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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