A mixed week

I seem to veer from the optimistic to the pessimistic about our adoption in about equal measure. More people are discovering new ways to help inform their teaching/learning but there are just as many who still consider it an expensive distraction.
The most frustrating thing though has been the continued lack of bandwidth making it difficult to get online in some parts of the 6th form area.
The most positive is the 'discovery' of iTuneU and podcasts by the Humanities faculty....


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FaceTime

Great use in a lesson the other day. One student asked if she could FaceTime her friend who was ill at home so that she could take part in the lesson from her sick bed. She was able to do so, so missed nothing, even asking and answering questions!


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The Next Big Push

iPads are now set up and are being used by staff instead of hard copy in many instances. However, there needs to be a leap forward when it comes to facilitating student use on a day to day basis. Insisting on hard copy of essays, evidence of daily planning etc shows just how hard it is to shift from the safe and familiar. In the first instance I am going to have to persuade at least one or two to shift away from paper as much as possible in their dealings with students. Easier said than done?


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Catchup

I have been neglecting the blog which will be my major source of recollecting my feelings during this initiative, so....
the first half of term.
The Good: the year 12s have signed up with the programme en masse; SLT have been very supportive.
The Bad: Virgin have still not upgraded our broadband. We survive, but just.
The Ugly: the K-Drive still rules (this is the local storage drive, inaccessible unless you log in via a school based PC).

More detail to follow.

WebDAV part2

One of the most difficult things to do is to persuade people that storing data on a USB stick is unnecessary, as is having a USB port on the iPad. Whilst the school is still reluctant to embrace Dropbox, easily sharing files to and from the school server is problematic, however.  Any of the reader apps that support WebDAV can overcome this. In GoodReader, for example, it is simple to see other devices on the same network as servers and add them. Providing the necessary permissions can be set up, it should make for easy integration whilst on the school network. This is something, along with AirServer, on the first week back. I think the right combination of Dropbox, Fronter and WebDAV should emerge over the course of the term.

End of Term

We finished the term with a staff survey to go with the student one. I think we have a clear idea for our strategy for September. The first week will be interesting as it always generates a huge amount of paper that can easily be accessed on the iPad.
In the meantime I shall update the wiki and think about some workflows that could work for us.


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Write Up of Conference

Academia iPad conference: notes from the keynote speeches

Ben Stanley, Apple Distinguished Educator.
His task essentially was to demonstrate the potential of the iPad and he recommended several useful and fun apps such as Flipboard, Popplet, Soundnotes, Green Screen and Morfo.
He also flagged up the problem we have of not yet having the education volume licensing that they have in the States. He did think that we would get this soon. His other interesting idea was asking students the simple question: what does mobile learning mean to you?

Stephen Byrne of Gumley House School basically talked about his experiences since setting up the iPhone initiative over two years ago. He also posed some interesting food for thought:
Who owns the learning? Who works harder? Teacher or students?
Mobile technology is set up as open access ie Facebook/ Twitter not banned.
Autology is a good investment and students should use it as a first port of call
Students who struggle with independent learning will be flagged up by iPad usage.
In his school the model has been to give iPads to students, not teachers.


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Academia Conferene

Having left the kids with their Grandmother I have taken the morning off paternity leave to go to the half day iPad conference run by the company. We had presentations from an Apple Distinguished Educator and from Stephen Byrne from Gumley House.
The first presentation was essentially about how rouse the iPad, so it was god to know I am up to speed! Some useful apps that I didn't know about though...including Popplet for mind mapping as well as GreenScreen and Morfo for playing around with video.
The second was an update to the Gumley House experiment with mobile technology. One of the most interesting points he raised was that the iPad is an effective tool for flagging up students who struggle with independent learning.


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Stop Animation

I've downloaded a couple of apps. - the iMotion HD is free - and I'm really impressed. It seems to be one of those things that was made for the device. The other app that I'm playing around with at the moment is Explain Everything. Not quite sure how I'm going to use it yet but it does look a whole lot more interesting way of delivering content than the ubiquitous Ppt.


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Workarounds

I was updating the wiki and wanted to embed a YouTube video. I found that I couldn't do it using my iPad.... But, as ever, there is a workaround, using a code generator on the Tools 4 Noobs site.
I was in fact adding some info about a couple of mind mapping apps, both of which are excellent. I've added this to a new page, 'Organisation'.


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Update

We've got 2 student blogs up and running so I'm really hoping that we can start to get the sort of reflection that will drive the whole initiative forward. I am pleased with the ways I have seen the iPads being used to support learning by the Year 12s.


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Year 12 Bloggers

Hopefully we will start to get some of the Year 12s blogging their experiences. Most will wait until their exams are over but a couple have promised to get going in the next few days.
People seem to have been getting used to their devices so I am adopting a hands off strategy at present. Things are starting to happen in lessons which is good but we need to have a clear idea of where we stand after the exams. As I'm off for the whole of June, it does raise a problem.
Good news and bad news re the Airserver app. It needs at least Vista to run so wont work, but the school is planning to upgrade to Windows7 in September-so we can try then.
No news with lgfl and the bandwidth upgrade. Which is bad news.


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Air Server

The answer to the question of wirelessly mirroring the iPad to the classroom pc (and hence the projector might lie in Airserverapp (http://www.airserverapp.com). It comes in at a fraction of the price of an Apple TV. I shall investigate further next week.
The other issue that I have been investigating is backup, particularly for the year 12. The easiest way is to use iCloud, but some are already over their 5gb limit. I shall post about this on the wiki.


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iPads in action

Now that the sixth form are starting to get their devices, it is interesting to see how their priorities work. Evernote seems to be a hit so I must add the "how to' set up the bookmarklet on the wiki. We also managed to find a way to install Hotmail, circumventing the server restrictions - another comment on the wiki. This weekend I shall make it more student friendly, in preparation for next week's onslaught.


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Young Techies

Really pleased that we have 11 yr12s willing to reflect on and lead the iPad learning. I am convinced that these will be the key people if we are to transform anything. They might actually contribute to the wiki, for a start..... And I hope that they will blog as well!


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Splashtop

Finally got around to playing with this in context. Apart from the slight lag that you always seem to get with a remote application, it controlled the screen really well. The whiteboard function annotated and highlighted the spec that I had on screen and the remote function controlled the pc without a hitch. Launching the IWB was also impressive and proved that the paid App with the Whiteboard function is handy, but not essential.
An essential app for those of us who find it inconvenient to spend time at the pc at the front of the class and a real boon for those who want to shift the learning focus from there.


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Learning Champions

I have been charged with the task of exploring how to use the iPad to support the work of the 'LCs' as an evidence gathering and presentational device.
My first thought was on how to present what would be a mixture of text, photo and video. This is because the sorts of material that would have to be evidenced would include : Video of lessons and interviews, minutes from meetings, scans of student work, data, planning sessions etc..
The main problem is finding an effective way of presenting extended pieces of writing or work that could usefully be zoomed in on. Otherwise a Pages (Apple's Ppt) presentation would suffice. Noteability was considered but lacks video support. So far I have found an app called Portfolio. It is designed for business presentations (and thus commands a business price!) but it does support video, photos and PDF files. It also has a note function for each slide, folders can be shared on other iPads and has Dropbox support.
I then considered which Apps worked best for the sorts of activities that could be envisaged.
The camera is obviously ideal for video, photo and scanning of work. Any of the multitude of wp programmes. There are many Pdf readers that would usefully annotate documents. Noteability and a number of graphically based Apps are great for planning. At the end of the day, it's really down to individual preference. It's about convincing everyone to use the technology.
I'd quite like to explore ePub next....


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FaceTime

If all the teachers have FaceTime, it makes speaking to kids at FormTime effortless- just a thought!


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WebDAV

One of the issues with using the iWork apps is syncing them with your other work that is not on iCloud. Saving to the 'webDAV' option seems to be the answer. You need to get a free account with Otixio to enable this to act as a link between your iPad and your cloud storage provider such as Dropbox.
You can use your iCloud storage spaceby uploading from an App like GoodReader (in my opinion, an indispensable App.


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Technology as an environment

I was reading an article from a LinkedIn group about iPads and education. The essence of her argument was that whilst schools view technology as an event, business sees it as an environment: therein lies the gap.


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Young Techies

It worries me that the staff and sixth form will all have an iPad but nowhere to play because the Internet won't have been upgraded in time and therefore the network will be unable to cope with the extra traffic . What particularly worries me is the lost opportunity to experiment with lessons prior to September.
It would be good to identify a small group of yr12 students who would be prepared to contribute To the research in exchange for being allowed on the network. Thinking about it, a student focus group is pretty essential even if the network upgrade happens.
My other thought springs from something Simon McBurney once said about technology and how actors will play around with it, turn it omits head, so to speak. Most of the stuff I have read about Apps and the iPad has respected their function and purpose. I think we need to be a little more subversive and look at ways we can use the apps to achieve our ends.

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PDF files etc

One of the ways that I have been using my iPad in school on a regular basis is to store as much exam materials as possible on it. As a result, I have my A level texts, specifications, past papers etc stored as PDF files in iBooks using the collections function. I have also been using GoodReader and PDFPen to annotate past papers (hooked up to the IWB), Unfortunately, you can't export files from iBooks to other apps. Nor can you rename them.
An alternative approach could be to send them to GoodReader from Safari, rename them there if necessary, and upload to Dropbox and or mark them up in GoodReader or send them to PDFPen for further editing. This is one I think I shall use in future as well as keeping the PDFs I need for ready reference in iBooks.


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Wireless

A couple of teachers wanted to know how to stream wirelessly from the iPad to the classroom projector so I have been exploring this over the last few days with KFL.
There are two sorts of connection: one which mirrors the iPad screen; and one which remotely controls the classroom PC.
Apple TV is the solution to the first http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/airplay-the-hidden-educational-gem-in-ios-5
After a few false starts I discovered that the quality of the wireless signal is paramount - it worked intermittently in 411, well in the staff room and quite well in the sixth form common room. I also discovered that you need an HDMI to VGA converter to translate the video and audio signal. But it does mean that the teacher who wants to display anything to the whole class or use the video function to demonstrate good practice to the rest of the class need not be tied to the screen connector at the front. Any student with an iPad can join in and mirror their work onto the screen as well.
We used Splashtop to remotely control the classroom PC. This involves buying an app and installing Their software on the computer. KML got it to work and I eventually got their Whiteboard app to work. When testing it at home I was impressed with this app. It's expensive at £13, but a Promethean Whiteboard costs.....?
I feel pleased that both approaches worked but the shortcomings of the current wireless at school have also been highlighted by the experiments.

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This is a first post to bet started. The purpose is to reflect on the day to day experiences of using my iPad in school and is intended to be open to all staff and students with an iPad.