IPADS

[mhussain]

Hi just a quick question for you guys does any of you use the ipad in school for pupils if so what do you use them for?

 

Cheers

[stevenlong1985]

I briefly met a teacher the other day from another school, she was boosting how good the Ipad was, it was her own and uses it for school. All she said was it was great for .................Eportal.. oh........ and talking tom (that app which u talk to a cat and poke him so he makes a noise)

 

She didn't really sell it to me; I think they are a waste of money. Your better finding a solution to fix a problem, not find a problem to a solution.

 

£500 to use eportal? its not practical

 

Hope this is useful.

[fafster]

Tablets are mainly designed to browse the web and view media. Unless this is what the course involves, I'd not bother.

[rolfea]

a teacher here said the book app was useful, as you could change size and visuals so people who may struggle to read a style of writing can change the size or colours.

[FN-GM]

Citrix & Lanschool for staff and students might be handy.

 

Have a look at these apps

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/netbooks-pda-phones/65389-ipad-functionality.html#post585245

[simpsonj]

It would depend on whether you can stream content to the iPad or not. At my school, the iPad can't stream from the interent, so it can't run YouTube, iPlayer, Google Earth, etc. However, if that could be sorted, then there might be some use for the iPad, apps like Inkling, PSE HD, Nations, History Maps, Nasa would provide different lessons, plus Google Earth on the iPad is a joy to use.

 

But I would be lying if I said that an iPad would provide a better experience than a good netbook, as fafster says, if it solves a problem then great, otherwise you're just providing a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

[GrumbleDook]

There are a heap of apps to be used in the classroom, either for stimulus, for recording of work, for generating work.

A few examples from stuff from an event today ...

HistoryMaps give you a bunch of high quality historic maps which can be used when doing themes such as exploration or history (I know ... a tad obvious).

The original version of Myst is now available too, and if anyone has had the opportunity to see someone like Tim Rylands do game based learning it is fantastic.

John Davitt's RAG which as you to do certain certain tasks in a particular style, eg Do the Boston Tea Party as a motivational poster, do plate tectonics as a Flickr show of four pictures.

Strip Designer - similar to Comic Life

 

And also have a look at FriezlandiPodProjectLive too

 

To be honest there are lots of apps out there that can be used, some of which you have to use a bit of imagination to make the most of them.

 

Also have a look at http://littleharrowden.bltnorthants.net/ for the story of a teacher using them on a project. Yes, it is not a fully fledged set of answers, but I hope you enjoy the journey.

[tech_guy]

I'm trialling my iPad at my school and so far the only thing that has held me up is not having support for flash on various websites. As a teaching, training and support tool it comes out tops. Some of the teachers I've been working with are now going to go out and buy their own. They're not going to hang around for funding.

 

The kids just love it in the classroom. Keynote is a big hit, along with Evernote.

 

We've got access to IPlayer, YouTube and everything else via our wireless network so it's a pretty cohesive experience.