Deploy 2016 is a series of shows we are currently building up to help you lead a major technology deployment in your school or organisation. The series is published in our regular podcast feed and this page gathers and organises each of the posts in the series, along with a summary of the content.

Subscribe to the show: you can subscribe on iTunes, subscribe directly here or find the show in the search directory of your favourite mobile podcast client.

Part 1: What’s Changed Since 2014

Fraser and Bradley kickoff the Deploy 2016 series with an introductory episode about the plans and goals for the series. Since they last did the series in 2014, quite a bit has changed in the iPad deployment area (all for the good). When they were doing the series in 2014, iOS 7 was a few months old, and there still were a lot of gotchas relating to how to scale iPad deployment up to 1000s of units. iOS was also stagnant in terms of its feature set compared to desktop. With the release of iOS 9, device based app assignment, and spread of the device enrollment program to outside of the US, iPad deployments are a lot more complex, but also also simpler.

Part 2: What Makes a Tech Friendly Head of School?

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about the qualities a technology friendly leader has. While they cover these in depth on the show, the key takeaways are setting vision, modeling behavior, setting expectations (and committing to them), willingness to fail, willingness to expect success, ability to see past the device, and the ability to hire great people (and leave them alone).

Part 3: What Drives the Reason to Deploy

Fraser and Bradley continue the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about
why we deploy technology in schools. From pressure from parents, surround schools, and internal strategic planning, schools are all starting from different places.

Part 4: The Network

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about your schools network. They discuss the bandwidth coming in, the firewall, DHCP, switches, and Wi-Fi. It’s important to spend some time here on your deployment. A great deployment can be derailed by a poor network that isn’t easy to fix.

Part 5: Device Selection

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about the iPads currently being sold, the specs, storage sizes, and how to decide which one is best for your school.

Part 6: Apps and Accessories

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about apps and accessories. The most common question is “which apps should we use?” And that is exactly the wrong question to ask. When you ask what the “best app” is for some specific topic, you’re thinking about apps in the wrong way. You’re thinking about apps like textbooks. Over six years, we have learned that a better approach to teaching with iPad is to ask “how does this app allow the student to express their learning?”

Part 7: Financing

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about how to pay for your deployment. With grants, leasing, and out right purchasing as options, it’s important for schools to wade through the best options for their context.

Part 8: Rollout

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about what to do after ordering your gear up until deployment day.

Part 9: MDM

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about why you need a mobile device management system, what to look for, and the various hosting types

Part 10: Apple ID Strategy

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about Apple ID strategy. Apple ID strategy must be thought out in detail prior to rolling out devices. Failure can create a lot of backpedaling that can take weeks, months, or even years to recover from. I think that some training for your staff can also ease some pain here. Pull back the curtain to explain how everything is going to flow. Parents will often ask teachers questions first, so the more empowered they are the better.

Part 11: Configuration Profiles In-Depth

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a deep dive into configuration profiles that can be delivered from MDM, Safari, Email, and Apple Configurator.

Part 12: Teacher Training

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about teacher training when preparing for a 1:1 deployment.

Part 13: Apps and Accessories

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about apps and accessories for 1:1 deployments.

Part 14: Parent Communication

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion about parent communication in a 1:1 deployment.

Part 15: Backup, DR, and File Storage

Fraser and Bradley continue with the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion disaster recovery, backups, and file storage on iOS.

Part 16: Measuring Success

In this week’s episode, Fraser and Bradley wrap up the 2016 Deployment series with a discussion on how to measure success.