Yesterday I bought 8 16GB iPad minis from John Lewis in Sheffield. I did this because they offer a 2 year warranty on the iPad for the standard price that Apple offer at £269.00.

Normally, I would buy my kit from Apple directly or from an Apple Solution Expert.  These are companies that are authorised to sell Apple products to schools. There are some very good ASE’s and some that are hopeless.

I’ve not opened and set up the iPads yet.  It will take a while so be patient.

The kit list

8 iPad minis £269 x8= £2152 (ouch) As a school you can claim yer VAT back to for Apps!

But remember this is (at least) 8 resources that hitherto would have cost £10,00’s and required tech bods to support! iPads don’t need technicians to support and that’s why many techies hate iPads.  So 8 what was that?….

• 8 TV studios with 8 HD video cameras 
• 8 Music Tech studios with Microphones
• 8 Animation studios
• 8 Digital dark rooms
• 8 Social Learning devices
• 8 Art digital paint studios
• 8 eBook publishing studios
• 8 things that we’ve never even dreamt were possible devices (as a result of new amazing apps).

If the governors at your school are baulking at the idea, give them this simple list and then ask is £2k a lot.

Other bits bought from either the £ shop or eBay,

• 8 headphone splitters £1.99 x8= £15.92 (eBay)

Now 8 iPads can be used (quietly by 16 learners half the class). Headphone splitters mean you can have two pairs of headphones attached to the same iPad.

8 cases that cover front and back 8x £6.99= £55.92 (eBay)

I’ve chosen cases for my workshops. Colour coded so I can say “Hey green group!” They are immediately a group! But a key focus here is trying to manage learners using the iPads in pairs and as individuals!

These are cheap Chinese versions of the Apple covers. They do have back plates, so they provide some protection. More importantly they stand upright on the desk for presenting and recording sessions.

4 packs of 10 stylus £1.99 x 4  (eBay)

These are pretty grim. They are cheap but they work and at £1.99 for 10 I’ve bought 4 packets. I’ll test drive them in another blog.

Some people spend shed loads on things like this.  I can’t afford it and I guess if you are reading this, you can’t either!

Other bits…

1 laptop (in my case the cheapest Macbook air) You can use a PC if you must! I’m not including this in the costings.

Even the poorest school can find a laptop.

Total cost  for hardware £2231.84