iPads in your School – Where do you even Start? – Switched On ICT – iPad Units

If like many schools you have taken the leap  from the safety of your ICT suite over to mobile iPads, then you could probably do with a bit of help to navigate through this to the exciting new world of apps and anything goes. This was a situation I found myself in a few months ago. In the ICT room I knew where I was it was safe, you had  a scheme and the suite of software you used to teach the curriculum was finite.  You knew where to save, where to upload to and it all made sense, but it could also be predictable and limiting. Although I am sorry Mr Gove, I and many of my other esteemed colleagues rarely if ever taught a boring ICT lesson!

Back to the iPads. For a few months I muddled through trying out apps, talking to colleagues via twitter and attending events like those held at Elm Park Primary or at Apple in Regent Street. This is part of the fun, but I do remember thinking I wish there was something I could just pick up and run with, a course or set of notes from someone who has been there before. There are books like iPads in Education for Dummies, which is OK and I managed to plough through a chapter or two, or the more digestible and cheaper Educator’s iPad by Chris “Shambles Guru” Smith. Enter Switched On ICT and their iPad units. What you get is a growing series of tried and tested lessons that feel like they have been written and tried out in UK classrooms.

Here is a video of myself and my ICT Team Partner and electronic music guru Steve Hawke talking about the Projects

The iPad Projects pack is well suited to a school that is moving steadily and strategically into iPad adoption. It contains two exemplars of using iPads in a cross curricular context. These are Mind Mapping and Ebook creation. These lessons appealed to me as a seasoned know it all cynic, but I also felt that I could hand them to teachers who were less confident with the devices as they are detailed and clear.

For us as a school this pack helped us align the iPads to the full Switched On ICT scheme in the form of a matching chart of apps to units. I wouldn’t say I agree with all of these but most of them are spot on!  You also get access to a free Online course on using iPads in school, which is something I wish I had access to months ago.  It acts as a strong induction and introduction to the technology. It is ideal for those who are starting out on iPad integration, though I picked up some new tips and ideas too!

Mind Mapping apps are explained and presented as a fantastic cross curricular lesson in the pack. Here is a photo of some of the work from my class, taken hurriedly on another iPad.

For me this pack is very good value for money for any school on the iPad journey. It should be on every ICT Coordinators desk, or better still in the PPA room.

iPad Events – Part 2 – Teachmeet iPad – the Videos – Joe Dale and Bev Evans

Teachmeet iPad was an amazing evening and I am still getting to grips with all that was shared by so many great speakers.

If you were not there, or even if you were, you can enjoy watching the evening by clicking on the image below.

During the evening we were treated to some inspiring presentations from the likes of John D Abbro, Myles Pilling and Terry Freedman, to name just three. I’ll post a full break down of who shared what and add a special page to this blog in due course, but we also need to mention those that spoke virtually. In the run up to the event, a number of you contacted me on twitter and kindly offered to send in a pre recorded video for us to use on the evening.

As it turned out we were quite time pressured and so we could not show all of the videos, also due to some last-minute presenters we chose to use more live talks than videos. My apologies and thanks goes out to all of you who sent in a video.  Here are two of those videos for your inspiration and enjoyment. I will post more of these later this week.

1. Bev Evans – talks us through some of her favourite iPad applications with a focus on SEN and early years

My Favourite Apps from Bev Evans on Vimeo.

2. Joe Dale talks about Wappwolf

Teachmeet Ipad Update

We are just a few days away from Teachmeet iPad at Redbridge North East London. The event is jointly organised by myself and Mark Warner from Teaching Appz/ Teaching Ideas.

Here are a few updates

• We do have a few tickets left, but hurry do not delay – book yourself in by following the link below

• We would love to have some more people added to the list of 2 or 7 minute presentations – even if you think what you have to share is small or insignificant then please don’t. You might be sharing an app that nobody else has heard of .
• Thanks to Teaching Appz and Rising Stars we will have lots of tea, cakes and beer to drink.
• We have a very full raffle with over 83 free apps codes, some stylus pen things for iPads and an Ipod Touch – all our proceeds for the raffle will go to 
  http://www.tommys.org/
  
• We are hoping to link our Teachmeet with Teachmeet Brum to discuss questions around what successful iPad integration actually looks like.
• Just to add at some points in the evening there may well be brief mentions from commercial organisations/ developers. I know this is not always popular at Teachmeets, but in our current climate I feel we really need to help and support the Edtech software world, furthermore without these guys there would be no drinks/wifi/ raffle prizes etc. So just like LWF – I will be inviting sponsors to speak very briefly on what they are upto – if we feel it is relevant.
• Yes we will be streaming the event – details to follow
• hashtag for the event #tmipad
• trouble getting there – or need a lift from the station – tweet me @skinnyboyevans or Dawn Hallybone

Where is it?

St Aidan’s Primary School , Seven Kings , Redbridge, East London

Seven Kings station is on the Liverpool Street Line and just a short train ride from the Olympic Park

View Larger Map

When is it again

7pm on the 8th November

How do I get Tickets?

Go to our Eventbrite page and sign up for a ticket

I would love to share with you all about what is going on in my class with iPads

Great we would love to hear from you, can you add your name to the our wiki page or email me (skinnyboyevans at gmail.com)

I would love to help you with organisation on the night

Great we could do with some helpers email me (skinnyboyevans at gmail.com)

Rover App – Allows Flash to Sneak in.

     I have tried various apps/ browsers to get Flash based websites to render on an iPad. Notably Puffin, which was a much talked about browser last year. On Puffin one could at least view Flash websites via the interface, but interacting was a bit hit and miss. But Rover feels like a step up from Puffin and is worth a mention here. This isn’t a full review and the app isn’t “app of the day”, I am still testing and playing with it and I would be wary of recommending it, as many did this last year about Puffin with disappointment all round. I played about with Purple Mash on my iPad using Rover today and because of the inclusion of a menu containing keyboard. arrows, full screen and cursor buttons it behaves far better than Puffin.

A quick screen test on an iPad 1 with Purple Mash proved reasonably successful. I was able to type, listen, watch slightly jerk video and paint with low-level lag and of course some areas of the site behaved better than others. If you have Purple Mash and iPads in your school, you may find that Rover goes some way to solve the issue of a lack of integration. Incidentally it was nostalgic to watch the video for the autumn activity, those are my boys scuffing about in the leaves.

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A Teachmeet on iPads

Next Month, November the 8th to be exact I am hosting a Teachmeet on iPads. This is an event I have organised in partnership with Mr Mark Warner who runs the Teaching Appz and Teaching Ideas sites. I must also thank the lovely people at Joskos, Rising Stars, Schoolastic and Toucan Computing who are also lending a hand.

We would love to see as many iPad focussed teachers there as possible to share ideas and soak up the iPad love in the room.

Here are some important details and things you need to know

What is a teachmeet then?

Simply a teacher meet up. An opportunity for teachers to share with each other things that have worked well in their class.

What happens there?

Teachers come either as lurkers / listeners or they come armed with a presentation that they cane deliver in either 2, 7 or 15 minute slots. Speakers are chosen at random from an electronic fruit machine and the style of talk is generally a bit informal. There are rarely any handouts or power points. These events are fast paced and the ideas flow quickly.

Who can go?

It is mostly teachers that attend, but anyone with an interest in technology in education is free to come along and listen or share.

Where is it?

St Aidans Primary School , Seven Kings , Redbridge, East London

Seven Kings station is on the Liverpool Street Line and just a short train ride from the Olympic Park

View Larger Map

When is it?

7pm on the 8th November

How do I get Tickets?

Go to our Eventbrite page and sign up for a ticket

I would love to share with you all about what is going on in my class with iPads

Great we would love to hear from you, can you add your name to the our wiki page or email me (skinnyboyevans at gmail.com)

I would love to help you with organisation on the night

Great we could do with some helpers email me (skinnyboyevans at gmail.com)

I can not make it – will it be streamed?

Yes but could do with a volunteer to take care of this.

Do you know what you are doing?
Have you done this before?

Yes, I have worked together with Dave Smith from Havering LA in the past to organise Teachmeet North east London, where we included short mini note talks from the likes of Ollie Bray and Tom Barret

ADE Training at ELM Park

My colleague Steve and I are fortunate enough to be at Elm Park for some training by Julian Coultas, the Digital Roadtrip. He is giving us lots of tips and I’ll attempt to live blog all that we pick up. Please excuse the typos as this is live.

Tips:

• No need for Apple TV – just use the Reflection App this allows you to show your iPad via your laptop. I have this and it really works

 

• The iPad can operate as a mobile visualised – showing piece of work as you travel around class – that is one of those obvious ideas staring me in the face, a but like earlier this week when I used the brushes app with the kids as a digital whiteboard. There was no constant rubbing out or lost pens with this.