Looking for Ideas on Leveraging iPad in Classrooms

[ericwhitmer]

I am looking for ideas on how to leverage an iPad in our courses that are on the ground when the instructor is lecturing. What are you all using yours for? I am looking across disciplines from Maths, Science, Nursing, EMS, Computer Education, and others that I may have forgotten.

The technology I have to work with is Lightning to VGA connection in most of the classrooms. Also it will be a bonus if you threw in some ideas for leveraging Windows 10 and the wireless adapter.

Thanks for your help.

[Bobby2]

Hi  @ericwhitmer ‌, thanks for starting such a valuable discussion. 

I'm curious about the age of your students. My experience of using iPads with students has only been in the primary/elementary world. But I'm sure that any wisdom gathered there can spin off into other areas of education/mastering a life of learning. 

• My number one message would be to use the devices for creation rather than consumption. I can't stress this enough. Depending on your purpose of course. Garageband for composing original songs, the green screen app makes movie-making/drama/dance/english/maths/science/technology much more exciting, good old pic collage and padlet for curating and displaying. Spellboard was a beauty for ... spelling. 
• The ability to quickly log in to the device is a huge bonus.
• Teaching students to google well is a must. We had races to find answers and compared our goggle search terms

I will ponder some more  and get back to you with other ideas as they come to mind. 

[ericwhitmer]

Hi there Bobby Pedersen,

I work for a state college where the demographics range from the traditional age of a college student to the non-traditional ages where people are working full-time for taking courses for professional development and have additional commitments outside of the class time. I hope this helps you out.

[Bobby2]

Thanks  @ericwhitmer  that does help.

Focusing on creating rather than consuming still stands. No matter how 'big' the kids. 

They will still enjoy having authentic reasons for presenting their work in creative and, where possible, COLLABORATIVE ways.

The fact that the iPad is so mobile really helps in being able to create work anywhere and any time. They aren't perfect, but they tick a lot of boxes. 

Are you a 1:1 school? 

[ericwhitmer]

No, we are not. We have computer lab classrooms and most of the classrooms are set up to a projector with a VGA connection. We are also rolling out a new synchronous classroom technology for our courses since we serve 3 cities in a 40 mile radius from each other (1 classroom on each campus). We are still ironing out the kinks with the technology. Also some of our Bachelor's level courses are pure online programs such as Nursing. We also do offer some online General Education courses.

[Bobby2]

As you are not 1:1 might I suggest that devices are assigned to the same students. This will mean that any work they are creating will not be lost or be on a device that someone else is using. Or are they pretty good at saving in whatever cloud you use? Canvas will be your best friend here. 

Here are 10 useful ways to project using iPads 10 Ways to Show Your iPad on a Projector Screen — Learning in Hand with Tony Vincent  

We used Air-server. Worked fine.