Obsolescence and Fragmentation

Every time there is an update of an OS, app or piece of software, I shudder. What new headaches will keep me from doing what I need to get done. What compatibility issues can I look forward to as developers may or may not create updates?

This issue of fragmentation has become more profound in the age of the iPad. With new devices and iOS being released each year, it's difficult to decide, when to upgrade and when to wait. For the past two years, I have handled my updates during the summer only. This seemed like a proactive strategy from a classroom management standpoint. The shifting of buttons and features from one iOS version to another seemed like the equivalent of rearranging my classroom in the middle of the school year, with no plan or concern for how it would impact instruction. Therefore, I am still running iOS 6 on my 24 iPads.

For the 100+ other iPads that I manage for our classroom teachers, it is a whole other animal. Our classroom teachers have a mix of iPad 2 and 4. I encouraged many teachers not to update to iOS 7 until the bugs were worked out. I explained that they may see performance differences from each device. Most of them heeded my advice. The biggest challenge of upgrading is that there is no downgrade option if you are not happy with the devices performance.

Of course, there is also the issue of how well previously purchased apps would run on the new iOS. How long until a developer provides an update? These issues all have a tremendous impact on instruction, if not completely thought out.

Then Apple really threw a curve ball by making iWork and iLife suites free with certain conditions. We purchased Pages, Keynote, and iMovie last year. I had some remaining Keynote codes that had not been redeemed and shared them with our 4th grade team. Unfortunately, the codes were not redeemable because they were for older versions of the app. We had to upgrade the devices to iOS 7 in order to redeem the codes for a new version of Keynote. If you don't understand that solution, I don't either. But Apple does not appear to be supporting legacy versions of their apps for older devices or iOS versions. I would expect this from a third-party developer, but I'm a little disappointed in Apple doing this with their own product line. This is problematic for cash strapped schools looking to make their devices last as long as they can.

I could definitely use a PD on iPad Management for Legacy Devices. Are you listening Apple?