School device roll-out checklist: what to prepare first

What should a school prepare before rolling out laptops or tablets?

A device roll-out is more than a delivery. Before the first laptop or tablet reaches a teacher or a pupil, the school needs to know what the devices are for and who gets them, whether the network and power points can take them, which platform accounts people will sign in to, how the devices will be managed, what training people need, who supports them, and how the school pays and keeps records. This is one of the group's school technology guides.

Get those ready and the first week is about teaching. Leave them until the boxes arrive and the first week is about passwords, chargers and phone calls.

How many devices, and for whom?

Start from what the devices are for in lessons, not from a number. Work out who will use them, in which lessons, where they will be kept and charged between lessons, and whether they go home. That decides how many devices the school needs, which kind, and how much support they will take. How the devices fit the school's wider plan and budget is in the group's guide to planning a school technology budget, and Citzen's lightweight tablets and laptops are on citzen.com.my.

The UK schools standard puts needs before buying. The UK Department for Education's laptops, desktops and tablets standard sets out a three-step process: create a digital technology strategy, identify the device needs of students and staff, and assess the security and technical requirements of the devices. For the second step it asks schools to look at “how devices are being used, including who uses them, where they are being kept and what they are being used for”, to identify “the number and type of devices needed”, “any specific physical requirements for devices”, “the level of technical support needed” and “training requirements for students and staff”.

The DfE devices standard says the third step helps decide “whether they need to buy new devices or if they can repurpose existing ones”. A roll-out can mix both.

Check the room as well as the device. Our practical advice: before ordering, try a whole class's worth of devices signing in at once in a real classroom, and count the power points where they will charge. A class that cannot get online or charge at the same time loses the lesson, whatever the devices are.

Which accounts must exist before day one?

Every teacher and pupil who receives a device needs an account on the learning platform and any other system the lesson uses, set up with the right access before the device is handed over. A device that works but cannot sign in to anything is a lesson lost.

Accounts follow the people, and close when they leave. The UK Department for Education's cyber security standards for schools and colleges list “creating accounts only when required”, “limiting access privileges to only what the user needs for their role” and “disabling accounts as soon as someone leaves their role”, and suggest “tools that link to the management information system (MIS) to automatically create or delete user accounts”. The same standard says multi-factor authentication must be enabled for “staff accounts with access to cloud services or remote access to on-site systems”.

For younger children, the DfE cyber security standards suggest considering “other means of logging on, other than passwords”, such as a PIN code. The sign-in questions to put to a platform supplier are in Easy Edu's guide to school platform sign-in security.

How will the devices be managed and kept secure?

Each device should be labelled and recorded before it is handed out, and set up so that the school can apply its security and safeguarding settings to all of them at once, update them, and lock or wipe one that is lost.

The UK standard asks for central management. The DfE devices standard says “Devices should be centrally managed by IT support”, so that security and safeguarding settings apply to every device and each one is kept up to date in the asset register. It says “Mobile and portable devices should have mobile device management to minimise safeguarding and security risks”, so that IT support can manage them remotely, including locking or wiping them.

The DfE devices standard also asks that devices are tagged and added to an asset register when they are bought, that “All new devices must be compatible with existing filtering, monitoring and security systems.”, and that accessibility features are not blocked by security policies. It asks for a data protection impact assessment whenever new devices are bought, covering among other risks the risk of taking school-owned devices offsite.

Write the take-home rules before the devices go home. Our practical advice: agree who is responsible for a lost or damaged device, how a fault is reported, and what pupils and parents are told, and send that home with the device.

Who trains people, and who supports the devices?

Book training for teachers before the devices reach pupils, covering the device, the platform and the routines for charging, storing and reporting a fault. Agree who supports the devices and the platform, how a fault is reported, and how quickly someone responds.

Support is planned, not assumed. The UK Department for Education's IT support standard notes that “In schools and colleges, IT support is often provided through a mix of internal staff and external contracts”, and asks schools to decide “what level of support and response time you need to ensure business continuity”. The DfE IT support standard also advises schools that use external suppliers to check the contract for the service levels the supplier must provide.

A trial with one class before the full roll-out tests both the training and the support; see the trial section below.

How will the school pay, and keep track?

Decide how the roll-out is paid for before ordering, and put every device, licence and support contract on a register with its warranty end and renewal date, so the next budget sees them coming.

A register turns a roll-out into dates the school controls. The UK Department for Education's digital leadership and governance standard says registers “keep track of buying and licensing so that schools or colleges can get better value for money when renewing software and hardware”, and warns of “budget pressures due to accidental renewal of subscriptions, software and hardware that might not be needed, or are not the best value for money”. How to budget across hardware, software, support and payment is in the group's guide to planning a school technology budget.

Within the group, ES Producation Services covers education financing and payment solutions. Ask the group for the terms; this guide gives no rate or tenure.

How should a school test the roll-out before every device goes out?

Run the whole roll-out with one class or a few teachers first: hand out their devices, sign them in to the platform, use them in normal lessons for a week or two, charge and store them the way the school plans to, and report a fault through the agreed route. Fix what breaks, then hand out the rest in stages.

This is our practical advice rather than a rule from the sources on this page. It tests every item on the checklist at once, on a scale where a problem costs a lesson, not a term.

Which group company covers which part of a roll-out?

Within ES Producation Groups, the parts of a classroom roll-out sit with different companies, so a school can ask the group about several parts or only the part it needs. Each company's own site holds the detail where it has one; ES Producation Services is reached through the group contact.

Whether to buy every part from one supplier or several is covered in one supplier or several for school classroom technology.

What should a school send when planning a roll-out?

Send how many devices the school has in mind and for whom, the learning platform if there is one, the training it expects and whether a payment option is wanted. With that, the group can put the school in touch with the right company for each part a group company covers.

• How many devices, for which teachers or classes, and whether they go home.
• Devices already in use that could be kept.
• The learning platform, if any, and how accounts are set up today.
• The training and support the school expects, and whether a payment option is wanted.

WhatsApp the group on +60 12-565 2091 or email info@neonplus.com.my, and we will put you in touch with the right company. Every school technology guide from the group is listed on the insights page.