Did Google just disrupt IT in the Classroom?

I think they did, and for $35 no less!

The recent announcement of the Google Chromecast creates some interesting possibilities for streaming content to TV's and projectors in classrooms.  Sure, I know what a lot of people are thinking - AppleTV can already do this.  But the difference here is that this is genuinely cross-platform, and not content dependent.  Unlike the AppleTV, you don't have to worry about whether the app you want to stream supports it.  Because it's relying on the Chrome browser to initiate the stream you're effectively locked in to web content, which is actually a good thing as far as I can see.  We know The Cloud is the future of education, so this helps accelerate that switch by encouraging teachers to think in a "cloud-first" way.  Let's also not forget that you can use this from any Windows, Mac, Android, Chrome OS or iOS device, so schools with multi-platform or BYOD environments should love it.

We know The Cloud is the future of education

The way the Chromecast works is limited, in that I assume you can't just broadcast everything that's happening on your screen like you can with something like MiraCast, but it bears the tradeoff that the Chromecast device is largely autonomous in the process, so once the stream is started the end-user stands less chance of interfering with it accidentally and they can continue using their device as normal.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/Tp9VA71eBew]

It's early days yet, so it's unclear if the little gadget works exactly as it appears, but at this point, who cares?  For $35 you can bet we'll be trying it out, and even if you only get half the expected functionality, at that price it's still great value!

... now all they need to do is release it outside the US!:

Just sayin'

Okay, I don't want to start a fight!

But I am going to draw an Apple / Microsoft comparison here so if you're the sort of person who's head is likely to explode as a result, taking this post down the same road as these guys, then look away now!

Microsoft have started producing some ads that compare Windows 8 tablets to the iPad.  Some of the ads are a little tongue-in-cheek, and some are bizarre (unless there's a cultural thing I don't get).  But this simple one actually cuts through to a couple of truths that speak to why we and our teachers couldn't bring ourselves to adopt the iPad as a platform.  There's more to it than just these few features (it's quite a complex issue actually).  But these are some of the things people struggle with initially when considering an iPad anywhere where they might need to do work, and these are some of the stumbling blocks our iPad trial kept on hitting.  So, here it is, make of it what you will:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/zgu9uo2UpPg]

... Oh, and there's a third side to this comparison, which is Android tablets.  That's another similarly complicated thing altogether.  All I'll say on that is, always remember it's at least a three-horse race! ;)

It's All About the Pentiums

Well, it's not about the Pentiums and if it were it'd be all about the Core i5's, which makes that Weird Al song sound even more geeky (if that's possible).

What it is about actually, is the very fast and slick hardware we got our teachers this year.  That extra spend has made them eager to receive their new computer, and the brief but important introductory tutorial that goes with it.  That tutorial is key to making a Windows 8 rollout work.

Past the halfway mark with our Windows 8 rollout, and there's been no negative reactions to Windows 8 or Office 2013.  I firmly believe that's because we chose the hardware well, and understood the training that was needed.  The training has ranged from a simple 5 minute intro by the I.T. Dept. to a more comprehensive introduction by our E-Learning person.  Neither is particularly onerous, but the effect has been that Windows 8 and Office 2013 have been well received to date, and any comments we have received were positive.  Most of the positivity relates to the light and easy to carry form-factor of the Dell convertibles.  I hope that optimistic outlook continues.
So, I think we've proven something here; that Windows 8 is an easy switch with just a little bit of thought given to the user, and the right hardware (anything with a touchscreen, really).  It also proves that large amounts of the tech. press don't know what they're on about.  They might do well to stop judging Windows 8 on the old crappy desktop or Virtual Machine they're testing it on and get something it's made for.

Finally, this tentative success couldn't have been achieved without Apple and Google (and probably wouldn't have).  The acceptance they've created for touch-first interfaces lead to the initial reaction we saw quite a lot from teachers.... "oh, so it's a bit like a phone then?"

Pre-Christmas Update

Well, a little while has passed since my last update and a fair amount has happened.  So much so that it's hard to detail it all here.  For that reason I'm going to dot-point list the goings-on for the last month and a half.

- it turns out Dell salespeople wouldn't know an active stylus from an active volcano

• The big news is that we've chosen the Dell XPS-12 as our staff computer for 2013.  Samsung couldn't produce a decent machine in time (or at all) and all the other options were either problematic in some way or just plain awful.  It turns our however that there is no support for an active stylus with this machine, so we're going to have to go without or use a capacitive stylus (it turns out Dell salespeople wouldn't know an active stylus from an active volcano anyway).  A shame, but not the end of the world.  The upside is that the XPS-12 is a really nice piece of kit, it's very fast, light and small.  Our teachers seemed quite impressed with it when we demoed it to them.  So we're quietly confident that we've chosen the right device considering the options.  Now we just have to get them delivered on time and get the staff used to Windows 8!


• We'd already decided we weren't interested in the Dell XT3, but it's worth noting here that Dell shipped us a demo that was not only heavily used, but broken.  It was also an awful clunky looking machine.  It's probably best if they don't keep that line going.


• We've been in communication with our parents about the plans to run two new programs next year.  Year 11's and 12's will need to supply their own computer next year, and year 7's will have a hybrid Windows 8 tablet supplied to them.  Parents of 11 and 12 students have been told they can supply a range of devices, basically anything that's a computer or a 10" and above tablet.  We'll set them up with network access at the beginning of the year, as well as some other tips and information.


• Our iPad group will continue into 2013.  I mention this because it's relevant as I was recently accused of being anti-iPad by an influential individual associated with the school.  I find this interesting because we run an iPad program with one particular group of students, and it was my interest in the iPad that got it going in the first place (I have two iPads myself).  Rather than unsettling that group by making changes, they'll keep plugging away with their iPads into next year.  The program was a trial, and it hasn't exactly set the world on fire, but it's not terrible either.  I quite like the idea of a multi-platform approach, as long as it doesn't put to much strain on the teachers or the I.T. Department.


• Finally, after much in the way of shenanigans, we've decided on a new Learning Management System (LMS).  Originally the decision was made to delay this decision until sometime in the future, however after coming to their senses the College leadership went with the recommendation of their 1:1 Working Party (or sub-group thereof) to implement the Scholaris LMS.  This is a widely used platform run on Sharepoint which can integrate well with our existing student data systems, making it something of a logical choice.  The Working Party went to great lengths to assess varying LMS options, create a comparison matrix of features and justify their preferences.  I'm quite glad that the recommendation was taken onboard, I only wish it had been immediate, rather than second-guessing the skilled and experienced people who arrived at said recommendation.

I think that's it, now it's off for a nice and hopefully relaxing Christmas break.  I say hopefully relaxing, because with the usual workload plus a 1:1 program, BYOD program, staff tablet rollout and a new LMS 2013 is going to be a HUGE year.

Some doors close, some more open (but not enough)!

So the search for a Windows 8 based computer continues.  The OS launch has been and gone, and it’s now early November.  I’ve had some small wins, like making a contact at Samsung, who was quite positive about the likelihood of them being able to provide enterprise-grade local support for their upcoming products.

We’ve also been let down on a few occasions though.  The most recent being that I’ve received confirmation that the Lenovo X230T will not be supported running Windows 8.  So that’s off the table.  Also off the table are the offerings from Fujitsu and Toshiba, for reasons I’m about to cover.  The result of this though, is that the field is much more narrow than it was.  With Lenovo, Fujitsu and Toshiba out, that leaves Dell, Acer, HP and Samsung.  Acer don’t really have anything suitable and neither do HP, so it remains to be seen whether Dell or Samsung can produce something.  I’ll be meeting with Dell in a couple of days to find out about their two possible machines, and Samsung are showing some promise, although I have my reservations about their Ativ Pro running a ludicrous 1080p resolution on an 11” display.

That’s enough looking forward, lets look back at what went wrong with the Toshiba and Fujitsu machines.  I’ll start with the Toshiba, it’s problems are basically self-explanatory.

The tablet we received was the M930, which comes with a multi-touch display, a stylus, a core i5 and a range of connectivity options.  On paper this unit looks good, but as soon as you take it out of the box it begs the question “WTF?”

[gallery ids="37,38,39"]

then your lead balloon is going down like it was filled with Sulphur Hexafluoride.

Probably the most bizarre aspect of this device is the lack of a mouse.  Oh wait, there is a mouse, it's just that it's possibly the most pointless token effort imaginable.  In my experience, users aren't so keen on ye olde pointing stick, a technology that some manufacturers still persist with for various misguided reasons.  I could only assume that if users don't care for the pointing stick, then having it built into the right-hand bezel of the keyboard with sideways mouse buttons is going to go down like a lead balloon.  Then if you concede that those sideways mouse buttons are what most would consider upside-down (that is, most of our users initially, and wrongly assumed the top button is left-click and the bottom is right-click), then your lead balloon is going down like it was filled with Sulphur Hexafluoride.

That's not the only problem either.  The device converts from tablet to pseudo-laptop using a hinged slider mechanism.  The mechanism is not only quite stiff and difficult to use, it also makes the most awful noise you've ever heard.  When I first used the hinge to convert the device everyone else in the office turned to look at what I was doing, with looks on their faces that said "what are you doing to that poor computer?"

Other than that, the machine was fine, it was quite speedy, the touchscreen was responsive and the keyboard was decent, but none of that mattered.  After seeing the two flaws mentioned above we spent some time laughing about this clownputer, put it back in the box and returned it.

Okay, so what was wrong with the Fujitsu then?  The Q702 (pictured below) also looked good on paper, and even had a proper touchpad.  It's core i5 was fast enough, and with the dockable keyboard containing a second battery it got great battery life.  It even looks as neat in person as it does in the promotional material.

The big issue with this machine was the touchscreen.  It's multi-point screen felt strange to begin with, not as smooth as the gorilla-glass coated tablets we're used to.  It felt like the resistive screen on an oldschool Tablet-PC.  None of that would matter normally, we don't think our users would be bothered by the feel of the screen (and if they were, we wouldn't be).  What they would be bothered by would be the lack of responsiveness the touchscreen exhibited.  Sure it worked well enough that normal touch and swipe operations worked perfectly, as did multi-touch gestures.  The problem was evident when swiping rapidly and repetitively to scroll through a long document, or sometimes even a heavily loaded Start Screen.  The screen would miss one in every few swipes.  This meant you couldn't flip neatly through your start screen and you couldn't get the fast scroll going down a page like you could with an iPad.  To anyone that was used to that on their phone or tablet, it felt like something was broken.  We therefore couldn't put this in front of our users and say "here, this is your wonderful new machine with Windows 8" knowing that the experience would be less than ideal because of the touchscreen problem.

So, after trying and failing to communicate the problem to Fujitsu and get a fix, we've struck the Q702 off our list as well.  I might add that the price-point for the Q702 was such that you'd expect it to be flawless.  It's not cheap, so we felt this made it even harder to justify the machine.

Now, on we go, the list is ever shorter, as it our timeframe.  With only a few weeks until I absolutely must order something new for our staff, we've not got a lot of options remaining.

Eek!

Special Dell-ivery

When I say “special” I mean a delivery so special it can’t be delivered at all!

Some time ago I started work trying to get hold of a Dell XT-3 Tablet.  It’s a current model and it meets some of our requirements.  I also know of another school using it in a tablet PC program, so it’s got some credibility.

That’s all great, however months have gone by since I originally enquired about getting a demo machine.  After signing the required paperwork to ensure them I won’t break it, sell it, or take it to Mordor and throw it into a volcano nothing has happened.
If it wasn’t for the fact I have to keep my options open here, I don’t think I’d bother with it at all.

UPDATE:

After several enquiries and one somewhat unhappy email making it to people high up in Dell’s Australian sales team, I’ve been told I can have an XT3.  Apparently it’s one they found somewhere else in the company (so not a made-to-order demo like we usually get).  But I’ll take it anyway.

Chasing Geese

So, we have our first test machine for our staff machine rollout next year.  The idea here is that the teachers get something ahead of the kids that sets the scene for our 1:1 program next year.

The machine sent to us was the Lenovo X230T (pictured).  Interesting because it’s a traditional Windows Tablet PC form-factor with multi-touch capabilities.  Available in an i5 version (which is where we’ll be aiming), it seems to tick a number of boxes, on paper at least.  Probably the only issue is how well it runs Windows 8, apparently some schools have looked at it previously, and had trouble getting some drivers to work.  I’ve been told by a reseller though, that they believe the drivers are due to be updated for Win 8 soon, so I guess we’ll see.



It’s been handed to one of our teachers for a look and the impression has been overall quite positive.  The demo model didn’t have an SSD though, which we’d require if we were to buy it.

Whether it turns out to be any good or not, it’s nice to at least have it.  It wasn’t easy to get hold of.  We were originally told by one reseller that we could have it as soon as another school was finished, only to have that reseller spend weeks trying to track it down as it went from school to school, avoiding us like we had the plague.  When push finally came to shove we were told that the particular demo unit had been arranged by another reseller and we couldn’t have it.  We contacted said other reseller and had it in our hands within a week.

Needless to say, we won’t be hurrying back to that first reseller anytime soon.

BYO, but not the kind I like.

This is old news now, but I thought it worth an update here on our timeframes and requirements for 1:1 and all the rest (yup, it's grown).

I've recently notified all teaching staff of our intentions for computing going forward so here's a potted version of that.

1:1 in Year 7
Identified as our best area to target with a new program (for a variety of reasons), we'll be rolling out new Windows 8 based, touch and pen enabled PC's to Year 7 next year, but not at the beginning of the year.  This will take place mid-year at the beginning of third term.

New Staff Devices
It's time to do away with the old Lenovo laptops which are suffering badly from a higher than expected rate of hardware failure.  We're replacing these with Windows 8 based touch-enabled devices with a pen.  This will happen in December/January next year. 

BYOD in 11 and 12
Our senior students (year 11 and 12) will be asked to provide a machine of their own from the beginning of 2013.  They'll be given access to our network and some network resources and provided limited I.T. Support (ie. their connectivity will be maintainted, but not their PC).
They'll be allowed to bring anything, within limits.  Basically, anything that has a screen-size 10" or larger and has a keyboard (and probably some software requirements as well).

LMS
We've got a sub-group of our Working Party underway investigating different Learning Management Systems with a view to selecting one and running with it in 2013.

More potential devices?

I've made a few more contacts with regard to devices for staff and/or students.  Dell are in the process of finding me an XT3 (the basis of a Hobart schools 1:1 program), and Toshiba seem to think they can send me a demo of one of their M930.  So at the moment it looks like I might have up to four candidates, with more to be released in a month or two.

I also have a meeting arranged with Samsung.  I have to travel a couple of hours for the privilege, but they seem keen to approach schools with the promise of longer warranties supported by local service centres (that are yet to be esablished).  Interesting!

A Touch Scarce!

With the need for a specific type of Windows 8 device for both teachers and students next year, the search has begun (okay, it began back at the Dell Roadshow, but I was really just window-shopping then) for a couple of models to fit the bill.

Our consultant from the workshop was quite strong on suggesting we contact Samsung to see what they had to offer.  After some stuffing around to try and find someone to contact, I've done just that.  It'll be interesting to see if they can meet our needs.  They have some cool looking new Windows 8 devices available, but the big question is around whether they can provide local warranty and support at enterprise level (or better than retail level, at least).

But regarding getting hold of one of these new Windows 8 based machines to look at, there's not a lot available right now (September).  I've been promised a look at a Fujitsu Q702 soon, and I may be able to get hold of a Lenovo X230T as well (which may or may not be able to run Windows 8).  But other than that most of the manufacturers are telling me to wait until October 26, then they'll have something to show.  That's scarily late in the year for staff PC's, which are intended to be rolled out in January at the latest.

What's the rush?

So, in a recent meeting of the College ICT Committee, the 1:1 plans were discussed, and critically, the budget for said plans has started to take shape.

The budget will be the biggest I've been responsible for putting together.  Although the idea is that we'd be asking parents to contribute to the cost of the program, it still represents a considerable dent in the College's cash-flow.  But I guess that's the price we need to pay to ge the program started.

Timeframes have also been discussed.  There was some talk of looking at kicking it off at the beginning of 2013.  I can't see how that's even possible.  There's only 1 term left in 2012 and for a normal sized rollout I'd already want to be looking at some candidate machines.  Then there's the question of our staff laptops, which are due to be replaced at the start of 2013.  I think a 2013 start is going to be pushing our luck.