iPad Collaborative Research

Getting started with iPads From Dept of Ed, Victoria

"(student) engagement always goes up when technology is used... to say that iPads result in increased engagement is to say nothing". Are iPads just a craze? Is there a danger that we are using new technology to implement old pedagogy? 

What does it take to ensure the successful rollout of a one-to-one iPad program? In this blog post, Jac de Haan, technology integration specialist, outlines step-by-step what a successful two-month rollout should look like. In the first week, students establish solid academic habits without the iPads, before students and parents learn about the devices. By week four, students are given the iPads at the beginning of class and asked to return them at the end, building up to week nine when students are trusted to use the devices as they see fit.

Before using iPads in the classroom, there are a few seemingly little things you'll want to know and address before your students arrive. You'll need to answers questions from "How many devices can share an Apple ID?" and "What apps should be installed" to "What are some simple ways to get started?" Jeff Dunn in this blog post answers these and other common questions that educators ask on this subject

TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) to the rescue! TCEA regularly tests available apps and recommends apps that teachers should be using. TCEA maintains a list of recommended apps in a shared document via Google Docs. The list is organized by subject area and free apps are color coded in white.

Lesson to learn: Use a soft shell, strong wireless support, look again at your VLE, etc.

There are mobile applications for devices such as the iPad that can help elementary-school students become critical thinkers, says teacher Diane Darrow. She suggests eight such apps to develop the "remembering" phase of learning -- included in Benjamin Bloom's continuum of higher-order thinking and learning. Darrow suggests teachers use Word BINGO to help students recognize words; Rocket Math, a program that uses math to teach about rocket design; and Shake a Phrase, an app that helps students understand sentence structure

Essential tips for getting the most out of iOS

could this be a way to manage classroom sets of iPads?

GoodReader is an app that allows you to read, manage, organize, access, and annotate just about any file that you would want to. It was released as primarily a PDF reader / "annotater" at first, but now hos taken on a life of its own with ways to download files, sync with Dropbox, create, edit, and manage annotations on PDFs, and much more.

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"Mental Case...is super easy to create your own interactive flashcards, even easier to download pre made ones, and offers a great way to revise and follow your progress." MacAppStorm

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""We're doing a lot of formative assessments on them," Morelock says. Using apps such as iResponse and resources like Google Documents, teachers are able to receive feedback from students and record their own observations about students' progress, he says. Teachers have full autonomy in deciding which apps they use and how they use the mobile devices in the classroom, says Morelock. That leeway cuts down on the management load for the district's technology team. "The teachers are updating them, syncing them, and they're finding a thousand different ways to use them," he says of the devices. "It's been really incredible, and it really has to do with the ease of using the device, and the teachers really taking the lead." "

Three school districts in Illinois, Iowa and South Carolina will distribute approximately 27,000 Google Chromebook laptops to students as part of new technology initiatives, the company announced Thursday. While some have criticized the browser-based devices for slow performance, others say quick startup times and long battery life make them a good fit for schools and students

Does it help learning? Anecdotal and small scale studies say yes.

Aaron

Managing device updates using Apple Dev tools.

An UK ADE use of iPad site

Makky