Unless you are lucky enough to be able to invest in a tablet for every pupil, you will need to find a way to effectively share your limited resources between classrooms. Create a rota or booking form to ensure that each class has a fair opportunity to use the devices and share this with your colleagues. However, do not put this rota on your school's website, or any other social networking site; although an online rota can be easily accessed by staff, it is also readily available to thieves looking to cash-in on tech-savvy schools.
In addition to planning when pupils will be able to use tablets, you'll also need to think about how to make sure that the devices are actually ready for them to use. Synchronisation, or downloading apps, is a vital consideration; syncing a classroom full of tablets to an application store can be time consuming, but, to make this process easier, you could invest in a management solution that could handle this process for you. Tablet charging trolleys, tablet carry cases or desktop synchronisation solutions can enable you to download apps to all machines simultaneously, saving you time and effort.
The particular solution that you select will depend upon how you decide to store your tablet computers. Although desktop synchronisation solutions may appeal to some, selected charging trolleys provide the added advantage of securing, charging and synchronising your tablets all in one handy storage unit. Despite this, you may find desktop solutions suitable if you only need to sync apps to a small number of devices.
If you do decide to invest in a tablet computer charging trolley, there are a few things that you need to consider. Firstly, bear in mind that charging trolleys are designed to be wheeled around a building, so you need to ensure that the unit that you select is going to keep your tablets safe during transit. Look at whether the trolley stores the tablets vertically on their sides, or horizontally, laying flat; this should give you an idea of how much the tablets may wobble around when the trolley is moved. Steer clear of any mobile charging trolley that risks the tablets knocking into one another.
Finally, you need to consider how you will protect your valuable tablet computers from theft. Small, attractive and valuable, tablet PCs have a high resell value and are very attractive to thieves, so you need to ensure that you have adequate security measures in place to keep your tablets safe. Selecting a tablet charge and sync trolley constructed of metal can provide added security and help safeguard your investment.
Tablet computers can be a useful classroom resource for pupils, but such valuable devices pose extra issues in terms of resource management within schools. Considering storage, safety, security and synchronisation can help you ensure that your devices are ready to be used when needed.
V.Cole
