Ongoing Management of iPads at YRDSB

There is some overlap between this post and the one that deals with how to set up your new iPads within the YRDSB domain, but we want to ensure that all bases are covered, so you have both within the same blog.  You may wish to scan through the other one to see what other information is available.  The premise of this post is that you already have the devices, not that you're starting out from scratch.

If you would prefer to see this broken up into smaller chunks, please visit this website.

Managing My Fleet of iPads (or is it a flock?):  Best practices for sharing devices among classes.  Let’s begin to standardize...

Index:
1. Starting Out
2. Standardizing the iPads
3. Adding apps
4. Paid Apps
5. Updating Apps
6. Storage, Security and Syncing
7. Breakage and Repair
8. Cases


Starting Out
If you are just receiving your brand-new YRDSB iPads, information relevant to your situation is found here.  You will want to come back to this site later, though, as it deals more with the ongoing management of the devices.

Now that you have your iPads, things move beyond their initial set-up to their ongoing management and upkeep.  You have distributed iPads throughout the school to optimize their usage and potential, and we will offer our suggestions for best practices for use, management and security.

If you have groups of iPads that are located around the school for different purposes, we still recommend (in most cases) that one person manages them for simplicity’s sake.  Please note that your TST (Technology Support Technician) is NOT responsible for setting up, managing or repairing iPads.  Our suggested strategy is to develop and maintain a standard setup for all iPads making them all look identical.  People will quickly learn where the apps they need are located, and it makes management much more manageable.We are strongly recommending that sticking to the old adage of “keep it simple” is the best way to go.  Having one standard ‘image’ on all of your iPads will make managing them much easier, rather than trying to stay on top of which apps are on which devices.

Please note that these suggestions are based on our current environment.  We don’t have the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) agreement in place with Apple yet, so this document does not include information about it.  

Once you set up your iPads by adding an iTunes account to them and setting operating restrictions, you will want to load apps beyond the “native” apps that come with the device.  There are over 1 000 000 apps available on the App Store.... some of them are terrific and provide tremendous potential for learning; others aren’t worth the download even if they are free.

Our suggestion about which apps to put on is to be selective; it’s easy to download every app you hear about, or that’s highly rated in the education app store, but that isn’t very practical.  There are many blogs and websites that claim to have the “50 best apps for classrooms” or a similar title, but please take their suggestions with a grain of salt. Test them out yourself and/or talk with other teachers who have used them before blindly adding them to your library.  Spend some time looking at multiple reviews and evaluate how appropriate and/or useful the app is by using evaluation rubrics like at those you can find at the Learning In Hand blog  or TCEA App Evaluation Rubric.  

When you do choose apps, try to limit yourself to the best 20-30 you find trying to ensure that you address a variety of tasks that the users can accomplish.  Each situation will be somewhat unique and the number of apps you choose may vary significantly depending on your situation.  For instance, if the devices are shared amongst several grade levels or departments, the needs will be fairly disparate and the number of apps you load on will need to be more flexible.  Consider how each app supports student learning and their ability to demonstrate their understanding.  Consider broad categories such as collaboration, communication, creation, research and even assessment as you plan your app deployment.  We recommend against loading up a lot of drill-and-kill, flash-card-based apps (the iPad is a rather expensive flash-card tool) or content-based apps that can only be used for a single lesson.  




Standardizing the iPads

Please see the Paid Apps section if you have paid for apps, before you follow this procedure.

Once you have your apps chosen, load them on one iPad (the ‘Master’) and arrange them the way you want them.  Folders are a good way to organize apps; when you have two or more apps that you want to group together, simply hold your finger on an app for one second, and the apps all start to jiggle (or wiggle, if you’d prefer).  Still holding that app, drag it on top of the other app you want to group it with and release; a folder will open with both apps in it.  You can click on the title bar at the top and change the name of the folder to identify the grouping.  If the devices are going to be used by multiple grades/departments and there are many apps on them, we recommend putting all of the most commonly accessed apps on the ‘Home page’, and then have a different page of apps and folders for each unique group.  Please note that you can not have one app in two different places.

Once all the apps are loaded and organized on the Master iPad, we suggest that you turn on Automatic Downloads so that new apps are automatically added to every restored device when ‘purchased’ in the future.   You do this by choosing Settings>iTunes and App Stores> turn on Automatic Downloads for Apps.  You may want to do it for Music and Books in case they are downloaded as well.

Now plug the Master iPad into the “Mother Ship” (a MacBook designated to manage the iPad fleet) and do a backup to that computer (NOT to iCloud).  Unplug that iPad, and plug in the other iPad(s) you have, either one or two at a time, or all of them at once if you have a Bretford charging/syncing cart or shelf.

• Re-set each iPad, using the button on the device’s Summary page in iTunes.
• When it comes back on-line, choose to set it up from a backup instead of ‘as a new iPad’ - and choose the backup you just completed.  It will take a little time, depending on how much data is on that master iPad. If you have lots of apps and/or folders, your apps may come out disorganized and not in folders*.

*If your preference is to organize your apps in folders and you don’t want to re-build your folders from scratch on each device, follow these steps, sourced from Dan Frakes at Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/1159917/ios_restore_folders.html).

In short, you need to Restore the second and subsequent devices - twice! - while they are plugged into iTunes.  The first Restore from Backup is done in the usual way.  The second Restore must be started by right-mouse-clicking (two-fingered click) on the name of the device in the iTunes side-bar to the left.  This strange method seems to be fool-proof, as far as we have seen and heard.

You can give each of your devices unique names in one of two ways.  On the iPad itself choose Settings>General>About>Name to change the name. When the device is plugged into iTunes either slowly click twice on the name of the device on the iTunes sidebar or two-finger click on its name and choose Rename.

Adding apps

One person should have control of the iTunes account.  He or she should be the only person with the password of the account, besides the/a school administrator.  Giving the password out beyond that will muddy the waters and make management more difficult in most cases.  

When someone wants an app added, we suggest that you develop a standard selection process that it goes through.  In Elementary schools, it’s a good idea to submit the app suggestion to the school Principal, along with the cost (if any), and a curriculum rationale for the app.   For Secondary schools, if the iPads ‘belong’ to a department and the apps come out of the departmental budget, then the Head would be the likely person to approve the apps. This process should be followed even for free apps to ensure only quality apps are chosen and to prevent  the iPads from being loaded with hundreds of apps.

You can add apps directly to a device via the App Store.  As long as you have Automatic Downloads turned on for all of the iPads, they will appear on all of the devices.  Please note that apps will show up on  the first available space on the second or third page, not on the Home Screen.  If all iPads have identical layouts when the app is loaded, they should continue to look the same after downloading is complete.  Apps will not, however, move into folders; you will have to do that on each device individually.

*Once we have our volume purchasing plan set up with Apple and can use Configurator for managing apps and devices, it will be a much more streamlined process.  

Paid Apps

When a person buys an app through iTunes for his or her personal device, he or she is able to sync it to all devices associated with that account (currently, with a limit of five devices).  Educational institutions are considered ‘corporate’, which means that every app MUST be purchased separately per device - in other words, one paid app per iPad.  Ten iPads, ten copies of each paid app.

However, once you purchase an app, you can’t purchase it again with that same iTunes account; it’s not an option.  The only way to truly do this without volume licensing and Configurator is to have a separate iTunes account for each device.  This is logistically challenging but it ensures your software licences for paid apps are legal and legitimate.

Following the procedure outlined in the section Standardizing the iPads breaks Apple’s licensing agreement if you have paid apps in the backup that you are restoring your iPads from.  Once volume licensing is in place, we will use Configurator to manage the purchase and distribution of free and paid apps.

Updating Apps

App developers regularly come out with updates for their apps that address bugs, new hardware, new operating systems, and to add new features.  While it is not necessary to update the apps daily, our recommendation is to do it at least once per month.

You must go through the same process on each device to update them.  Touch the App Store icon and then choose Updates, at the bottom right of the screen.  You can update the apps one at a time by touching the Update button beside their name. A more efficient method is to touch Update All found at the top left of your screen (top right for iPod or iPhone).  You may be immediately prompted for your iTunes password; enter it and the updates will download and install, one at a time.  The update process will continue the until it is complete as long as you don’t shut down the device.  If you attempt to open an app while it’s being updated, that will pause the download/install until you un-pause it by touching that app again.

Storage, Security and Syncing

One person needs to take responsibility for the storage, charging and syncing of iPads. Whether that is one person for all of the devices or one person for each group of devices being housed in different locations is a school based decision.  Everyone needs to understand that it is a shared responsibility to care for the devices, or there will come a time when they are not accessible to classes.  

Some schools have given only one device to each classroom.  In this case, there is a temptation to have the teachers administer the device they have, including creating their own iTunes account and purchasing apps for that device.  A problem with this, however, is that the app becomes property of that teacher, even if the school board reimburses them for it - and apps can’t be transferred between accounts.  Therefore, it is still recommended that generic school-based email addresses and iTunes accounts are set up rather than using a teacher’s personal account or email address.

Some schools store all the iPads in one location for charging and syncing, and teachers may sign them all out for the time they are required.  If they are all in one place, it’s best if one person takes responsibility for all of the devices.  It is up to every teacher to ensure that they are returned at the appropriate time so they are ready for the next group to use them, so they can be recharged if necessary and to ensure their secure storage.

Some schools house them in smaller sets in various locations around the school and they can be signed out by classes one group at a time.  This is a great way to enable multiple classes to access the technology, in a centre-based, a student-choice-based approach, or to complement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.

While there is not one perfect way to distribute your iPads, ensuring one person has ultimate responsibility for each device is essential, but we must emphasize that everyone shares responsibility for caring for these expensive and highly-sought-after tools.

Most schools have purchased Bretford carts or trays to securely store and charge their devices. This is a good way to ensure they are all put away safely and ready for others to use, but it’s only as good as your procedures and people following them properly.  You should have some rules or norms in place, including:

• All devices are returned once the loan period is over
• The cart is always kept locked, and the combination is known only to a handful of teachers/staff - NO student should have the combination
• The devices should only be signed out to the individual who has booked them (in other words, if you didn’t sign them up, you shouldn’t have them).  This way, it’s easy to see where any device is at any given time - either it’s signed out to a particular person, or it’s in the storage location
• The devices should be clearly marked with a number, and assigned a slot in the cart or tray and everyone should understand that the device goes into the slot that corresponds with its number.  It’s easier to check for missing devices this way.
• The storage container (cart or tray) should also be secured.  Both storage methods make moving a large number of iPads out of a building quick and easy, where the thief can then take their time breaking through the lock.
• Don’t re-charge them every night and weekend.  This reduces battery life.  If you’re returning the device between classes and the battery is at 80%, don’t plug it in!  The iPad 2 takes about five hours to charge from empty to full, and the new iPad (version 3 and 4) reportedly takes 7-8 hours, but if you plug them in every night, the batteries will not last as long.  Ideally, the iPads would be completely drained before being fully recharged, but that’s not realistic in a school setting, so a decent rule of thumb is that if they are being drained by roughly 40% every day, then they should be re-charged every other night.  If you don’t use the Bretford cart or tray, you may want to consider using a timer so the devices aren’t plugged in for many more hours than they need to be .

Some schools have chosen to not purchase carts or trays for storage, syncing and security.  If you choose to go this route, please ensure that you have good security protocols in place, since if the iPads go missing or are stolen, it is up to the school to pay for their replacement.



Breakage and Repair

Your TST (Technology Support Technician) is NOT responsible for setting up, managing or repairing iPads.

Apple has a one-year warranty on iPads.  This covers you if something stops working, or if the battery won’t hold a charge, but not wear-and-tear.  You can access this warranty by creating a Heat Ticket via the BWW, making a Help Desk call, or talking with your TST.  If the screen cracks or breaks, you can get it repaired, but this is not an Apple-approved repair so it will void the warranty.  In our experience, any problems tend to show up in the first couple of weeks, so if it breaks, don’t let this deter you from fixing it.

If your screen breaks, you follow the same process, have your TST create a Heat Ticket for it.  The iPad will be sent to the Hardware Department and evaluated, and if it can be repaired, our hardware technicians will do it  once the school gives budget approval.  The school will be billed for the repair, currently around $50-60 (if you get it done at an Apple Authorized service location, the cost to a consumer will be over $200).



Cases

There are many options for protective cases from those found at the dollar store to some that are up to military specs for close to $100.  Our Board is currently investigating some options that are somewhere in the mid-range of those for cost, while still protecting the device well.  These choices will be posted on this page when that information becomes available.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to cases. A tough, more expensive case protects it from damage when it gets dropped. A cheaper case that provides a bit of grip stops it from dropping in the first place.  Another option is to combine these properties in one case, which generally means you are spending about $40 to provide some degree of prevention and protection.