter• Samsung Tablet with Android

Operating System• Amazon Kindle Fire with a customized

Android Operating System

With the above options, Fresh investigated howeach device performed against a very simplecriteria as listed below:

• Price• Educational Value• Security• Portability• Ease of Use

Once the school had this information they couldthen evaluate whether or not going the portableroute in the school would be a good educational

choice that was going to benefit the school, orwhether it would just be ‘a gadget’ and one morething teachers needed to learn that may or maynot have a benefit.

Results of InvestigationAt the time, Fresh were only able to investigatethree devices as the Kindle Fire had not yet hitthe English shores and Google Nexus was noteven out. The results are of the devices only withno additional licences, warranties or accessoriesand are ranked 1 (first place/best) to 4 (lastplace/worst):

Price (using today’s pricing)This was a relatively easy criteria to mark against,although due to differences in hardware it can bea little misleading. However in terms of budget itis very clear.

• Amazon Kindle Fire 7” HD – Around £179• Standard Netbook 10.1” with Microsoft

Windows 7 Starter – Around £200• Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi – Around £329• Samsung Galaxy 2 10” Tablet – Around £379

As you can see from the above the Amazon KindleFire 7” HD wins on price but does have a smallerscreen size than the netbook and the iPad. If youare taking screen size and price into the equationthen the standard netbook would win.

Are iPads the future in schools?


Educational ValueThis criteria is somewhat more difficult tomeasure against. We have to look at this interms of what we believe the benefit would be inhelping children to learn. All portable devicesprovide additional benefits, so the question hereis which one is more likely to provide a highereducational value.

• Standard Netbook 10.1” with MicrosoftWindows 7 Starter

• Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi• Samsung Galaxy 2 10” Tablet• Amazon Kindle Fire 7” HD

The Standard Netbook wins here hands downbecause there is a huge amount of educationaltools that will work with a standard Microsoftcomputer. Productivity is much easier on anetbook in terms of typing and navigating. It is adevice that most staff understand and recogniseand hence will not have so much of a learningcurve to utilise it to its fullest potential.

The Apple iPad comes before the other twodevices here. Due to the buzz it creates it isgetting a much bigger following at the moment interms of app development for education.Additionally it also has some excellent accessoriesto help in education. Developments in the Appleeducational arena are growing more each yearthereby providing more options for learning.

The Samsung came in a close third due to thehardware specification being similar and the factthere is a good selection of education apps in theandroid market as well.

SecurityThis criteria focuses mainly on whether thedevices are secure for children to use rather thanany other area of security.


• Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi• Amazon Kindle Fire 7” HD• Samsung Galaxy 2 10” Tablet

The standard Netbook wins again in this arena asall Microsoft computers can be fully customisedto be locked down as much or as little as aschool would like. This means the netbook canbe very secure.

The iPad takes second place here behind thenetbook but sits easily above the other twodevices due to the fact that the apps in the AppleApp Store are checked and verified by Applebefore being listed. This means there should beminimal exposure to problematic or dangerousapps when purchased from the Apple App Store.

As the other two devices are on the Android OSthe apps that can be installed on these devicesare not as secure as there is no real centralmanagement of which apps are listed.

PortabilityThis is a bit of a red herring criteria as all thesedevices are portable, however in simplistic terms,how easy are they to move around with and store.

• Amazon Kindle Fire 7” HD• Samsung Galaxy 2 10” Tablet


• Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi• Standard Netbook 10.1” with

Microsoft Windows 7 Starter

The Amazon Kindle Fire wins on the portabilitystakes primarily because it is in fact a smallerdevice therefore easier to handle by youngchildren and easier to store.

The two 10” tablets are basically on a similar paras far as size and portability are concerned butthe Samsung beats the iPad due to the fact thatit connects via the generic USB cable rather thanthe bespoke Apple connector.

The standard Netbook comes last as it is quite abit bigger than the tablets so therefore not aseasy to move around with. The plus side is thatthe connectors on the standard Netbook are allgeneric cables and therefore easily usable indifferent environments, unlike the iPad whichrequires the specific accessories and cables.

Ease of UseEase of use is a different criteria as this isdefinitely in the eye of the beholder.


• Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi• Joint – Samsung Galaxy 2 10” Tablet /

Amazon Kindle Fire 7” HD

Ultimately the standard Netbook wins becauseagain it is already well know and has the simplekeyboard and mouse interaction that we are allfamiliar with. The software that comes with the

Standard Netbook is the normal stuff that we willuse at home and the dominance of the PC is stillquite high.

The iPad comes in second here as Apple dohave an excellent reputation for the software theyproduce and there is no exception to this wherethe iOS is concerned. Added to this the syncingbetween devices is generally very simple andeasy to use. The last two are both based on theAndroid system and hence come in joint thirdplace. This operating system is getting betterand better with each incarnation and may sooncompete very strongly with the iOS.

Conclusion from ResultsAs you can see from the table below (lowestbeing better), the Standard Netbook is the bestsolution for education in our opinion, although itis not very new and hence does not necessarilyhave that WOW factor that may add that little bitextra for kids wanting to use them.

iPad Netbook Samsung Kindle Fire

Price 3 2 4 1

Education 2 1 3 4

Security 2 1 4 3

Portability 3 4 2 1

Ease of use 2 1 3 4

Total 12 9 16 13

Overall position 2 1 4 3

With the information provided the school diddecide that the iPad would be the way forwardfor them.


The Fresh SolutionWith a confirmation from the school, Freshprocured one iPad to be evaluated by one key member of the school’s staff and if all wasokay, the school would go ahead and purchasemore devices.

The school had already used laptops and feltnetbooks were not what they were after in theportable market place and wanted to trysomething new. One thing tablets bring to thetable is a different way of thinking and interactingwhich can be utilised in a very different way whenit comes to educating.

With this in mind and the iPad coming a closesecond as the best tablet, the school purchasedaround 30 iPads with WiFi and Fresh negotiatedan excellent discount on the school’s behalf.

Something that came up was the fact that theteacher wanted to use the iPad with theInteractive Whiteboard (IWB). With this in mindFresh once again investigated the market andcame up with a few different options. The bestchoice in this instance was to go with Apple TV.This provided a wireless connection to the IWB.

With this in mind the price per device has toinclude for budgetary purposes the additionalcables and accessories that are needed by theschool to utilise the iPad to its fully potential.

As the iPads are quite fragile it is wise to invest ina protective case. These can range from screenprotectors to full wrap around protective cases.Would be wise to earmark an additional £30 or so for budgetary purposes to make sure this is covered.

There are two main ways an iPad can be set up:

• you can have one specific set up with all theapps you want replicated/synced to all theother iPads so everything is the same;

• you allow each iPad to be individually set up.

Each method has pros and cons but essentially ifyou are providing the iPads for your staff then thelatter is the best way to set them up and you canagree a yearly budget for staff to spend on apps;but if you are providing the iPads to be more forpupils, then the former is the better option with ageneric set up on all the iPads controlled from acentral master image.

One additional thing to consider with thespecification of the iPad is whether or not to havemobile anywhere access or such wireless accessaka WiFi vs 3G/4G. If the iPads are going to beused in schools and not really leave the schoolthen stick with just the WiFi version (and makesure you have an excellent wireless infrastructureset up or call us for information on this), but if youwant children or staff to have access away fromwireless enabled locations, then you need the3G/4G mobile sim option.

Some initial apps to get startedSome excellent starting apps to get for your iPadmight be things like Keynote, Cloud On, Pages,Good Reader as these are useful tools that mimicmainstream software like Adobe Reader and wordprocessing packages. Microsoft has yet to provideMicrosoft Office on the iPad, although it is said onthe rumour mill that this is around the corner.

www.freshconsulting.co.uk | 01895 77 52 10

Reactions from staffThe school staff have been mostly receptive tothe introduction of the iPads and the children, asyou can imagine, have been very excited byhaving them in the school. Group learning iscertainly an area where the iPad has excellentusage and interaction with the interactivewhiteboard also adds an extra dynamic toteaching. The iPad has also provided anadvantage when it comes to story-telling andmusic based activities.

Overall the iPad has been well received and withanother year or so under the belt, the planningwill adapt to have the iPad help more and morein the children’s education.

Further InformationFresh are now monitoring apps for the iPad and provide a few good finds in its newslettersor mailers. These include apps that aregenerally useful, as well as apps that areeducationally useful. As we talk more with ourschools that have the iPad solution we are alsohearing of more and more ways the iPad isbeing utilised in education.

For more information on the Fresh Perspectiveplease call on 01895 77 52 10, or email us [email protected]

Brief pros and cons of iPad

Pros

• Great potential

• Intuitive usage for most

• Lots of optionalaccessories for differenttasks

• Some excellenteducational apps availableand getting more by themonth

• Lots of rubbish apps

• Need to learn a differentway of working

Cons

• Quite expensive

• None of your currentsoftware will work with it

• Bespoke connectors sowill need new cables andaccessories

• Lots of rubbish apps

• Need to learn a differentway of working

passionate about education not just i.t. · curve to utilise it to its fullest potential. the apple...

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