Fraser Speirs, on replacing MacBooks with iPads in the classroom:
When looking at the iPad, it’s important to break out of the old mindsets. Replacing a cart full of laptops with a cart full of iPads will deliver a worse solution than the laptops. Here’s why:
Let’s call this model “thin slicing”, where each pupil gets to use an iPad for an hour or two a week. That’s how we used to share desktop computers and, with desktops and their multi-user operating systems, that was easy because each user’s files and settings were separated from every other user’s files and settings by the login system.
iOS has no such clear distinction. When you hand an iPad from Pupil A to Pupil B, Pupil B is able to raise merry hell with Pupil A’s files.
Speirs outlines a great solution he calls “chunking.” If you’re working with technology in school, this — and Speirs’ entire site — is well worth a read.