Tag Archives: ipad

How to run a smooth iPad deployment, and lessons learned

One of the scariest items we faced in the process of planning our 1:1 iPad implementation was deployment. Or, more simply, how do we get 665 iPads into the hands of our students as quickly and efficiently as possible?

What follows is a summary of what we did in the event that it might be useful to someone else embarking on this journey.

One Night Only
Early on we had to decide if we could distribute more than 600 devices in only one night. The short answer? We could and we did. The line looked long early on, but reports from our parents were that most folks were in and out in 20-30 minutes and no one waited more than 45.

It also helped that we “front-loaded” with as many parents as we could. This included sending out the Responsible Use Policy via email, on our web page, on our Facebook, and any other place we could post it. It also meant encouraging kids and families to sign up for an Apple ID (or bring the password for an existing Apple ID) before they arrived on campus for iPad Night.

Divide and Conquer
We decided that in order to move families through the process as quickly as possible, we needed to really break down the key components into bite-sized chunks that could be divided up among staff members with specific skills. For example, not a lot of technical know-how was required to collect signed use policies or distribute app “redeem” codes. A high-level of iPad proficiency was needed, on the other hand, to troubleshoot iCloud backup and network issues. And a whole other level of skill (or an advanced degree in mechanical engineering) was beneficial to those assisting students in outfitting their iPads with an Otterbox case.

Stations and Rotations
In order to make the deployment run as smoothly as possible, we had families move through seven stations; five stations were required and two were optional. In addition to the station personnel, the most “elite” techies on our staff became rovers. To keep any one station from becoming bogged down with a specific, individual problem, the rovers were available to pull folks aside and troubleshoot with them individually while the line continued to flow.

For Next Time

  • Make sure you let Apple know that you’ll be registering folks for Apple IDs from your site. What happens when you try to sign up hundreds of folks for Apple IDs from one IP? Apple shuts it down.
  • Even if you’ve done the above, make sure Apple has the entire range of public IP addresses used by your district.

I know we didn’t get things exactly right, but it was smoother than I expected. Please hit me up via the Contact page or Twitter if our experience can help you in any way!

Why you should focus on a small number of apps in your 1:1 environment

I am frequently asked what apps schools should initially install before deploying iPads in a 1:1 environment. After seven weeks of observing and learning, I think I can safely say schools should start with a small number if content-agnostic apps and build as the need arises.

Two years ago, we implemented a 2:1 iPad textbook replacement in social studies. We rolled out iPads with more than 50 apps from a digital Constitution to various atlases and content-heavy apps. The vast majority of the apps went unused.

One possibility is that really digging in and learning 50 apps is a full-time job that most teachers didn’t have the time or inclination to undertake. Teachers quickly settled in on a core group of apps like Evernote, Dropbox, and the Google Apps suite for day-to-day classwork.

Based on what we learned in this initial implementation, when we had the opportuny to go 1:1, our Instructional Technologist and I, along with our district curriculum director decided that a narrow but powerful set of apps was the way to go. Others would be added as needed.

Every iPad was delivered to students with:

  • Pages
  • Keynote
  • iMovie
  • Notability

With this suite of apps, in addition to Edmodo, our kids had everything they needed to get started.

By limiting the starter set of apps as we did, we ended up with apps that are content agnostic and can be used in any class. For us, this meant students didn’t have to learn different routines in different classes.

As we continue in year one, we are also able to be strategic about how we spend our limited amount of professional development time. Teachers for whom this is new and scary have four apps on which to focus, each with a very specific purpose.

Finally, using these apps teach students skills that are widely applicable. Writing, presenting, and note-taking are skills they use in all their classes and which they’ll take with them, hopefully, long after they leave our school.

If you are in the planning stages of a 1:1 deployment at your school, the best advice I can give is to begin with a simple set of apps and support your staff and students in learning them well. Then, when it’s time to begin adding content-specific apps, you’ll have a strong foundation of key skills on which to build.

Going 1:1 with iPads

In late-May I received an interesting call from our deputy superintendent who told me about a local community group that was curious about putting iPads into a middle school. Specificaly, they wanted to start a three-year, phased-in implementation where, at the end of three years, students at all three grade levels would have iPads. Their goal was really just to see what we could do; what would happen.

I had spent my first two years as principal creatively getting as much technology into the school as possible: MacBook carts, iPads, iPod Touches, Apple TVs… Whenever I had the financial resources and a teacher demonstrated an aptitude and interest, I’d do what I could to make it happen. I didn’t set up an “application process” or create any hoops to jump through. I wanted to empower teachers to try something new and different. And it was starting to work.

I can only assume that all of this had not gone unnoticed because when my deputy superintendent called me she asked something like, “Are you sitting down?” She then proceeded to tell me about this iPad opportunity and how she felt I was the principal to take this on.

I met with the board of the foundation the next week and they explained in more detail their vision. I guess I did a fair job of telling them what I thought we could do at my school because the very next day my deputy superintendent called back and told me to sit down again. The foundation, she said, wanted to do a whole-school, 1:1 implementation right out of the gate and they were going to find the funds to make it happen.

Now, during all this time, none of this was set in stone. It was a handshake here, an email there, and I didn’t believe it was real until the last week in July. In a perfect world, I’d have had the last week of school to share the news and all summer for teachers to play with iPads and get comfortable. I’d had none of that. My leadership team were the only ones who knew about the possibility, but all of us were pretty tight-lipped about it until I went before the Board of Education on August 1, 2012, to take questions along with our Director of Curriculum & Instruction.

The BoE was supposed to vote two weeks later, but voted unanimously on the spot to support the project. They asked a lot of questions and, honestly, I was so nervous I don’t remember many of them. I remember them asking the usual and expected questions about how this would help student achiement, what would happen if one got lost, stolen, or broken, and how the cost would be covered.

As of Wednesday night, we are officially the second 1:1 iPad public school in Colorado, I figured I’d better start writing some of this down for my own reflection and so others might benefit. So far it’s been an incredible ride!

iPad Thoughts on Day 2

Let me start by saying that this is intended to be a quick overview of my initial impressions of the iPad as a device. If you’re looking for hyperbole about how the iPad will Change Everything in the world of educational technology, this isn’t going to be the post you’re looking for.

First off, I am writing this overview using the Notes application on my iPad. Ordinarily, I’d have used Simplenote and Markdown, but since it’s not yet available for iPad, I’ll write this up in Notes and email it to my Simplenote address for final tweaking.

Why iPad?

For those who know me, there would never have been any doubt that I would have an iPad. I was convinced that there was an iPad-shaped hole in my life. This really all started pre-iPad back in December while I was on my winter break and spending a lot of time at home with the family. There were times when my wife was reading one of her books, the kids were happily playing together, and I wanted to catch up on some RSS reading or other reading I’d bookmarked for later.

I wanted to read some content, but I didn’t feel like dragging out my 15” MacBook Pro to do it, so I spent a lot of time reading on my iPhone. It was OK, but I found that for longer sessions, it was awkward to hold and tiny to read. Still, it was much handier than dragging out my laptop just to do some reading.

With some downtime to do some reading for my own enjoyment, I also re-discovered my first generation Kindle. I downloaded a couple books to read over the holidays and found the Kindle to be the perfect size. Bigger than my iPhone, easier to read, but not as cumbersome as my laptop. I spent some time looking for ways to get my RSS feeds onto my Kindle as I imagined doing sustained reading on the Kindle would be preferable to the iPhone or the laptop.

Turns out there are a variety of ways to make this happen, but not without paying for emails to the Kindle or having to manually hook it up to USB any time I wanted to move content. I know, I know… The ultimate “first world” problem.

My experience left me wanting something that I could use like my iPhone, but would be as easy to read as my laptop. There had long been rumors of an impending Apple tablet, so I held out hope that such a device would come along.

In the meantime, I found myself making a mental note of all the times that my iPhone wasn’t quite enough, but my laptop was way too much. Taking observation notes in teachers’ classrooms, sitting in meetings, hanging out at Loveland Coffee… The device that had yet to be invented seemed to me to be the perfect device. A ‘tweener. Something that could fill the gap between a laptop and an iPhone.

To further complicate things, my trusty MacBook Pro was nearing middle-age. I knew that within the next 18-24 months I’d possibly need to replace it and I’d need to start saving for that, too.

Choosing One

When Steve unveiled the iPad on January 27, I was ready. The rumors had been swirling for so long that I had begun an “Apple Tablet Fund” for myself. I was ready for a device that – based on rumors in the weeks before the event – would sell for about $1,000 US.

Some of us at my school watched the keynote coverage live and when Steve said that the would be 16, 32, and 64GB models available, I looked at a colleague and said, “$799, $899, and $999, I bet.” I was beyond thrilled when the 16GB model was announced at $499.

I started planning. My circa 2007 MacBook Pro is still plenty fast for me. I primarily use it for Aperture, recording and editing Practical Principals, maintaining my websites, and writing papers, including – eventually – my dissertation. Other than running Aperture (which it still handles acceptably well), these are not high-horsepower tasks. I reasoned that since I had maxed out the memory to 4GB when I bought it, upgrading the hard drive from 160 to 500GB would be $75 that would keep me in business for another couple years.

So having allocated $800 to my iPad + accessories + MacBook Pro refresh fund, I was down to deciding which iPad to get. Which size? To 3G or not 3G? The size wasn’t too hard to decide on. I didn’t plan on using it for music or video more than occasionally, and my 16GB iPhone 3GS is never more than 1/3 full even with over 600 images in my camera roll, a couple playlists, and a video or two. I settled on the 16GB model.

The 3G decision was really not much harder for me. I imagined this as a laying on the couch, sitting in the conference room, hanging out at the coffee shop machine. I could not imagine more than one or two times in a year when I would need or want to access something on my iPad in a non-WiFi place, and even fewer occasions when I couldn’t make due with my iPhone’s 3G access for a short period of time. Plus, the extra $130 could be better spent on apps and accessories.

So on the day they were available for pre-order, I went online at 6:30 AM and made a reservation for a 16GB iPad at the Boulder Apple Store. Why not have it delivered to my door on April 3rd? Let’s just say I didn’t want to leave my iPad in the hands of UPS or FedEx.

iPad Day

On Saturday morning, I left my house at about 8:30 and arrived at the Boulder store at 9:09 – a little later than I’d planned, but it was not a problem. I’d say there were 60 or so people in the line as I walked up. When I got closer, I was directed to a much shorter line for people who had reserved an iPad. I would say there were maybe a dozen people ahead of me. They were letting folks into the store in groups of 8-10 as others were leaving. Some left the store with their iPads held high over their heads as they walked past those in line as if they were expecting some kind of applause. Unfortunately for them, while the line folks were cordial and chatty, it was too dang cold and windy for people to take their hands out of their pockets to clap.

In typical Boulder fashion, the store clientele was an eclectic mix. There was not an “iPad type” as I had initially suspected. There were grandmas and grandpas, athletic-types who looked like they’d stopped training for their half-marathons only long enough to dash into the store and sprint out with an iPad, dudes with neck beards who’d slathered themselves in pachouli oil, and yuppies with valet parked X5s waiting in the underground parking area. Most were only removing their hands from pockets or gloves only long enough to snap a picture with their iPhones and Tweet it.

In the store, I was shadowed by a friendly-enough sales person who escorted me around as if I might grab a Mac Pro and bolt at any moment. He let me play for a bit with one of the display models, but given the insanity and the crowd, I asked for my reserved iPad and a couple of accessories so I could pay and leave.

I wanted the dock (sans keyboard) but it was not in stock. I declined the VGA connector figuring I’d get it another time, then spent a few minutes deliberating between an Incase neoprene sleeve and the Apple iPad folio-style case. I decided on the neoprene sleeve which, in retrospect, I regret a little bit. I have used Incase sleeves for my laptops forever, but this has the distinct feel of a case that was designed and manufactured based on published specs for a device that no one on the design team had ever actually touched (go figure). The case is a little loose rather than being snug. The upshot of all of this is that it will protect the iPad in my messenger bag. The downside is that it is not the ideal “walking around campus” case. I know I’ll be ordering the Apple case online.

I grabbed my iPad and case and the salesperson swiped my card and made me sign his iPod Touch POS device using my index finger. He said a receipt would be delivered to my email. Nice. I headed out the door figuring I’d find a spot at Starbucks or Barnes & Noble and try the iPad out. What I should have remembered, though, is that as with an iPod or iPhone, the iPad is useless until you first connect it to iTunes for an initial sync. I turned it on in the car, marveled for a minute at the gorgeous screen as it displayed the iTunes logo with the little picture of a USB cable, powered it down, and headed for home.

First Thoughts

Being the über-geek that I am, I had downloaded several apps on Friday night when iTunes store was fully populated with the first wave of iPad apps. The initial sync was the usual affair – pretty quick because I didn’t include much media.

I configured my MobileMe account and fired up the calendar. For me, this is where the iPad shines. On the iPhone, month-view is not terribly useful because the only way to see that something is happening on a day is to look for a little dot and then tap the day to drill down. The month-view on iPad is beautiful. It looks just like iCal and all events are visible without tapping in to get a closer look.

Next up, Things. Having dabbled with nearly every to-do manager over the last year or two, I always seem to come back to Things. It has everything that I need and nothing I don’t. The folks at Cultured Code nailed the iPad version of Things. It syncs quickly with the desktop version and is actually fun to use.

I opened Mail. Email looks great. I like how turning the iPad on its side brings up a split-pane view while holding it vertically focuses on a single message. I’d been skeptical of the on-screen keyboard, but it find that it is a pleasure to type on in landscape mode (not so much in portrait mode). In fact, I’m well into typing this piece and I’m still using the iPad’s keyboard.

I watched an episode of FlashForward and caught the last 5 minutes of this week’s LOST that my DISH network DVR had cut off… Video looks amazing via the ABC player which allows you to stream for free your favorite ABC shows a day or so after they air.

And the web. Wow. The marketing propaganda suggests that using the iPad to surf the web is like holding the Internet in your hands. Cheesy? Sure. But let me tell you that there is something about interacting with web pages by touching them rather than by pointing and clicking a mouse that is difficult to describe. After years of sitting 3 feet away in a desk chair, I’ve discovered in the last 36 hours that this is not the ideal way browse the web. Nor is laying back with a heavy laptop on your lap. Touching links and images is an entirely new, entirely wonderful experience.

Mind the Gap

For me, this device neatly fills the iPad-shaped hole in my daily workflow. It might surprise you that I’m not a big fan of laptops in meetings or during classroom visits. There’s something about the visual barrier it puts up between people that has always bothered me a little bit, even when I’m the one with the laptop. I’m more inclined to bring a Moleskine for notes and my iPhone for calendaring and to-do list stuff. Now, I intend to bring my iPad instead.

For classroom walkthroughs and summative observations it’s a natural fit. I can create forms in Numbers or, possibly, FileMaker that I can use for data collection.

At home I use the iPad for reading RSS, cruising news sites, and surfing the web. It’s just better. And I look forward to eventually using it as a travel device, especially with the addition of the iPad Camera Connection kit which means I can slurp in a day’s worth of photos from my camera’s memory cards.

What It Isn’t

On the other side of the coin, my MacBook Pro is still the best for doing any significant writing. I also can’t use my iPad to record or edit Practical Principals. And despite the camera kit being a good option for pulling in backup copies of images from a memory card, it’s not a fully-capable image-editing platform.

If you’re planning to make iChat video or Skype calls, you won’t find the iPad to be a suitable replacement for a notebook or desktop computer. But if you’re like me and often find yourself thinking, “I wish I had my laptop with me,” I think you’ll find the iPad to be a great device.

It’s not a “netbook killer” (not that the netbook market needs any help from Apple on that front) or a “laptop killer,” but it wasn’t designed to be. The few netbooks I’ve used don’t do for me the things that my iPad excels at. As Steve Jobs mentioned at the iPad’s introduction in January, “Netbooks aren’t better at anything.” Netbooks strive to do everything a full-blown computer can do in a much smaller package. In doing so, they’re rife with compromises.

Rather than attempting to be a miniature version of a computer and try to do everything, the iPad was designed to do a subset of things better than your computer can do them. If I can’t do it on my iPad (edit video, write my dissertation, Skype video call…), it’s probably something better done on an actual computer.

While light content creation is possible on the ipad, it is not ideal for making things. It excels, however, at consuming things.

To Do

I plan to continue exploring the iPad’s use as a presentation device when I get the VGA connector. I also plan to download a book or two to determine whether it is a realistic eBook reader. There are also a couple tips and tricks I want to explore, including how to get my own content into the iBooks app.

So What?

My Twitter friends (and my mom) have continued to ask me if they should get an iPad. What’s so great about it?

It’s sort of like when I got my original iPhone. It’s hard to explain to anyone exactly why the iPhone is awesome. It just is. My stepmom spent 15 minutes using my iPad before cruising to the Apple store online and buying herself one. Is it “magical?” I don’t know. If you don’t think you have a need for one, then don’t get it.

However, if you’ve got an iPad-shaped hole in your digital life, I can’t imagine you’d regret picking one up if it’s within your budget.

Install-Worthy

Still Waiting For

*Miscellany: While I typed this post on my iPad, final editing (including adding URLs was done in TextMate).