Managing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in schools

ICT, VLE, ADE – us technology in education folk just love abbreviations.

Despite our tendency to shorten complicated phrases, we seem to be somewhat puzzled by our latest acronym; BYOD, short for bring your own device, has divided opinion.

Whether to allow pupils to bring their own technology into the classroom – be it smartphone, tablet or laptop – is causing significant controversy. Will BYOD help schools to save money by reducing the investment in school owned ICT? Or, is permitting pupils to use their iPhones in lessons a security nightmare waiting to happen?

 

Whatever your views on BYOD in schools, making the switch to student owned technology requires a well thought-out plan. Here are our ideas about some of the things that you might want to consider when managing a BYOD scheme:

What happens if pupils forget their devices?

If pupils bring their personal laptops or tablets into school, they’re likely to want to take them home again at the end of the day. How else will they finish that blogging homework?

Unfortunately, when pupils bring equipment home from school, there’s always the risk that they might not bring them back to school the following day. Even the most organised pupil can forget something when they’re in a hurry. Combine busy mornings with early starts and it’s inevitable that, at some point, pupils will leave their laptops at home by accident.

So, you’ll need to have a backup plan if you don’t want pupils to share devices. One idea is to keep a bank of computers in a laptop charging trolley in a central location so that pupils can still access a computer even if they don’t have their personal devices with them.

What about those pupils that can’t afford their own technology?

It’s a simple fact of life that not everyone can afford the same things. It’s a reality that schools deal with daily and an issue that school uniforms go some way towards tackling.

Although some parents are more than able to kit out their child’s school bag with cameras, phones, laptops and maybe even an iPad, others just won’t. Wildern School in Hampshire has created a nifty solution to this problem – a genius bar. The bar provides school owned back up devices for when pupils aren’t equipped with a particular piece of technology and is manned by staff with the know-how to support and inspire users.

If having staff loan out equipment isn’t right for your school, you could invest in a self-service locker to manage the process for you. The Diplomat™ Library Management System (LMS) from LapSafe® Products can loan out fully charged ICT equipment to students using a smartcard system, recording who takes a device, how long they’ve taken it for and whether they return it to the cabinet or not.

What about looking after pupil’s personal devices?

Even if your school uses ICT across a range of subjects, there’ll still be times when pupils aren’t using their laptops, tablets or smartphones in class. How’re you going to secure each child’s device when they’re outside in the playground? How will you keep them fully charged so that they’re ready to be used later? Smartphone and laptop batteries won’t last for a full day (yet), and simply asking pupils to leave their valuable technology in their school bags won’t please the security conscious.

To get around this problem, you might want to consider investing in a laptop locker to keep pupils’ laptops, tablets or smartphones secure and fully charged. Such lockers, like the Diplomat™ and Ambassador™, come with individual locking bays to keep valuable IT safe. The Diplomat™ can be supplied with keyless smartcard access, eradicating problems associated with lost keys.

The BYOD debate is unlikely to go away anytime soon. Whether you’re pro pupil owned IT, or think BYOD in schools is just another technology fad, one thing is for certain; managing a BYOD scheme in schools requires careful planning and a lot of thought.

 

Lurrrrrrrve for LapSafe® Products

Love is in the air and, at LapSafe® HQ, we want to wish our customers a very happy Valentine’s Day.

So, on the most romantic day of the year, we thought that we’d share the love and let you know just why our customers keep coming back. Here are just some of the reasons why teachers love LapSafe®:

Tess Trewinnard, headteacher at Wonersh and Shamley Green Infant School…

“I was very impressed by the customer service provided by LapSafe® Products. A sales representative brought one of each of the trolleys in the LapSafe® range to our school in one trip so that I could see which one would best meet our needs. I would certainly recommend LapSafe® Products and the UnoCart™ to other schools looking for a reliable netbook trolley. Not only did we receive excellent customer service, but the trolley is sturdy and good quality.”

Railton Knott, IT Operations Manager, at Bolton College…

“LapSafe® thought outside of the box and the staff went out of their way to help us.”

Mark Mountcastle, a teacher at St Hugh of Lincoln R.C Primary School…

“The UnoCart™ for iPads offered us all of the functionality that we required at a lower price than other trolleys on the market with a similar specification. We felt that the trolley was good value for money, and, because it bears the LapSafe® brand name, we knew that we’d be getting a reliable and robust solution. I would recommend LapSafe® Products to other schools looking for an iPad charging trolley, as not only does the UnoCart™ meet all of our needs, but the support given to us has been fantastic and very time responsive.”

Tim De Leeuw-Kent, ICT Engineer, at Sedgefield Community College…

“When it came down to deciding upon a trolley, the little details made all the difference, even down to the wheels the trolley featured. We wanted something that would last, and some other trolleys [on the market that] we looked at gave the impression that they might not last more than a year. Our Mentor™ trolleys have been fantastic. I’d recommend LapSafe® Products to any school, because the excellent quality of their trolleys and comprehensive after-sales support represent true value for money.”

Ian Rossborough from Reading School…

“It would be a far better world if all firms treated customers as you have done. Many thanks.”

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone,

Love LapSafe®

Choosing a charging trolley for iPads: some things to consider

If you’re thinking of introducing iPads into the classroom, or into your workplace for that matter, it’s highly likely that you’ll need to look for an appropriate charging solution.

Charging trolleys for iPads are new into the marketplace and have brought an entire array of complicated jargon with them, so working out which one will provide true value for money can be difficult.

To make things a little clearer, we’ve put together some advice on the type of things that you need to consider when choosing a charging trolley for iPads. This post is a step on from our laptop trolley jargon busting series – we hope you find it useful.

St Hugh of Lincoln RC Primary using iPads in the classroom

Does the trolley sync as well as store and charge?

Content on an iPad is accessed through a range of apps that are available through iTunes and the Apple App Store. In a classroom or office environment, it’s highly likely that you’ll need each iPad to feature the same app across all of the devices.

As you can imagine, downloading content onto each tablet individually will take some time – think back to the days before data transfer options on laptop trolleys. To make this process quicker and easier, charge and sync trolleys for iPads allow IT technicians to sync to up to 32 iPads, 16 at a time, at once.

When choosing a charging trolley for iPads, it’s a good idea to make sure that the trolley can sync as well as charge, to save you both time and hassle.

If you’re happy to sync all 32 iPads individually, you may be better off simply using your existing laptop trolley to store and charge your iPads. The popular Apple tablet can be charged in a wall socket with the cable that comes with the device, so, provided that your laptop trolley charges using the laptops’ AC adaptors, iPads can be charged using the equipment you already have.

Thus, buying a trolley for iPads without synchronisation built-in could be an unnecessarily expensive option.

How safely are the iPads stored in the charging trolley?

Another thing to consider when choosing a charging trolley for iPads is how the tablets will be stored within the cabinet. You need to be sure that the iPads will be adequately protected from damage when they are stored on the shelves inside the unit, so look out for protective and ‘grippy’ foam that will prevent screens from being scratched.

If the trolley or case stores and charges iPads vertically, you need to be sure that the tablets won’t bump into the sides of the storage container every time it is moved. Any foam casing that holds an iPad in place during charging should be as snug as possible, without large gaps that could mean that the iPad moves around a lot during transport.

How is the tablet charging trolley constructed?

Charging trolleys should not just store and charge your iPads, they need to keep your investment safe and damage free. Trolleys with pull-out storage shelves could cause the cabinet to topple over if all of these trays are pulled out at the same time, so it may be safer to pick a charging trolley for iPads without this feature.

If you pick a trolley for iPads that syncs the devices through a laptop or Macbook, make sure that you secure this machine with a laptop security cable if it sits on top of the trolley during synchronisation.

The UnoCart™ for iPads from LapSafe® Products features a built-in security cable to secure a laptop or Macbook during synchronisation to prevent opportunistic thieves walking away with valuable equipment. The trolley also includes secure storage and charging for a laptop or Macbook to keep it safe overnight.

For more information about the UnoCart™ for iPads and our range of other sync and charge options for the popular Apple tablets, visit www.lapsafe.com

Guest Post: How mobile devices are changing the learning experience

Jon Smith is an e-Marketing Specialist at Insight UK, a leading provider of IT services and solutions.

Education has always been led by technology. When new tools/services are created, they are modified or developed to help educate students and enhance the learning experience.

This trend has continued for hundreds of years, from the invention of the printing press and the mass production of books, to the modern day adoption of the iPad into the classroom.

Two weeks ago, Apple increased its presence in the education market with the release of a range of tools and services that will “reinvent the textbook”.

Apple aren’t the first technology company to do this. Amazon and American retailer Barnes and Noble have already produced similar tools, but could this be the start of the mass adoption of tablets and mobile devices into the classroom? If so, how can students and educators benefit?

Collaboration

One of the major benefits is collaboration. Group projects are now a regular part of not only university but middle school, as well helping prepare students for a life past university. The use of apps to share information among group members and the ability to work on the move via smartphones and tablets helps significantly improve productivity.

Collaboration also comes with a host of secondary benefits, especially when it comes to peer pressure. There is nowhere to hide in a cloud computing environment where everything is open to your group, and your output is easily measurable in a system like Google Docs; no one likes to let their team mates and friends down.

Research on the move

Information has never been so readily available than it is today, you only have to go back 20 years and degree dissertations were written using newspaper clippings and a pen and paper.

Fast forward to 2011 and things couldn’t be more different. Millions of articles, books and research papers are now available at the click of a button. With the adoption of mobile devices, such as the iPad, information is available when you need it, and you no longer have to find a computer or a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can access databases, libraries and archives from anywhere in the world ,whether it is your classroom or a beach in the Bahamas.

Engagement

Another major benefit is engagement. The use of tablets and smartphones gives educators the chance to make learning more exciting and interesting through engaging apps and interactive books. The use of the internet can be used to include video’s from YouTube, as well as real time updates from Twitter to further broaden the learning experience.

This has the potential to make learning fun, further motivating students and benefitting those who learn kinesthetically or visually.

One thing is for certain, we have an exciting time ahead of us, I just wish education had been this exciting when I was at school.

Tips for keeping school mobile ICT safe and damage free

Compact, mobile and easily accessible for young children, laptops have always appealed to schools looking to use ICT beyond the constraints of a computer suite.  Although portability is one of the main attractions of using laptops in the classroom, the fact that pupils can easily pick up and move devices can risk considerable wear and tear over time.

Laptop computers can be costly to repair and replace, especially when they are out of warranty, so I thought that I would run through a few tips to help to you keep your laptops safe and at less risk of damage:

1)   Try not to leave laptops, phones and other mobile devices charging for longer than is needed to fully recharge their batteries, as this can reduce battery life and increase your energy bills. An easy way to make sure that devices are charged for the correct amount of time is to select a laptop trolley or locker with power-saving technology that can detect when laptops are fully charged and then shut off the power to them. Using timer switches can also help prevent overcharging.

2)  If your pupils need to plug laptops or netbooks into wall sockets during lessons, make sure that AC adaptor cables are kept neatly next to a wall or under the tables to avoid trip hazards and damage to power leads.

3)  Laptop trolleys are a great way to keep mobile devices secure, but those with pull-out shelves can damage devices if they are not used correctly. Take extra care when moving shelves to plug in laptops for charging, as the AC adaptors can jar when the shelves are pulled forward, risking damaging the wires inside the charging leads.

4)  If you do decide to store your laptops in a charging trolley with rolling shelves, it is important not to pull out all of these shelves at the same time to remove laptops from the trolley – this can risk the unit toppling over. To avoid this problem, you could invest in a laptop trolley without rolling or removable storage shelves, but always make sure that you read the user manual.

5)  Keep food and drink away from laptops and other mobile devices. Water and electricity do not mix well, and hot dinks spillages can lead to keys ‘sticking’ on your keyboard, making it difficult to type.

Following these tips can help prevent damage to your mobile ICT equipment, hopefully making your laptops, and their batteries, last longer.

This post was written by Vicki Cole, PR and Marketing Executive at LapSafe Products,  and originally appeared on the Innovate My School website on 17 November 2011. 

Our 2012 BETT Show Pictures #BETT_Show

So BETT is over for another year, and what a show it’s been.

The last BETT Show ever to be held at the Olympia venue saw the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, announce his plans to shake up the ICT curriculum, a fantastic range of BETT Fringe events, and a brand new stand for LapSafe® Products.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone that visited H39, came along to our workshops, retweeted our messages and to the organisations and individuals that helped us along the way. A special thank you goes out to AVer Information Europe, the brilliant Anderton Tiger Radio team, Dr Nick R Dennis, St Peter and St Paul’s CE Primary School, Science Made Simple and the fantastic crew behind Collabor8 for Change.

So before we say a final goodbye to BETT 2012, let’s look back at some of our photos of a very action packed event.

Let the countdown to BETT 2013 begin!

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You can read our BETT Show highs and lows in our BETT Show review.

Fun? You BETT! #BETT_Show

Today, the LapSafe team are back in the office after what is shaping up to be our busiest BETT Show ever. For this year’s BETT Show, we wanted to try something different, so we featured a different free teacher best practice event on our stand H39 each day.

On Wednesday, Year 6 pupils from St Peter and St Paul’s CE Primary School held a workshop on our stand to demonstrate how they use games-based learning at school and to share thier thoughts on how they use our USB Charging Case to store and charge their Nintendo DSi devices. Declan, one of the children presenting on our stand, is currently taking part in the Young Journalist Academy and has written up his account, alongside BBC journalist Bill Thompson.

Here is Declan’s story:

Three Year 6 pupils from Burgh-le-Marsh primary school were invited to a digital learning event in London this week. The school uses the Nintendo DSi’s very effectively to help with learning in numeracy and literacy. While they were at the BETT exhibition they were asked to do a presentation to demonstrate how they are used in school!

Held each year at Olympia, BETT attracts thousands of teachers, pupils and other people involved in education, who flock to the venue to see the latest technological wizardry.

James, a Digital Media Champion (DMC) at the school, said, “It’s amazing using the Nintendo DSi in lessons because it’s a lot more fun than pen and paper. You learn quickly and you can keep a track of your record.”

Billie, also a DMC, thought that the BETT was brilliant: “Olympia was huge and there was so much happening. We visited loads of stands, but I liked the PlayStation stand the best. You could read part of a book and immediately link it to a film!”

Head teacher Miss Smith was delighted that her pupils were able to demonstrate the school’s expertise in games-based learning. She said, “Our drive to use technology to engage our children reaps its reward in their positive attitude, risk taking and enjoyment within lessons at our school.”

BETT Radio interviewed the three pupils live at the show, but they were quite relaxed as BBC Lincolnshire had visited the school on the previous day!

The school has developed a close relationship with LapSafe® Products, after they were asked to supply a charging unit for its DSi’s.

Miss Smith has promised that LearnPads will soon appear in school. These are very similar to iPads and LapSafe have designed some really cool charging units for them too.

The DMCs were very proud to represent the school at The BETT Show and are looking forward to using even more technology in the future!

This was first published on the Junior News. To find out more about what LapSafe got up to at the BETT Show, check out our daily blog posts reviewing the show.

LapSafe® at BETT: day four

As day four of the BETT Show comes to an end, the world’s largest technology exhibition is over for another year.

After such a busy show for LapSafe® at BETT, we’re all looking forward to a well deserved rest tomorrow, but there’s still time to bring you our final blog post of what has been a fantastic week.

On day four of the BETT Show, we thought we’d bring you our highs and lows of the past few days:

The highs:

• Welcoming some very talented year 6 pupils from St Peter and Paul’s CE Primary School to our stand to host an interactive games-based workshop.
• The excitement of launching our new range of products, and the amazing feedback from all those that visited the stand.
• Meeting some of our many Twitter followers in person, and finally being able to put a face to a name.
• Watching some brilliant science tricks by the lovely David Price from Science Made Simple at our Science Busking event.
• Unveiling our brand new, 70sqm BETT stand; it’s the biggest stand we’ve had in our twelve years at the show.
• Hearing the fantastic Dr Nick R Dennis from Felsted School talk about how his pupils utilise Apple technology at our Using the iPad in Education on-stand event.
• Meeting some very inspiring individuals at Collabor8 for Change on the Thursday evening.
• Sharing wine and nibbles with fellow exhibitors and business partners on our stand on Thursday

The lows:

• Sore, tired and aching feet from standing all day.
• Shoes that are comfortable in the office killing our feet after a couple of hours on the stand.
• Battling the January weather on the walk from the hotel each morning.
• The thought of our ensuing diets; the temptation of a full English each morning was too much to resist!

We’ll be back with our BETT photos and a review of Collabor8 4 Change at BETT 2012 next week.

In the meanwhile, why don’t you tell us your highs and lows of the show?

LapSafe® at BETT: A review of day three at the BETT Show

Another day of the BETT Show has drawn to a close, and, on traditionally the busiest day of the exhibition, it’s been an action packed day from start to finish for LapSafe® at BETT.

When doors opened on the third day at BETT, the LapSafe® team were ready and waiting to help visitors discuss their mobile ICT management solutions, despite a late night at Collabor8 4 Change (C84C) on Thursday. LapSafe® is proud to be an official sponsor for C84C at BETT 2012 and was on hand to deliver an interactive table session about ICT security in schools at the BETT Fringe event.

Last night was the second time that the BETT Show has been home to Collabor8 4 Change, a free-to-attend ‘unconference’ for educators to share ICT tools, resources and practices that engage and inspire. If you want to find out more, you may want to read our review of November’s C84C held in Havering.

After a round of coffees, the third day of BETT was kicked off by a talk on the LapSafe® BETT stand by Dr Nick R Dennis of Felsted School. Headteacher at the leading independent school, Dr Dennis (@drdennis) gave a talk at 11am about how his school uses iPads with pupils to boost learning, social and pastoral practices.

Felsted School, an independent boarding and day school for children aged four to 18 years of age, is an Apple Regional Training Centre, and offers free advice and workshops to any school using Apple tools to support teaching and learning.

Visitors to the LapSafe® BETT stand got the chance to find out how the popular Apple tablet can be utilised across a range of academic subjects, including business studies/economics, biology, classics and history.

In the short session, Dr Dennis spoke about how his pupils use tablet computers both inside and outside of the classroom, taking them on school trips to use GPS and create video blogs of their experiences. Dr Dennis explained how the iPads provide students with a range of academic staples, such as electronic dictionaries and calculators, and assume an important pastoral role by placing student information, such as commendations and medical details, at staff’s fingertips.

Dr Dennis also told visitors how he uses the UnoCart™ for iPads from LapSafe® Products to store, charge and sync his school’s tablets. Our charging cart for iPads will be on stand H39 for the rest of the BETT Show, along with our other Apple security and charging products, so why not come and take a look? We’ve designed these solutions to far exceed the capabilities of rival products, at a competitive price, so you won’t be disappointed!

For those of you that couldn’t make Dr Dennis’ talk, there’s a free downloadable guide to using iPads in the classroom available on the LapSafe® website. We’ve been giving away a new guide free each day throughout BETT, but if you missed any, they’re all available at www.lapsafe.com

In the afternoon, we held the second free teacher best practice event of the day on the LapSafe® stand. This time, we put our science hats on and demonstrated some practical science experiments using the ExplorerLAB™ mobile science cart. Visitors were treated to some simple science experiments that they could replicate in the classroom, with every attendee receiving a science goodie bag offering them the chance to win a prize.

The prize giving didn’t stop there; we gave all visitors to H39 another chance to win an interactive science pack in the final day of our “Where in the World is Professor Smarty Pots?’ competition. We’ve been running this prize draw all week to promote the ExplorerLAB™ mobile science laboratory.

We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow morning on the LapSafe® BETT stand H39 and would love to see you there. There’s still the chance to win a £30 Amazon voucher, meet our team and see our fantastic new range of solutions to manage mobile ICT in the classroom.

LapSafe® at BETT 2012: A review of day two at the BETT Show

As always, the LapSafe® team were up bright and early on day two of BETT 2012 ready to welcome educators from all over the world looking for the latest solutions for ICT in schools.

Today the LapSafe® BETT stand had a science theme as we welcomed David Price from social enterprise Science Made Simple on to H39. David was hosting the second of our free BETT events – science busking – and performed science tricks and demonstrations to eager spectators.

A science communicator, David has worked with the BBC and TV Show ‘Brainiac’ to organise science events for school, running the Northern branch of Science Made Simple. His organisations offers a selection of inspirational and educational experiences that are tailor-made for schools, festivals, adult audiences and the public.

David kindly gave up his time to treat visitors at the LapSafe® BETT stand to a range of science experiments using everyday materials to show educators how science relates to our daily lives. In addition to giving teachers some more ideas for teaching science in the classroom, the science busking session also showcased the ExplorerLAB® mobile science cart, a fully functional mobile science laboratory for the education sector.

To celebrate our science theme, today we also gave away the second of our free educational guides: a free collection of science experiments. We’re giving away guides every day to anyone that follows @lapsafe on Twitter and comes along to stand H39 to collect their freebie. There is a different free BETT guide each day throughout the show!

Continuing with our science theme, today saw yet another giveaway in our ‘Where in the World is Professor Smarty Pots?’ game. Tomorrow is the final day that you can get your hands on some interactive science packs, some be sure to drop into the LapSafe® BETT stand to try your luck.

Although the main BETT show is over for another day, it’s still all go for LapSafe® at BETT as we head over to Collabor8 4 Change (C84C), part of the BETT Fringe. We’re proud to be an official sponsor of the free-to-attend ‘unconference’, and will be hosting our very own table session about ICT security in schools. If you’re planning on attending Collabor8 4 Change BETT 2012, we’ll see you soon!

Remember to check back tomorrow for more on LapSafe® at BETT. In the meanwhile, have a good evening.