There are many steps involved in an effective device deployment at schools and colleges operating a 1:1 program. Many are guided, rightly or wrongly, by companies who they purchase devices through, which is usually an excellent starting point from which schools can personalise and make as low key or 'pumped up' as they desire. Many schools who have operated 1:1 programs for a number of years will have a system derived perhaps from other schools' experiences, and perhaps from repeating last year's successes and eliminating last year's failings or areas for improvement. 'Customer' feedback (i.e. parents and students) also provide an area from which subsequent deployments can be improved. In this post, many of my experiences will be detailed, of which many have been gained from all the above situations. Essentially, planning is the key! It is July as I write this, and we have already begun planning for our two deployment sessions (one in early December, one in early February).
The following four step process can be useful in planning a successful deployment. More detail follows.
PLANNING
The following four step process can be useful in planning a successful deployment. More detail follows.
PLANNING
- Communicate with:
- ICT Staff (internal and/or external)
- External suppliers
- Teaching staff
- Parents
- Students
- Other members of the community as needed
- Refer to 'why' within teaching and learning process, this will guide decisions made during this process to always reside in the realm of what is best for the teaching and learning process
- Paperwork - assignment sheets for parent/student signing, ICT Code of Conduct/Terms of Use, Help sheets, List of Apps etc.
- Record jobs/dates/prices for future deployment. A project plan with dates across the top and jobs down the left, can help guide this process.
TESTING
- Communicate with:
- ICT Staff
- Teaching staff (as a whole group? as a focus group?)
- Parents (as a whole group? as a focus group? at an info session?)
- Students (as a year level cohort? as a class? as a focus group?)
- Have students involved where possible - what do they think? What do they want?
- Volume Purchase Program or Apple Configurator or Casper JAMF Software (or other?) to distribute/image/manage devices initially and on an on-going basis
- Production line / quality control when arranging the deployment packages
- Look for everything/anything to go wrong!
DEPLOY
- Communicate with all stakeholders:
- prior to
- during
- after
- Contingency Plans
- What happens if you are one or two laptops short?!
- What happens if a student does not attend the deployment session
- Do you need wireless? Do you have enough access?
- What happens if one laptop does not work as expected?
REVIEW
- Communication from:
- ICT staff (internal and/or external)
- External suppliers
- Teaching staff
- Parents
- Students
- Forms of communication/feedback
- Emails
- Survey (Obsurvey, GoogleDocs form, Survey Monkey, Survey Gizmo)
- Wiki (on the school's intranet, external intranet)
- Formal meeting (focus group?)
- Anecdotal discussions (parents, staff, students)
Good luck!
