Archive

This page contains an archive of selected posts from my blog that I think are worth preserving.

I ran the world’s first 1:1 iPad programme in my school in 2010 and the posts from that year made me quite famous for a while.

The summaries on this page were written more recently to explain why I thought the post was worth keeping around.

Almost all of the technical details in these posts are surely now obsolete so they are preserved mostly out of historical interest.

• 2008-07-16 - Demographics Is Destiny
  

  A post in which I consider where the world is going, post-iPhone. It’s hilarious to look back on these numbers in 2020 and see how amazed I was at numbers which, today, would be considered utterly trivial.

• 2009-01-21 - Down Memory Lane: Macs I Have Known And Occasionally Loved
  

  Although I’m much more ambivalent about Apple than I used to be, I have nothing but delightful memories of being an Apple user through the golden years of Steve Jobs’ return to Apple.

• 2010-01-02 - Apple's Technical Feats of the Decade
  

  More great memories of a time when fundamental advancements in core technology were being made.

• 2010-01-03 - Carbon: The Technology Thought Impossible
  

  To this day, I still can’t quite believe that Carbon happened.

• 2010-01-22 - iPod touch in School
  

  This is where I started to really think and write about computing in schools.

• 2010-01-29 - Future Shock
  

  This piece, written a couple of days after the iPad announcement, got a lot of traction online at the time. I still think it holds up pretty well.

• 2010-01-30 - Apple Reversing Policy on Smut Apps?
  

  In the early days of the App Store, there were some … issues … around content.

• 2010-02-01 - Insecure at Any Speed
  

  And so began the debate over the ‘war on general purpose computing’.

• 2010-02-04 - iPad Fallacy #1: "It's not for content creation"
  

  It’s 2020 and we’re still doing this debate.

• 2010-02-19 - Apple Boots out the Booty
  

  It’s 2020 and we’re still sort of doing this debate too.

• 2010-04-03 - Everything Changes
  

  Early optimism about the iPad.

• 2010-04-19 - A School Day with the iPad
  

  My first day teaching with an iPad.

• 2010-04-26 - iPad, Two Weeks In
  

  It’s 2020 and we’re still wondering about Xcode on iPad.

• 2010-05-29 - Of 3G iPads and MiFis
  

  Dated post now, but built-in LTE is still not as widespread as I thought it might become.

• 2010-08-06 - The iPad Project: Day One
  

  The first post about the iPad 1:1 programme in our school.

• 2010-08-07 - The iPad Project: Day Two
  

  It’s a bit frightening to look back and see how unprepared I was to do this!

• 2010-08-09 - The iPad Project: Day Three - End of an Era, and DRM Hell
  

  App distribution was a colossal pain in the rear in the early days of iPad.

• 2010-08-10 - The iPad Project: Day Four - Activate the iPad!
  

  Backups remain a relatively unsolved problem on managed iOS.

• 2010-08-11 - The iPad Project: Day Five
  

  Remember iPhone Configuration Utility?

• 2010-08-12 - The iPad Project: Day Six - The Hamiltonian Cycle
  

  This post got me into some trouble with Apple. Something about Terms and Conditions, they said. I told them that as soon as they gave me an alternative solution, I would switch to it. Took a while.

• 2010-08-13 - The iPad Project: Day Seven - Take Out The Trash Day
  

  In which I realise what a factor packaging is in mass computer deployments.

• 2010-08-14 - The iPad Project: Day Eight - The Wake Up Call
  

  I remember this day well - when I lost my iPad in a pile of 100 identical iPads.

• 2010-08-15 - The iPad Project: Day Nine - This Will Kill That .... somehow.
  

  Some of this was hopelessly optimistic - printing remains important and backpacks haven’t really lightened up - but some of it definitely has come to pass. We’ve definitely stopped venerating technology.

• 2010-08-16 - On the App Store Volume Purchase Program
  

  Volume Purchase had a difficult birth.

• 2010-08-17 - The iPad Project: Day Eleven - Identity Crisis
  

  Eventually, the iPad would get some options to put soft asset tags on the lock screen.

• 2010-08-19 - The iPad Project: Day Twelve - Guns, Butter and Apps
  

  Buying £300 of iTunes cards at Tesco….

• 2010-08-19 - The iPad Project - Paper is Heavy, but eBooks weigh me down.
  

  A decade on, eBook distribution remains torturous. We have never bothered with them.

• 2010-08-22 - The iPad Project: The Night Before Christmas
  

  School-managed take-home programmes remain the gold standard of school IT, in my view.

• 2010-08-23 - The iPad Project: What Kind of Day Has It Been?
  

  Won’t lie: we smashed it on day one.

• 2010-09-01 - The iPad Project: Apple Remote iPad
  

  An early wish-list for something like what became Apple Classroom - which wouldn’t arrive for another six years.

• 2010-09-06 - The iPad Project: Bits, Pieces and Q&A
  

  Media interest in the programme begins.

• 2010-09-12 - The iPad Project: On Battery Life
  

  I’m pretty sure some of the named services here still use Flash.

• 2010-09-23 - The iPad Project: How It's Going
  

  A reflection on the first five weeks.

• 2010-09-26 - The Accoutrements of Computing
  

  In which I wonder if we will look back at the computing environment of 2010 with surprise.

• 2010-10-09 - Run What Ya Brung
  

  I still agree with the point made here that a mixed tech environment imposes a vast range of hidden costs.

• 2010-10-19 - iPads, Curriculum for Excellence and the Next Generation
  

  A reflection on Scotland’s curriculum and the iPad.

• 2010-11-03 - On Strategy
  

  Some thoughts on long-term school IT strategy.

• 2010-11-12 - What's Next for the iPad Project?
  

  The big question of ‘You did it - what now?’

• 2010-12-20 - Accessibility on the iPad in Schools
  

  Some thoughts on accessibility.

• 2011-01-05 - The New York Times and Justifying the iPad
  

  In 2011, iPads in schools started to attract some controversy.

• 2011-03-03 - Some Thoughts from the Classroom on iPad 2
  

  iPad 2, the first refresh to the original iPad, was really amazing. A decade on, cameras in the classroom never turned out to be the problem we thought they might.

• 2011-03-24 - The Next-Generation Classroom AV System
  

  In 2011 I started thinking about flat-screen TVs to replace projectors. By 2020, we have completely switched.

• 2011-03-29 - iPad as Digital Whiteboard
  

  Thinking about iPad as digital whiteboard.

• 2011-05-11 - A Workable Model for sub-1:1 iPad Use
  

  Trying to help schools that can’t manage 1:1 iPads. This, to me, is the only model that works.

• 2011-05-19 - It's just getting started
  

  A reflection on the first year, and becoming an ADE.

• 2011-07-26 - Lion Server, MDM and a New Philosophy of Client Management
  

  This article is quite detailed and technical but I like it because I called a trend that 5-6 years later eventually arrived with DEP for Macs. Macs being managed like iOS devices.

• 2011-12-29 - Three Mantras from the First Two Years
  

  I used these ideas in so many presentations over the years. They still guide my thinking.

• 2012-01-27 - Something Very Special and Very Historically Different
  

  Can’t ever forget this quote.

• 2012-02-06 - Digital Exams on the iPad
  

  8 years later, this remains a tricky and mostly unresolved area.

• 2012-02-19 - Driving the Classroom with iTunes U
  

  This was my first look at iTunes U. A great service in its day but Apple just left it to wither on the vine.

• 2012-06-01 - The Web Kids' Kids
  

  At some point, I just got bored waiting for people to catch up. Still waiting in 2020.

• 2012-08-17 - Teaching Programming on iOS
  

  One of a series of articles over the years about teaching programming on iOS devices.

• 2012-10-24 - Thoughts on iPad mini
  

  Early thoughts on the iPad mini. That device seemed like a great idea, then a terrible one and today probably an idea whose time has been and gone.

• 2012-11-19 - Two Weeks with iPad mini
  

  Some more thoughts on iPad mini.

• 2013-01-02 - Refresh: The Platform
  

  In 2013 we came to our first refresh date. As I always do, I consider what the alternatives might be.

• 2013-01-22 - The Refresh: The Device
  

  I wasn’t totally convinced about ChromeOS in 2013. Give it another six years….

• 2013-03-04 - Beyond Consumption vs Creation
  

  One of my favourite pieces I’ve ever written. Holds up immensely well, I think.

• 2013-04-04 - Teaching Programming with iOS and Amazon EC2
  

  Another refinement on teaching programming on iOS. Swift Playgrounds would eventually make this a lot easier.

• 2013-10-01 - Battle: Los Angeles
  

  The LAUSD debacle continues to haunt iOS deployments nearly a decade later. It was an unmitigated PR disaster in the education world.

• 2013-11-08 - "Desktop-class"
  

  With the iPad Air, we saw the beginning of a trend where iPad hardware continually outpaced iPad software. iOS was going to be great next year. Still true in 2020.

• 2013-11-19 - Portable Podcasting
  

  A write up of what I believe was the world’s first ever podcast recorded, editied and published entirely on iOS.

• 2013-12-31 - Tech Changes in 2013
  

  Reflections on changes in technology in 2013. Of note: this was the year we went serverless in school. Google Drive became important to us and I got even more interested in ChromeOS.

• 2014-07-31 - A First Look at Google Classroom
  

  Google Classroom arrives and I take a look from the perspective of an iTunes U user. Today, I’m all in on Google Classroom and it is so, so good.

• 2014-12-17 - The Post-Mobile Era
  

  ChromeOS continues to get interesting but, ultimately, the time isn’t right yet. Remember: in technology, being early is indistinguishable from being wrong.

• 2015-09-11 - Initial Thoughts on iPad Pro
  
• 2015-10-21 - GITEX 2015 Dubai
  
• 2015-11-30 - Can the MacBook Pro Replace Your iPad?
  
• 2015-12-22 - All-in on iPad Pro
  
• 2016-01-08 - Say Hello to Canvas
  

  I am very proud to have been a Relay.FM podcaster with Federico Viticci for several years. Canvas evetually surpassed a million downloads.

• 2016-02-01 - Deployment Diary: Device Enrolment Program
  

  Apple’s Device Enrolment Program was pretty great in the early days.

• 2016-03-24 - Deployment Diary: iPad Pro or iPad Air 2?
  

  There were periods of it being quite difficult to decide which iPad to buy. We eventually went with iPad Pro - a decision that ended up being quite expensive and the repair costs were incredibly expensive.

• 2016-04-02 - Apple Classroom First Impressions
  

  Apple Classroom - that Apple Remote Desktop for iOS - eventually arrives.

• 2016-06-16 - Thoughts on Swift Playgrounds
  

  Swift Playgrounds was an outstanding initative and the content was so very well written. As with too many Apple Edu products, it hasn’t had the follow-through it needed. We went through a few years where Playgrounds was extremely glitchy.

• 2016-07-04 - Decommissioning Day
  

  I always love the day when you get to re-work everything.

• 2016-07-14 - Towards Zero-Touch iOS Deployment
  

  Zero-touch deployment has always been the holy grail of edtech. I got really close with our last 2016-2019 deployment.

• 2016-07-19 - 90 iPads in 90 Minutes
  

  One minute per device is kind of amazing. I’m still really proud of this work.

• 2016-08-24 - Reflections on Deployment Day 2016
  

  How did our zero-touch deployment go? Great.

• 2017-03-28 - What's new in Apple Classroom 2.0
  

  Apple Classroom 2.0 started to get really quite good.

• 2017-04-12 - Theft and Loss Recovery for iOS Users
  

  Something horrible happened in France, but I was able to turn it into a learning point.

• 2017-06-01 - A Year of Teaching Swift
  

  Reflections on teaching Swift - a very good learning language, in my view.

• 2017-09-19 - What’s Wrong With iOS 11/12 Multitasking
  

  iOS 11 was when I fell out of love with iOS. I could tell something was wrong with the mental model of the OS within the first five minutes of using it. I still think this and I’m not the only one.

• 2017-10-16 - Building our School's Third-Generation WiFi Network
  

  Reflections on building out a Unifi wifi network in school. Outstanding tech.

• 2018-11-18 - On Switching from iOS to Android
  

  Unhappy with iPhones breaching £1000, I do the unthinkable and switch to Android.

• 2018-11-30 - On Switching from an iPad Pro and a Macbook to a Pixelbook
  

  In which I do the even more unthinkable and switch from iPad to Chromebook. The reasoning here is just the realisation that GSute is the most important platform in my life now and my hardware choices have to support that.

• 2019-07-27 - On Switching from iPad to Chromebook in School
  

  And, finally, the ultimate switch: moving the world’s first 1:1 iPad school away from iOS to Chromebook. Writing here in 2020 under Coronavirus lockdown, I can honestly say this was the most prescient thing I have ever done.