Important device attributes

Weight

It will be carried around in a school bag all day, therefore the lighter the better.

The lighter weight the better.

Robustness

Many schoolbags are: thrown around; stood on; used as a goal post…
Whatever you buy needs to be able to withstand being knocked about. It is very UNLIKELY that devices will be covered by the school’s insurance policy.

It is worth making sure that any device is covered by your home policy

Speed

If a device is slow to switch on, it could put the user at a disadvantage when trying to work in class. How long a devoce takes to save work and access the internet are also very significant.

Slow machine can make students reluctant to use technology at school

Battery life

Give some thought to what the device will be used for throughout the school day and therefore how long it will be used.

Is there somewhere at school where a devise could be charged up & be secure?

Ability to save to the cloud

Being able to save information to the cloud as soon as it is created means students are less likely to lose work when transferring between home and school machines. Saving to the cloud is also useful if space is limited on the device taken to school.

Automatically backing up work is best practice

Virus protection

I've known parents invest in good devices with a firewall, that children have downloaded viruses on, that made them useless. No amount of uninstalling on my part helped. Further expenses were then required to clean up.

It is important that nothing is download without supervision.

Make children aware of Trojan horses when downloading seemingly harmless freebies.

Compatibility issues?

The Google education suite of products and Chrome books are fantastic. However, be aware that you cannot run Windows products on a Chrome book but you can run Google products on a Microsoft machine.

Other factors to consider

How much to spend?

There is not a simple answer but in my experience some parents spend too much, buying machines with functionality that their child will not need for several years. Their intentions are good, but technology advances so quickly, that when the functionality it is needed a much better and cheaper alternative will probably be available.

Apple Macs and many other top of the range laptops meet all the criteria but are expensive. I would struggle with spending a lot of money on something that a child is carrying around all day. Especially if the student was not utilizing the device’s functionality.

Recycled work machines

Using an old work laptop is a great idea to save money. However, you will need to check that the machine can power up and that everything required can be opened and saved quickly.

Dyslexic students struggle enough in class without adding the additional frustration of a slow machine.

Be warned sometimes students just don’t use these machines and don’t bother to tell their parents this is the case.

Peer pressure

Older students can eb reluctant to use devices at school as they don’t want to stand out as being different from their peers. They are more likely to use an impressive new device than a hand me downs.