
I spent most of my weekend mulling over the whole Android vs iOS battle in terms of personal mobile devices in education. I will admit straight off that I come at it from something of a partisan position having been emotionally invested in my Apple products for many years. As a designer rather than a data geek this is perhaps understandable (as this excellent and perceptive piece explains, albeit from the Steve Jobs era). Nevertheless I have attempted to remain as objective as possible.
From an educational point of view there are obviously pros and cons on both sides. The most obvious pro on the Google side is device price. It is widely acknowledged however that Google are prepared to take a hit on every device sold at the moment. They do this in order to grow market share and also to generate income through their App store sales and through advertising on their web services. Will device prices always reflect this? Who can say…
Both devices can be managed by an MDM solution. Solutions vary according to the device, but price will be very much the same. Both devices can mirror their screens to a TV or projector, although the Google system is not yet available in the UK and pricing is unclear. The Apple solution via Apple TV is established and proven (though admitedly with some glitches along the way).
From a device perspective the Nexus 7 has a smaller screen footprint than even the iPad Mini. As a content consumption device I'm not sure this is a significant factor. However from a content creation perspective I think it starts to have an impact. For that reason I also think the regular sized iPad is a better suited device to education than the iPad Mini. But that's clearly a discussion to be had.
On the App store front, Google does not yet appear to have a Volume Purchasing Programme for Apps. Apple's VPP is not perfect, but does exist and is immeasurably better to how it was even a year ago. The potential cost savings for 'whole school' App purchases will probably never be huge, but could be significant. e.g. To provide a year group of 280 students with an app like QuickOfficePro would cost £4118 on the Google App Store and £1957 using the Apple VPP. Multiply that over even just a few App and over a number of years (each new year of intake would need the App purchased) and perhaps it is more of a significant cost factor?
The Apple App Store is also more established and more geared towards education than the Google App Store. Google's will inevitably grow and develop, but then so will Apple's.
The Apple ecosystem for education is established and already relatively mature. iBooks and iTunes U are significant factors in this and whilst their potential is currently under-used in the UK Secondary Sector it is nevertheless huge. The key driver as I see it is that the Apple education ecosystem is designed to encourage teachers to create and deliver bespoke learning content to their students in a way that is fully integrated. And much as I love my Chrome browser, I'm not really seeing this envisioned in the Google alternative. However this clearly has knock-on implications for other ICT provision within a school, particularly with respect to staff provision.
And yes, the Apple solution is locked-down and proprietary but there are pros and cons to this in itself - perhaps allied into the previously mentioned 'data' vs 'design' approach. As a designer (and as a teacher) I just want to get some great work done with a minimum of fuss. Apple's ecosystem allows me to do that. Having said that, I don't have enough experience using Google services as an alternative. If someone can paint me a compelling picture, I'll certainly have a look.
However… and here is the big 'but'... whilst I feel there is a compelling case to be made for iOS over Android, I do have to wonder if State funded schools in the UK can actually afford to invest in the entire Apple education ecosystem. In other words, is the solution that best delivers on the teaching and learning front one that is simply priced beyond our reach?