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Warren Hall

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Warren Hall

Device choice in schools driven by the ‘write’ things?

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Warren Hall

device for collaboration

Modern Learning (environments, practices and supporting technologies) is something that most schools I interact with have firmly on their radar. Some are just starting out, and others are well on the way. The conversations about Modern Learning Environments and Modern Learning Practices sometimes start slowly, but usually end up being vibrant, exciting discussions jam packed with possibilities, and leave me feeling thrilled to be part of the transformation of aspects of our education system.

Themes in discussions about Modern Learning

I find that discussions with school personnel about Modern Learning (ML) have many common threads. You can see a more formal definition on CORE’s website, but things that often get mentioned in conversation are:

 

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Ten safe bets for school IT

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Warren Hall

IT auditing

Good strategic planning that sees IT decisions as a core part of supporting students achieve the desired learning outcomes, will always produce the best results. However, even if your planning is still in development, there are still a number of things that schools can feel confident about spending some time and money on that will still support and enhance learning experiences.

While I have tried to keep jargon to a minimum, there are a number of technical terms in the body of this post, for which I thought about creating a glossary. Instead, I will simply encourage you to search the web for further explanation if needed, as there is no shortage of definitions out there. Where possible, I have added links for your convenience.

1. Managed wireless networks

In the good old days many schools got away with having a collection of stand-alone wireless access points and these were sufficient for connecting a few wireless devices to the network. Of course if you wanted to change something like the network name or the password then you needed to log onto each access point individually which was a bit of a nuisance.

Having a managed wireless network means that you can control your wireless access points from a single administrative interface. This allows you to do things like change passwords centrally, create new service set identifiers (SSID’s), and get some statistics about how your network is being used. The admin interface also allows you to get statistics showing things like, which devices are using the most data, where the heaviest concentrations of wireless users/devices are, and will alert you if any of the access points are unplugged.

Before you rush out to buy your managed wireless network, if you have not yet got your Ministry of Education subsidised School Network Upgrade Project (SNUP), then you might want to wait, as you will now be offered managed wireless as part of that process. It is hard to compete with anything that has been subsidised by 68–80% (depending on whether you are a state integrated or state school). If you were going to have to fund it yourself, then it would be worth getting 2-3 quotes. I believe the MoE currently provides Ruckus, Aerohive, Aruba, and Fortinet wireless equipment when they upgrade school networks, and so quotes for a couple of those brands would be a sensible place to start. But I also think you should get a price for Unifi gear, as it is pretty good value for money, in my opinion.

No matter what gear you end up using, you need to discuss your needs with the installer to ensure you get both the coverage (ie where you can pick up a signal), and density (ie how many devices you expect to have in one place) that you expect. Remember though, that you can add additional access points later, as your students’ needs will almost certainly increase over time.

2. Migrating services to the cloud

There are a number of cloud services that most schools should now be running offsite, the most obvious being mail. By migrating to one of the free offsite mail servers, you no longer need to pay for a local technician to configure or maintain mail on your own server, you also don’t need to do updates, backups, or think about remote access. Microsoft and Google both have solid cloud mail options that are free for schools to use.

Of course, mail is just one of a number of services that schools are moving into the cloud. Other popular ones are file storage such as Dropbox, Student Management Systems (SMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS), library and finance packages. The only caveat to put on some of these is that they can be frustrating to use if you do not have a fast enough Internet connection.

You probably still need a server to do things like hold your directory of users, allocate network addresses to devices and some local DNS. But, when your current server needs replacing, it should almost certainly be a lot cheaper than your last one. That’s because it will not need to have as many services configured on it, meaning lower setup costs, and because it is running less stuff, then your hardware costs and backup requirements should also be lower.

3. Buying mobile devices rather than desktops

I am not sounding the death knell of desktop computers. Indeed, for processor-intensive tasks, and when you need a lot of screen space to work with, they are unbeatable. Rather, I am saying that mobile devices are a nicer fit in the classroom — and often beyond the classroom. Also, it is more natural to have the device be a part of the learning, wherever it is happening. Of course, a mobile device could be a laptop or tablet-style device. Schools are spoilt for choice in terms of mobile devices.

The pros and cons of all the available mobile devices is beyond the scope of this post, but what I would like to say is that I love two things about tablets. One is that their shape is “vanilla”, so it’s easy to repurpose them in ways that would be difficult on a laptop. For instance, they can easily be used as a video camera, musical instrument, or GPS. The second is that when a group shares a tablet it seems more equitable, for a simple tilt or touch means that each participant can contribute far more easily than when one person is sitting with the keyboard and screen facing them on a laptop.

4. Saying yes to SNUP

I still occasionally come across a school that has turned down SNUP in the belief that the network they currently have is all right, or that they could achieve the same result for less money by doing it themselves.

To be fair, if a school has paid for their own network upgrade in the last 2-3 years because they could not wait for SNUP, then they may have a point. But any existing network that is more than 5 years old could probably benefit from at least new switches, wireless gear, and additional power outlets. The idea that the total cost for a school to purchase all of the switches, data cabling, power outlets, and wireless equipment that they would be offered under a SNUP for the same price as their SNUP contribution alone seems most unlikely. If that is the advice a school has been given, then they should get a second opinion.

5. Moving to fibre if current connection speeds are causing issues

Fibre is stonkingly fast compared with the ADSL connection that most schools have been using for the last 5–10 years. By having a connection that has both fast upload and download speeds it is likely that the school will see better value for money from its Internet connected devices, because users be able to get things done more easily.

For many schools swapping to fibre it will mean a higher monthly Internet cost. But over time, some of those costs could be recouped by checking if fibre allows you to reduce spending on other areas, such as moving to cloud-based services and swapping to VoIP phones.

The other thing to remember is that N4L aim to have all schools connected by the end of 2016, so, while your costs might be higher for a while, at some stage over the next two-and-a-half years they will drop to nil. So, do not sign a long-term contract for fibre from another provider.

6. Saying yes to N4L

In the long run I think there will be lots of good reasons to say yes to the N4L, but right now, the fact that it is free should be reason enough. And bundled with your free Internet connection, your school will also be given a managed router/firewall which the N4L will maintain for you free of charge. Other benefits include uncapped data, and a fast, filtered connection to the Internet. If one needed any more inducement, then remember that it is still in its infancy, and that over time N4L will provide even more cool stuff (like IPv6, identity management and the Pond).

7. Using collaborative online documents

Working in online office suites such as Google Apps or Microsoft 365 allows a richness and collaboration for learners previously not possible in device-bound documents. Not only does it make it simple for groups of students to work on a single document, but it also allows teachers, parents, other students, and mentors to easily share ideas, give feedback, and to co-construct learning. Additionally, it is all saved, backed up, and constantly upgraded by the ether-elves at no cost to the school or the user.

If Google Apps is your online collaboration tool of choice then Hapara Teacher Dashboard should almost certainly be considered as well. It is a great tool that lets you create order from what would otherwise be a bewildering and constantly growing collection of documents. Google has recently announced that they will have a product called Classroom that will be available from September (ready for the start of the school year in the Northern Hemisphere) that looks like it will mimic at least some of the functionality of Hapara at no cost. In the meantime Hapara is available right now, and you might as well use it for 2014 at least.

8. Recognising that Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is coming

Like it or not, devices are getting cheaper, the Internet is becoming more central to everything we do, and students and parents will expect to be connected to it if and when needed as and when it enhances their learning. Schools should be thinking about how they will fit student-owned devices into their infrastructure. Professional development opportunities should be taken to expose staff to ways that schools can cater for and benefit from connected students and teachers.

9. Digital citizenship

We would be fools to still think that a child will access only the school’s Internet network. Nor can we simply put filters and firewalls in place to keep our children safe. We need to enhance the technical barriers by embedding the concepts of digital citizenship and cybersafety throughout the classroom and wider school environment to help our young people make good choices online, choices that will allow them to be safe, empowered, caring, and responsible when they are learning and socialising online.

Schools should embed the concepts of digital citizenship and cybersafety into all elements of their teaching rather than seeing it as something that can be covered by running a module. Ideally, any digital citizenship programme would be an extension of the school’s existing values structure. Orewa College refer to their values system as Maanaki Orewa, and it is an excellent example.

Likewise, cybersafety is something that needs to be constantly addressed as part of everyday learning, and Netsafe have some excellent material for schools to follow.

10. Single sign on and identity management

When Single Sign On (SSO) and identity management are properly implemented, it will be seriously cool. Imagine this, … a new student arrives at your school and is enrolled in your SMS, later that day the identity management provider scrapes the new information from your SMS, which gives them the student name, age, classes they are enrolled in, and any other relevant details. That information is then used to create accounts on Google Apps/Office 365, the school LMS, eTV, as well as the school’s network directory. The next day, that child walks into class and can log into the school computers, can log their personal device onto the school wireless, and has access to all the classes they are enrolled in on the school Moodle site. When their period-two teacher takes them to the library, they are already on the system, and can take out a book at the same time as the rest of the class.

Of course, that all happened with only one set of data being entered by a single person, so that user now has one username that works everywhere, one password that can be reset centrally, and the system did not rely on your network technician having the time to add them to various services. What’s more, when a different child leaves your school, the following day their account is automatically hibernated.

For all this to work properly, schools will need to start thinking about cleansing their user information. Is there currently a unique way to assign usernames, do only current users have access to systems, or, are there a lot of leavers and ex-staff still on the system? As work is done on various bits of the school infrastructure, some thought should be given to tidying up some of that in readiness for SSO.

Summary

The reason I believe that the ten items listed above are areas on which schools can confidently spend money is that they are all things that form the scaffold for computer use in schools. I cannot imagine a plan that would not include all of them. Once your plan is in place you can flesh out that scaffolding with the elements that make it uniquely yours, and move forward confidently to meet your strategic goals.

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ipad-ipod-montage

iOS devices, schools, and the App Store

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Warren Hall

With many schools now starting to run trials on iPads or iPod Touches, I have been wondering how best to manage buying and deploying apps on these devices in an educational setting.

App Store in education

There is, of course, a wealth of apps available via the App Store in iTunes (in fact, just recently the 10 billionth app was downloaded). And buying and installing those apps is remarkably simple. Like all things though, the devil is in the detail. The detail, in this case, is the Terms and Conditions that you agree to when purchasing.
iTunes Terms & Conditions

iTunes terms and conditions

You can find links to all of the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions online. There are different ones for each country, but essentially they say the same thing. Here’s the relevant snippet from the New Zealand iTunes Store Terms and Conditions…

APP STORE PRODUCT USAGE RULES

(i) You may download and sync a Product for personal, noncommercial use on any Apple-branded products running iOS (“iOS Product”) you own or control.

(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download and sync a Product for use by either (a) a single individual on one or more iOS Product you own or control or (b) multiple individuals, on a single shared iOS Product you own or control. For example, a single employee may use the Product on both the employee’s iPhone and iPad, or multiple students may serially use the Product on a single iPad located at a resource center or library.

So, for home use you can purchase an app and put it on as many iOS devices as you own or control, but for education, you need to purchase a copy of the app either for each user, or for each device.

Fair enough you might say, and I agree. But how exactly do you go about doing that?

What about purchasing multiple copies at one time?

There is no option in the App store to purchase multiple copies at a time, and once you have purchased an app, if you try to purchase it again, then you get a dialogue box telling you that you already own it, and asking if you would like to download it again. You cannot pay a second time from the same account.

iSO App Store

So that would appear to leave you with the only option of setting up an account for each iOS device that your school owns. This would seem painful, even if you just owned a few. But I’d find it completely intolerable for any more than 10 or 20. Even if you could bring yourself to do this, you need to think about things like:

  • If you attach your school credit card to each of those accounts, then you are somewhat exposed in terms of not needing to go through normal auditing procedures to gain approval and make purchases.
  • I am sure the accounts person would not thank you for creating an unnatural number of entries in the accounts system. If you owned 50 devices, then each of your 50 iTunes accounts would create one credit card transaction per device for every app you purchased. Twenty apps would create a thousand entries.
  • If you buy iTunes gift cards for each account, you will undoubtedly end up with at least some credit on each one. Multiply that by enough devices and it could still end up being quite a lot of money unspent and sitting in individual accounts.
  • Every time you want to roll out a new app you would need to log into each of those accounts separately to purchase it, and then sync the correct device to that account.

The volume purchase programme—applies in the U.S. only

App Store Volume Purchase
To be fair I should mention that if you were in the United States you could register your school or university with the volume purchase program, and then you could purchase as many copies as you like of any app whose developer has agreed for it to be part of that programme. You would then receive codes for each copy that you could use on the individual devices to download a copy from the App Store. Unfortunately, the volume purchase programme is not available outside of the U.S., however.

iOS are single-user devices

Although deploying apps onto school-owned iOS devices is a fraught process, it does serve to highlight the fact that iOS devices are not designed for multiple users. I believe that their educational potential will only be realised when schools embrace them as single-user devices. I probably should tease out my thinking on this in another blog post.

iOS devices, the App Store and digital citizenship in schools

I would be interested to hear what schools (particularly in places like New Zealand) are doing to overcome these issues.

I am guessing some will be ignoring, or be ignorant of, them. But I would hope, that along with the greater emphasis on digital citizenship in our schools, there are also greater efforts to comply with the terms and conditions that Apps are purchased under.

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