XMA was awarded the Scottish Government National Framework Agreement for Notebook and Tablet Devices Education Lot in March 2013. The framework enables schools, colleges and universities in Scotland to purchase from a range of Android, Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows mobile devices.

While some tablet devices maintain a traditional ‘icons and folders’ style interface for file management, some modern platforms such as iOS have simplified file management by storing files created by apps within a separate app data store, only accessible by the app that created them. For example, files created in the Keynote app are shown in Keynote, not in a system wide Finder or Windows Explorer style application. This can have some implications when it comes to classroom workflow, especially around submission of work from pupil to teacher, markup of that work and returning it to a pupil. Many apps (including Keynote used in this example) offer an ‘Open In…’ or ‘Share’ option allowing you to move the document to another app, email it, print it, etc.

With Glow’s migration to Office 365 it is expected that a shared storage space will be accessible across all platforms offered on the framework (Android, iOS and Windows) either through a native Skydrive app from Microsoft or an app developed for all platforms designed specifically for Glow storage. Watch this space!