Sam_Brown Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 Morning all, Just setting up our first batch of iPads here for members of staff. It's all going pretty well until we got to the stage where we were deciding what apps to install as default. Does anyone here have a list of the apps they install as default for all staff iPads? Just want to stress this is for teaching and leadership staff and not IT Techs! Thanks in advance, Sam
jumpinjamez Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 Is this not the wrong way round? Shouldn't it be What content, apps and programs do teachers and SLT want access to? What device will best deliver those ? A lot of people always seem to get this mixed up.
Sam_Brown Posted July 18, 2012 Author Posted July 18, 2012 You'd think that wouldn't you... It comes down to the fact they don't know what they want on the iPads... they just know they want iPads!
jonnykewell1 Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 docs 2 go for editing word documents and we have splashtop installed so they can remote into their computers and use SIMS.
Fazza Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 Is this not the wrong way round? Shouldn't it be What content, apps and programs do teachers and SLT want access to? What device will best deliver those ? A lot of people always seem to get this mixed up. lol - they're nice and shiny so people want them! What they can be used for is always an after thought. I currently work in the business world (soon to start in a School IT dept.) and depending on what lever you come in at you might get a car, laptop and BlackBerry phone. Doesn't matter if you really need any of those or will even use them, that's what you get if you're in a certain position. We must have dozens of Blackberry's and laptops that get left in the office over night - a complete waste of money that could have been spent better elsewhere, but they just don't listen!
rad Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 facebook, twitter, ebay, tv catchup, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4Od etc Or did you mean educational....
TechieWils Posted July 18, 2012 Posted July 18, 2012 You forgot sky go and angry birds ... For the documentaries and geometry of course
Marci Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 This is a list of recommended apps that our staff have begun to compile... 'FileBrowser' (£2.99) allows users to connect to the common shared network resources within the Academy. This app will give you full access to your 'My Documents' folder, 'StaffShared', 'PupilShared' and 'Pupil Home Folders' whenever you're connected to the Academy WiFi network. Once you've installed this app, make an appointment with IT Support to get it setup correctly. 'Quick Office' (£13.99) allows users to read, write and edit all MS Office format files, and is compatible with FileBrowser above. There are other Office-compatible apps out there, such as CloudOn (free) and the Apple iWork Suite comprising of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, however these are more complex to use with regards compatibility with FileBrowser and reading and writing to and from network shares. For instance, CloudOn only works in conjunction with Dropbox, meaning you need to move files to a Dropbox account before you can use them within CloudOn, and then shuffle them back from Dropbox onto your network 'My Documents' folder to be able to then access them again via PC. Quick Office can open files directly from the network, allow you to edit them, and then save them back where they came from and is currently one of the only Office suites out there to allow this. 'Show Me' (free) is an interactive whiteboard / annotation app which Alex Berry demo'd within his workshops. It allows the user to easily take a photo of a student's work and mark / annotate it. A demo video on it's functionality is here: 'Whiteboard Lite' (free) is a simple less-feature-full whiteboard app covering many of the more basic functions of Show Me. If you upgrade to the paid app, you gain a lot more functionality. This can be used in many ways plus anything saved here can be sent, emailed, printed or whatever required! 'Edmodo' (free) is a Facebook-esque community system for teaching and learning which allows staff to collaborate and share resources, as well as allowing students access to the same resources should you so desire. Their use of Facebook's visual style makes the system very intuitive to use. 'Khan Academy' (free) is a non-profit video channel with over 2,500 videos covering topics ranging from high school mathematics and science to banking and venture capital. Whilst much of the content is produced in the US, it can be applied to the UK curriculum with a little planning and forethought. Dragon Dictation file 'Dragon Dictation' (free) takes a written transcript of anything said in audiable range of the iPad. This is very useful in meetings for taking minutes or recording student speaking and listening assessments. Noteshelf file 'Noteshelf' (£3.99). This app allows you to create and maintain your own bank of notebooks, planners and the like, all written free-hand. It also allows those notebooks to be stored, shared and improved on a limitless basis. 'Markbook' (£6.99). This app is exactly what it sounds like. A digital markbook for all your tracking data. It is time consuming to set up but so are your usual spreadsheets and staff planner! If you input your data on here it processes all data into graphs, class specific information, on target data and all if it done for you. It is an initial time investment though! 'USB Disk' (free or £1.99 for the pro version). Allows your iPad to work like a USB storage device. Can store all your powerpoints, lesson plans etc for use in other apps. To upload files in there you will have to go via iTunes. 'TED' (free). A series of educational talks from experts in many fields. Useful in many subjects and many areas. 'TeacherPal' (free). Good for taking your own registers for personal records, allows you to make seating plans using student photos. There are also some functions in here allowing grade tracking etc. I do however much prefer 'Markbook' for that. 3
GrumbleDook Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 I would also have a look on twitter at the hashtags #mlearning and #ipadchat. Whilst it is mainly about use with students / pupils there is also a lot of information about staff usage, and a lot of contacts you can make to help you work out how to make the most of the kit.
Roberto Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 You'd think that wouldn't you... It comes down to the fact they don't know what they want on the iPads... they just know they want iPads! I'd be tempted to give them ipads then. Properly locked down of course, with no apps they haven't asked for, because those will just get in the way.
AshleyBishop Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 Wow, some people have very negative views on here about iPads in Education. Yes hand a new device to someone and they're probably not going to how many of the hundreds of thousands of apps out there, lets be honest we're all lazy now and expect things handed to or just to be able to google an answer. Here's a handy link to some iPad/iPod Resources or check out any of the Apple Distinguished Educators web pages, I have list of loads pm me if want them (not sure if I can post links on here). Just one question for guys who seem to be negative...why? Anti Apple? Think it's a waste of money? 1
kaphc Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 We're in the same position at one of my primaries - the head wants some ipads for the kids cos she's seen a good demo of them being used. So we're having six iPads. Thanks for the ideas in this thread so far, it'll give us a starting point of what apps to put on and some dos and don'ts on how to manage them.
SYNACK Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Just one question for guys who seem to be negative...why? Anti Apple? Think it's a waste of money? Possibly because Apple is one of the most evil companies in the world today along with their nasty habit of doing everything they can to convince people to buy their stuff because it does X then blame the users when X does not work on anything but the one sainted setup of network which they expect. I'll avoid further input into this thread as I don't want to derail it further but did want to answer your question.
Roberto Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) Wow, some people have very negative views on here about iPads in Education. No. I have very negative views on people who buy anything from anyone just because it's shiny, and only start to think about what on earth they're going to use them for after the purchase is made. Just one question for guys who seem to be negative...why? Anti Apple? Think it's a waste of money? Yes. Clearly, despite personally owning an iphone, an ipad2, a Macbook Pro and 2 mac minis, I'm obviously anti apple because I don't like seeing taxpayer's money get spent without proper planning. Why didn't I see this before? Edited July 21, 2012 by Roberto
GrumbleDook Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Yes. Clearly, despite personally owning an iphone, an ipad2, a Macbook Pro and 2 mac minis, I'm obviously anti apple because I don't like seeing taxpayer's money get spent without proper planning. Why didn't I see this before? To be honest, any purchase without planning is a waste of money ... it is just that iPads are flavour of the month on this. A certain local secondary are looking at a 1:1 solution with iPads due to having seen Abdul from Essa present about what they have done. For Essa it has worked (with a fair bit of effort) but because of the planning and changes introduced to the curriculum. Having seen previous schemes for IWBs, 1:1 laptops, VLEs, $white_elephant_de_jour which have been split between success and failure (and having been part of both myself) then planning and targets make all the difference. Then again ... preaching to the converted, methinks. 3
SimpleSi Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Just one question for guys who seem to be negative...why? Anti Apple? Think it's a waste of money? I'm not anti-apple in a serious way but I am generally against them being used in education as they are not usually good value for money and I'm all about value for money (And not supporting Flash made the IPad even worse value for money as we can't utilise existing educational resources ) Si
speckytecky Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Looking on the Apps review I see in bold DO NOT TRUST THIS APP ? All about a requirement to sign in to the originator of the Apps servers by the look of it? docs 2 go for editing word documents and we have splashtop installed so they can remote into their computers and use SIMS.
Crowmanuk Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 (edited) I'd definitely take a look at "explain everything", its one of the best apps i've ever used for creating content, I recently gave it to a PE teacher who's loving it, drag a powerpoint, pdf, pictures or video into it, annotate and talk over it while recording and export it to youtube or dropbox, and youve got a video of whatever you want that students can watch over and over, he's having a go at blended learning and for the class that he's trialling it with its really working well, i'm really proud of what he's doing with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4JOsrEsyo0 Must agree though, if they dont know what apps they want then they dont really know what they want the ipads for and they might as well go with angry birds and all the tv stuff. Edited July 31, 2013 by Crowmanuk
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