Teacher Tablet/Surface

[u/Thanos-Is-Right]

Our school district refuses to purchase smartboards for classrooms due to cost of the hardware and mounting. We still have most rooms with the super old Smart ID350 screens. I have been replacing those as they die with either a Surface Pro with mirroring to the projector or an ELO 24" touchscreen. Teachers really like the ELO screens. They love the Surface for a couple of years until they realize battery life is bad after that.

Surface Pros are getting very expensive, especially after adding the keyboard and pen, and the ELO screens are still well within budget. I am looking at some alternatives. As it stands, each teacher has a computer at their desk and a computer at the front of the room with the touchscreen. We also issue them a standard 11" Chromebook like the students.

So, most teachers have 3 computers, which I think is absurd. I was thinking maybe we can do an Idea Tab or something like that and have them use the Annotate extension to be able to write on the screen with a pen. The ELO screens are very well build and work very nice, but I am hoping knock them back down to 2 computers so we aren't wasting resources.

If you don't use a smartboard, what do you use? Any opinions on different tablets that allow the teacher to be more mobile in the classroom?

[u/Blue_Wolf1973]

We get 75" Viewboards which are under $2K each. Laptops are not going to be much cheaper. As the old desktops become unusable teachers are going to laptop/Viewboard only.

[u/BWMerlin]

Maybe it is a USA thing, but never understood the classroom desktop computer while also giving staff a laptop.

What I would do is run the numbers of taking the cost of the two classroom computers and what ever projection/display you are using in the classroom and seeing if that combined cost equals a 86" or greater (do not go smaller than 75") interactive panel.

[u/PowerShellGenius → u/BWMerlin]

I agree, and we never did this (well, except the one year overlap between issuing MacBooks and pulling the desktops, but that was to give teachers time to adapt to MacOS at their own pace without disrupting learning)

But we kind of do the same thing, as teachers have their laptop and an iPad. Previously they had a desktop and an iPad. The purpose of the iPad is twofold. One, so they have a touch option, as they are not getting interactive panels at least for grades 6+, so if they want to hand write while presenting, they mirror their iPad which they can write on with a generic Apple Pencil knockoff. And two, because student 1:1 devices are iPads so teachers say they need iPads to be able to test web resources they will use in assignments to see how they will come up on a student device.

Other than cost, the biggest issue with giving teachers too many device is, in my opinion, it makes them too comfortable "multi tasking". While video content has some legitimate educational uses in moderation, letting the teacher "multi task" (in other words, ignore their class while accomplishing work they are supposed to do after class, grading, emails etc) too easily creates a perverse incentive to over-use video content. How much do your principals want teachers "multi tasking"? Usually the "need" for more devices is for something they aren't supposed to be doing.... and parents, with the current backlash against tech in the classroom, are very much listening for stories of the teacher who puts on a video to "keep the kids busy" so the teacher can do non-teaching work during the school day.

[u/Ok-Soft-7874]

We use Epson BrightLink 725Wi projectors and Screenbeams. Teachers have the option of "hard-wiring" to an HDMI wall port or connecting to a Screenbeam. The hardware cost isn't exactly cheap, but teachers only get 1 computer. Yes, even you the art teacher who teaches in 11 different rooms in 4 buildings and has to sprint uphill both ways to get between them.

[u/discgman]

TV's and doc cameras here. Only one windows laptop device.

[u/Emaltonator]

We are doing IFP + Windows laptop. That's it. No more desktops. We have Chromebooks available in the front office for subs to check out.

[u/rokar83]

Chromebook plus and a newline panel. You're looking at $1,500 per room with a 65" panel

[u/Fresh-Basket9174]

Moving all teachers to Chromebook+ devices unless a demonstrated need for Windows. About 70% done all buildings averaged. Each classroom has a dock and as we transition from projectors to flat panel, the panels either replace the projector as a 2nd screen off the dock or as a standalone setup with a Chromebox and a wireless kb/mouse.

Teachers have one portable device and in some cases a classroom Chromebox. 3 devices is overkill imho, especially with current pricing.

[u/das-]

Windows Laptop and a 75inch panel here. We did do windows ops modules for the screens but I may not this next cycle. The desktop has not been missed.

My next major push might be Chromebooks for staff.

[u/Digisticks]

We do a MacBook Air for teacher computer, and then an iPad (usually an Air or Pro for specific users). The screen is either a TV, Projector, or Flat Panel. It's worked well for us for years at this point. We do have more success with Airplay to a TV or Apple TV/Projector than a Flat Panel, though.

[u/PowerShellGenius → u/Digisticks]

AirPlay third party compatibility is a little different than first party. AirPlay to a third party receiver is always network based data flow.

Also, with extremely few exceptions (ScreenBeam, which is BLE discoverable for AirPlay, being the only one I am personally familiar with), AirPlay to a third party receiver is always network based discovery (mDNS/Bonjour dependent). mDNS works great on small, flat networks. Large networks with high densities of Apple products doing Bonjour need controls on multicast to prevent it from bringing down network performance, and also to corral it so your discovery list isn't 20 pages long, and once those controls and optimizations (like AirGroup) are in place, they tend to be buggy and less than reliable.

AirPlay from one modern Apple product to another modern Apple product can use peer to peer (similar to Wi-Fi direct but a little different) without network dependencies for both discovery and video data, and can dynamically choose when this is the best option.

[u/Neroden]

Our current setup is a Windows laptop and an Epson projector that supports Miracast.

Epson's Brighter Futures program helps bring the costs down a fair bit on the projector end. Definitely worth looking into for any K-12 looking for projectors!

[u/avalon01]

14" Chromebook for the teacher and a ViewSonic Viewline interactive panel. Around $2K per classroom.

I use to use Epson short-throw projectors, but the panels are cheaper.

[u/MattAdmin444]

So we have a mix of interactive panels and projectors because our super at the time force tech to give teachers a "choice". For our non-panel teachers we opted for Epson Brightthinker projectors, mostly of the ultra short throw variety, for the sake of still having touch compatibility. That said the touch compatibility seems very finiky when using a chromebox in extended mode, you have to put the video plugs in a specific order I've found. Windows seemed to handle it better but I only ever tried it on laptops rather than desktops.

Speaking of devices for the majority of classrooms we standardized on Chromeboxes as we were also in the process of migrating teachers to Chromebook Plus units for laptops. Originally I wanted to opt for connecting the Chromebooks via a dock but between quality docks already being halfway to the cost of a decent Chromebox (at the time) and questions about what would a substitute use (super was very anti-excess devices sitting around "unused") we decided 2 separate devices was essentially the way to go. Most teachers also wanted to be able to move around the classroom with a device (laptop in this case) and the Chromebook Plus's we got are touchscreen so really no need for a tablet persay.

The nice thing about the panels is there is an option to stream to them but we haven't played with it a ton since for the most part we have the chromeboxes hooked up. We also opted for a over the white board mount so that we wouldn't have to drill through or remove any whiteboards. Also makes it easier to service the attached chromeboxes, not even sure they'd fit if the panels were flatmounted. During a future refresh we're likely going to go all non-smart interactive panels as those seem to be becoming a thing. Means the panels could potentially last a lot longer without having to worry about the onboard "brains" going out of spec security wise. Personality I do like the panels over projectors from a perspective of overall brightness and build in speakers. With projectors you also have to budget for classroom speakers which may end up costing as much as the mounting for panels I would think if you didn't already have speakers.