NEW iPad cart w/ procedures

The Tech Team has put together a new iPad cart.

1. Continue to send schedule requests to CyberHead by email.
2. In your request, please indicate how many iPads you will use for the periods you need.
3. Replace the iPads in the cardboard box horizontally.
4. If an individual iPad's power drops below 10%, please notify the Tech Team when you return the cart.
5. There are no longer any power cords on the cart. All recharging will take place in the Main Lab.

There are 21 iPads stored on the iPad cart. They have colored silicone covers, with 3 each of 7 colors: light pink, dark pink, white, orange, yellow, blue, and purple.

You can stop reading now if you don't care about the explanation, but I find it interesting, so if you want to learn something, keep reading.  I learned that the lithium-ion batteries in the iPads (and most mobile devices these days) function best when they are charged about half way. The battery actually functions better at 40% than it does at 90%. Who knew?  Also, these devices have a limit to the total number of times they can be recharged before the battery goes bad. That limit is somewhere in the thousands, so we don't have anything to worry for a while. But, when the iPads are plugged in all the time, the power drops to 97% and then gets recharged back to 100%. It might do that a few times over a weekend, or several times during the day between classes. So, we have been using up 10-20 recharge cycles every week instead of 2-5, which is all we need, depending on use.

With the way we've been using the iPads, they are capable of holding a charge all day. We will always make sure that the iPads have sufficient power for your students when you need them, but do not expect them to be at 100% power, or even above 90%. Doing so results in inefficient battery use and a shortened battery life over time. These iPads are only 18 months old and nobody know what the lifespan is yet. If we can get them to last an extra 6 months ( a year or two from now) with battery battery management, we will end up saving a lot of money on replacements.

We also put the iPads on a smaller cart to make it more manageable. Because it it narrower, it moves through all the doorways in the school. Because it it less heavy, this cart is easier to push through the halls and moves more smoothly across the sidewalk between buildings.

If you have any thoughts about the new cart, please send your comments to cyberhead@harfordday.org.

Thanks for reading this far. I like knowing all this tech stuff, but I know you've got better things to do, so I keep it for the end. If you have any questions about power management for your own mobile devices, feel free to ask.

Daniel