Since the launch of xPrintServer-Network Edition back in December, we’ve seen tremendous demand from educational institutions, school districts, students, parents, and educators themselves.  The rapid pace of iPad deployment in schools – from kindergarten (yes, kindergarten) through college and graduate school – has only been outstripped by the students’ ability to embrace any piece of new technology, especially the iPad.   [The Cult of Mac recently posted a great article about how iPads are transforming the classroom.]

Lantronix’ Dean Lazzara demos the xPrintServer during Mater Dei’s back-to-school week.

The Lantronix team has been actively working with schools to print-enable their campuses, in preparation for back-to-school initiatives.  Probably the most interesting insight we’ve gleaned so far is that these schools are a near perfect microcosm of large enterprises.  They boast a wide variety of user types (students, teachers, administrators, visitors) – some of who are friendly, some are hostile/hackers. But in the end, every student and parent with whom we’ve spoken has said the same thing – “Thank you for helping us print!”  Clearly the market is now catching up to the pain-point we’ve solved with the xPrintServer.

One of the schools with which we’ve most recently been working is Mater Dei High School in Orange County, California.  Last year, this leading national high school rolled out more than 2,000 iPads to the student body – one of the first schools in the country to build out a curriculum leveraging the iPad platform.  In addition to working to print-enable their campus for the coming school year, they’ve also been part of our new back-to-school marketing promotion – the goal of which is simple: Get the xPrintServer into the hands of students – one of the most coveted segments, given their powerful word-of-mouth opportunities and profile of being early adopters.

Whether schools use the iPad for engaging students, conducting online classes, or simply as replacements for text books, the fact is, iPads are changing the way we educate our children, and what better validation for our xPrintServer than to hear a student say, “My Dad just bought one of those for us so we can print, and it’s so cool!”

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