Building Solutions In-House - #iPad Cart

Source: http://goo.gl/OHj5F

As a newcomer to the East Central ISD, I'm thrilled at the opportunity to learn what some have referred to reverently as "The EC Way." For example, building solutions in-house when it makes sense to rather than spending money paying for a solution.

You may not know about the EC3 iPad initiative, but iPad tablets are finding their way into classrooms during the 2012-2013 school year. EC3 Cohort 1--the first group of teachers to participate in the pilot--have been meeting for quite some time, working through the details of classroom management and more.

During Technology Department team meetings, staff noticed that there was a need for a way to manage both iPads and iPod Touch devices.

The problem? If you don't have some type of multi-sync and recharging solution--which allows you to load apps (or programs and documents) onto the device while charging the battery--you have to do each device ONE BY ONE. Now, one by one may seem like OK when you're dealing with a personal device, but if you have a class set of devices, you are going to spend quite a bit of time plugging in and unplugging devices to load apps AND recharge their batteries.

Once you get up to 10-12 devices, whether they are iPads or iPod Touch devices, you're wasting a considerable amount of time providing support. When you get up to more than 12 devices, you'll need to invest in a $2500 cart--similar to the one below--that enables the work.

Marguerite Lowak, Tom Grove, Mary Ray and others in the Technology Department meeting made the suggestion that we ask folks like ECISD's own Steve Standtke (steven.standtke@ecisd.net) to build an in-house solution for 12 or less iPads. The group also asked itself, "Wouldn't it be neat to have something similar for iPod Touch devices?"

Below, you can see a few snapshots of the iPad prototype, which took about 4 hours to construct and cost approximately $150 in materials (Steve said he made it out of scrap wood). I was stunned to see the work of a master carpenter, since it would take me at least 4 hours to even try to imagine what something like this might look like...

As you can see from the image below, an iPad fits comfortably within one of the 12 available slots with a Macbook Pro on top, which serves as the required sync station running Apple Configurator:

The rear view of the solution--all of which is made of wood--appears below and features a place to store the external USB hard drive:

Some of the suggestions that came to mind--offered by Tom Grove, Mary Ray, Marguerite Lowak, and I, as well as key staff from ECISD Maintenance Department--included the following:

• Adding a "lip" behind the Macbook Pro to prevent it from slipping off the top.
• Adding additional bar of wood across the back to make it difficult for iPads to be accessed from the rear end of the cart.
• Adding a door that will go up and slide into the top of the "cart" and also offer the ability to lock the iPads in.

As you might imagine, there are some other key components missing, mainly the electronics components that will allow for synching and charging. Those are USB hubs that will all be connected to the Macbook Pro.

Power is also a consideration for selecting the USB hubs that all the iPads will plug into, as this chart below demonstrates:

Source	Voltage	Current	Power
PC USB	5 volts	0.5 amps	2.5 Watts
iPhone Charger	5 volts	1.0 amps	5 Watts
iPad Charger	5.1 volts	2.1 amps	10 watts

 The search is on for a USB hub that will charge 12 iPads at once! More updates to follow.