iPads and classroom based wireless networks

[Kevin Giffhorn]

I am looking at using iPads in my classroom (max 35 students) and am struggling how to get files from my computer to the iPads. These files will mostly be PDF, DOC, and PowerPoint files. The main concern comes for the "higher ups"; they absolutely do not want the students accessing the Internet during class time. Also, I do not want to rely on my students to access these files from home (some do not have Internet access).

My idea was some type of wireless router with an external hard drive (maybe even a simple USB Memory stick). This router would have a wireless network for the sole purpose of sharing files with my students and allowing them to save their work as well. However, many of these routers are maxed out with 4-8 users.

I am considering the Airport Extreme router from Apple but the cost is pretty high (~$170). does anyone have any suggestions on the best way to create a non-Internet accessible wireless network for 30-50 people for primarily file access?

[Charles Randolph]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sharepoint/id427543706?mt=8

Share Point is a Bluetooth app that can send files and other information via bluetooth.  I have tried and successful sent files from one iPad to 4 other iPads and a iPhone (so far). Cost is $1.99 for the app.  You have to sync it to all other devices you with to send files to.   You may want to check some other Bluetooth app for file sharing also.  Warning: Bluetooth has to be turned on all of your devices and Bluetooth does tap into your Ipad's battery.  

 

The other low tech option is to drag your PDF, DOC and Powerpoints files to each device once the device is plugged up.  Clicking on the "app" tab when the iPad is connected and scroll to the bottom and drag your files to your "share apps".  You may also wish to get Keynote (Powerpoint), Pages (Word) and Numbers (Excel)-iWorks for iPad.  

[Jeremy Dorn]

How does your teacher computer hook to the network. I am assuming you have a teacher computer. Laptop or Desktop? What kind?

The reason I ask is most computers with internal WiFi cards can be put in ad-hock or computer to computer mode. Normally this allows them to share their internet kind of like how an Airport Express or standard WiFi router does. However you don't have to share the Internet. Instead you can create a private WiFi network. This would also allow you to create shared Network folders that the students could acess and download/upload to. This would be faster then Bluetooth, especially if your computer has an N WiFi card (which most modern machines do).

I will repeat. You can create an ah-hock WiFi network from your computer for the student iPads to connect to. They will not have World Wide Web Internet access.

You could then use something like GoodReader or another similar App with internal document management. This would also allow students to share content between devices on that ad-hock network.

[Kevin Giffhorn]

Thanks for the input- I thought about Bluetooth but the number of users (30+) is what made me move towards WiFi of some kind.

Charles Randolph said:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sharepoint/id427543706?mt=8

Share Point is a Bluetooth app that can send files and other information via bluetooth.  I have tried and successful sent files from one iPad to 4 other iPads and a iPhone (so far). Cost is $1.99 for the app.  You have to sync it to all other devices you with to send files to.   You may want to check some other Bluetooth app for file sharing also.  Warning: Bluetooth has to be turned on all of your devices and Bluetooth does tap into your Ipad's battery.  

 

The other low tech option is to drag your PDF, DOC and Powerpoints files to each device once the device is plugged up.  Clicking on the "app" tab when the iPad is connected and scroll to the bottom and drag your files to your "share apps".  You may also wish to get Keynote (Powerpoint), Pages (Word) and Numbers (Excel)-iWorks for iPad.  

[Kevin Giffhorn]

Jeremy, thanks for the advice on the ad hoc netowrk.  I'll talk with my IT people and see about the feasability of setting this up in my room.  Overall, my school's IT department is VERY particular about using WiFi; we just recently set up our first mobile lab and, while it's still in its infancy, can only be used in the Media Center.  Thanks for the advice (which might save me some $$$ along the way.) 

 

Jeremy Dorn said:

How does your teacher computer hook to the network. I am assuming you have a teacher computer. Laptop or Desktop? What kind?

The reason I ask is most computers with internal WiFi cards can be put in ad-hock or computer to computer mode. Normally this allows them to share their internet kind of like how an Airport Express or standard WiFi router does. However you don't have to share the Internet. Instead you can create a private WiFi network. This would also allow you to create shared Network folders that the students could acess and download/upload to. This would be faster then Bluetooth, especially if your computer has an N WiFi card (which most modern machines do).

I will repeat. You can create an ah-hock WiFi network from your computer for the student iPads to connect to. They will not have World Wide Web Internet access.

You could then use something like GoodReader or another similar App with internal document management. This would also allow students to share content between devices on that ad-hock network.

[Gary Toews]

We are using dropbox to move files to and from student iPod touches. It is surprisingly fast. You can do it one of two ways: 1. everyone using the same dropbox account or 2. everyone setting up their own account. The teacher shares one folder on her/his dropbox with the class which is then used to distribute documents, photos and or multi-media files. Students can share a folder with their teacher (have them name the folder with their name) thus creating a hand-in folder.

We call this "Server-less Filesharing."  DropBox accounts give you 2 GB of storage for free which is easily enough for students to use for storing and transferring files. It's a whole lot cheaper that setting up a hosted filesharing server at the school level which often does not allow students access their files from home.

http://sd34mdug.com/2011/03/15/server-less-file-sharing-with-dropbox/

Gary Toews

[Gary Toews]

If you are using a Mac to do the synching, you can turn on Internet sharing. I am not sure of the maximum number of clients though...

[Jeremy Dorn]

It think that's part of the difficulty. It sounds like Kevin's site IT doesn't want the students to have access to the Internet, especially over WiFi, outside the dedicated computer lab/media center. This makes solutions like DropBox impractical even if he gets permission to use a router or set his computer to Ad-Hock I suspect it'll have to dead-end at his computer.

 

Personally I'm not a pure "cloud" guy. I think that for schools (given student privacy laws, monitoring needs, and such) that internal network servers are the better solution at the end of the day. This is why I'm digitally salivating over server functions coming to Lion. I'm slowly getting my own MacMini home server running and there are things which could be useful for school usage if implement. OSX Server supports WebDAV, and at minimum one should be able to create a low cost (or even free) FTP file share which offer similar functionality to DropBox. Assuming you're doing it on a Mac I could even see using Apple Scripts or Automator to distribute and retrieve student files from individual folders.

Gary Toews said:

If you are using a Mac to do the synching, you can turn on Internet sharing. I am not sure of the maximum number of clients though...

[Kevin Giffhorn]

Jeremy has hit the nail on the head for many of the K-12 districts I know.  While there are some out there that are quite open regarding WiFi and internet access, it has been my experience that a majority are very concerned about the "cloud" and student access. 

 

Has anyone had experience with either the Airport Extreme and the non-internet WiFi capabilities regarding file sharing (or any other opinions with a similar piece of equipment that can handle 35+ users?).  I saw one that was promising- (http://www.airstash.com) but the max users was 8.

Jeremy Dorn said:

I think that for schools (given student privacy laws, monitoring needs, and such) that internal network servers are the better solution at the end of the day.

[Steve Hayes]

With 35 iPads, cases, and software, it is probably safe to assume that your school has at least $2,000.00 invested in the iPads for your classroom. Add to that amount the most expensive part of education, a teacher salary, and the only conclusion I can derive is that your administration is wasting money not allowing the students to have wireless access. At the very least, they should provide Internet access for your classroom during the time that you are using the iPads. Not using Internet at all with the iPads is like buying a CD to only look at the case and never listen to the music. Has your administration heard of the Kahn Academy? That alone should be proof enough that allowing student access could improve test scores.

Sorry I didn't answer your question, but as I'm sure you are aware, your bigger problem is lack connection to the Internet.

[Jeremy Dorn]

I think people discount interal networks or standalone networks. Your IT is going to need to come to grips with the need for more WiFi use, however just because it's WiFi doesn't mean it needs to go to the Internet.

What you likely need is a NAS (Network Attached Storage) which will be attached by eithernet to whatever wireless router your using. There are several brands of consumer home/professional NAS out there that range from 200 to 500 dollars. You'll want one that has at least one Gigibit eithenet port, supports (FTP, AFP, Apple Bonjure, hopefully WebDAV, HTTP)

Keep in mind this is not a server, this is network storage. The NAS is something for you to sync student documents with Apps like GoodReader. While you can do some streaming of Audio/Visual content, most of that kind of reference material should be loaded directly to the iPad. A NAS is not a good substute for a real server for things like classroom blogging, internal Wiki, and other Web 2.0 style tools.

I think I'll have to draw a diagram to make the better case.... In short each student would have about 20 GB file storage (assuming 1 TB drive). Students retrieve assigment worksheets/handouts/PDFs/etc from the class directory on the NAS and down load them for local use on their iPads. Completed assignments are then synced back to the individual student folders when work is completed. General course materials for the section should be preloaded on the iPads, with backups retrievable from the NAS.

I don't know what you envision your students doing with the iPads so I'm just making some rough guesses. With only minimal file (PDFs, small images) up/download most NAS options should be able to handle the job. Just as long as students understand that if all 35 of them are trying to acess the drive at once there will be a noticeable delay as their requests are processed in turn. That can't be helped, it's a reality of both wireless networking and the physical drives. A good teachable momment for them to appreciate how remarkably smooth and amazing the modern Internet is.

To make the point, none of this requires that your private classroom network be connected to the school intranet or to the Internet. All files and traffic is controlled by you and totally local. No student privacy issues. I don't want to presume to tell your IT what to do, but if they are worried about someone "sniffing"/hacking your WiFi they could (and should) use WPA2 encryption, MAC address filtering (cause only the iPads and your teacher computer will be on that network), and turn off the SSID broadcast for the router (so you have to manually type in that ID to connect). Unless someone wants to sit outside the school (assuming the building construction doesn't kill the signal after 2 or 3 walls) for hours capturing random radio signals to hack into a standalone school network that may or may not even be on (turn it off at night), IMPO (In my personal opinion) they are welcome to waste their time. They'd almost be more efficient time wise if they broke into the building.