Friday, January 11, 2013

iPads from Home to School

-->
How do you go from using a computer at school to using your iPad at home, to being allowed to bring your iPad to school?



Today in class, the assignment was to write about their favorite place.  They had to use each step of the writing process and had to do it all in two hours.  Because we are doing this in preparation for the state writing assessment, they had to do it all with paper and pencil.  The funny part is that the complaints were not about having to write on one topic for two hours or follow the steps of the writing process.  The complaints were about how silly it is to WRITE a rough draft and then have to mark your paper up and then write a final copy.  "It is such a waste of time!"  They have gotten used to being able to type their papers on their iPads and then make changes and then submit it.  I couldn't agree more...a huge waste of time!  Come on, Georgia!  Let's jump into this century and allow the kids to submit their writing assessment electronically.  Teachers can still walk around the room and make sure no cheating is going on.

I mention this to say that although we have found many ways to create different things and different ways to build knowledge, the iPad can still be used to simply type a paper.  There are many essay writing apps that are free and there are MS Word apps for ten to twenty dollars.  The bottom line is that for the amount of time that you NEED a computer, you can share the ones that are available in the school or use the one you have at home.  The iOS operating system makes it easy to share information between apps.

Below is one way to transition easily from using a computer and a flash drive to using cloud space and your iPad.

  1. Make sure you have a gmail address.  When you have a gmail address, you also have a Google Drive with 5 Gb of space for saving. 

Google Toolbar
  1.  Click on the Drive link.  Next to the CREATE button is your UPLOAD button.  Simply click on the upload button and choose the file you want to upload.
     3.  Once you have uploaded your files to your Google Drive, they will be available to you from  
           any computer or device.  You will also have access to any files that you create on Google 
           Docs. 

    4.   When you open one of your files from your Google Drive, you will see the following at the   
           top of the page.
          You can see the blue Share button in the top right.  When you click on this button you can 
          add email addresses to allow people to share your file.

    5.  Now that all of your files are safe and sound on your Google Drive, you can go to       
         www.google.com on any computer and click on the Drive button and open the file you have 
         been working on.  

    6.  You can also download the Google Drive app to your iOS device and have easy access to 
          your files without going to the internet at all.  You can also go into your Google Drive app and             create docs and spreadsheets right from the app without ever going to the internet and logging             into Google.


    7.  Finally, you can download Google Drive directly to the computer you most frequently use 
         and save anything on your computer directly to Google Drive and skip the upload step.


  

Think Different


5 Reasons Why the iPad Will Stay King of the Classroom  

An article by Adam Webster

Assistant Director of Learning and Teaching at a secondary school in Surrey, England. 

I read this article about iPads in the classroom today.  It is what I have been trying to say for quite a while now, but couldn't find the words.  

Reason #1-

"The biggest and most oft-heard criticism of the iPad usually revolves around it not behaving like a desktop PC or laptop. The people making this complaint are simply missing the point. Apple aren’t trying to make a laptop replacement, why would they? They make a couple of extremely good ones! The iPad is a new kind of device that asks you to think and work differently.
The fact that it isn’t a laptop, to me, is its greatest attribute."


That's exactly it!  The iPad is a new kind of device.  My class has discovered all kinds of things that you can create with the iPad.  They take notes and complete reading comprehension assignments.  They also take pictures and videos of science experiments and even make their own videos about things like prepositions or the Panama Canal.  The possibilities are endless and the kids are up for the challenge!  

I encourage you to read this entire article, it may give you some clarity or open your eyes to a "different" way of thinking.