Wednesday, May 1, 2013

What's on Your iPad?

I love using iPads in my classroom. My students use Google Docs for writing and presenting. We use Educreations to work on problems and to show how students worked out their math or language problem. I am taking a tech class from our district and the one thing I am finding is the disconnect between teachers in the different schools. Our district tech department has managed the the maintenance of technology, but we need a central point of contact to find out what each school is doing. I follow the Ipad Insight Blog. A series that comes up every once in a while is "What's on Your iPad?" I think I will start something like that article that shows what is on iPads in different schools in my district. This will help everyone know what teachers are using in their classrooms for their students. I will ask teachers to show what they use and then what they use on their student iPads. I think I will have to use the questions iPad Insight uses. They are great questions. These are the questions for the teacher iPad.
  1. Which iPad model do you use for yourself? (original, iPad 2, New iPad, Mini, storage size) Any particular reasons for choosing this model?
  2. Do you use any sort of case with the iPad? If so, which one/s and why? 
  3. What’s on your iPad dock currently? Do these apps pan out as your most frequently used? What are some of your other most-used apps / what’s on your first home screen? (and any reasons why you’d like to offer) 
  4. How do you arrange your home screens? Do you use folders at all / heavily? 
  5. What are some of your most used productivity apps on the iPad? Any that you use for work? 
  6. How much, if any, book reading do you do on the iPad? 
  7. Any favorite iPad games or fun time fillers? 
  8. Have you got a ‘hidden gem’ type iPad app that more people should know about? 
  9. Do you tend to pay much attention to your home or lock screen wallpaper? Change it up often?
These are the questions for the student iPads. 
  1. Which iPad model do you use for your students? (original, iPad 2, New iPad, Mini, storage size) Any particular reasons for choosing this model?
  2. Do you use any sort of case or covers for the student iPads? If so, which one/s and why? 
  3. What’s on your student iPad dock currently? Do these apps pan out as the most frequently used for students? What are some of your other most-used student apps / What’s on your first home screen? (and any reasons why you’d like to offer) 
  4. How do you arrange your home screens? Do you use folders at all / heavily? 
  5. What student Apps do you use consistently for Language? Math? Science? History?  
  6. Have you got a ‘hidden gem’ type iPad app that more people should know about? 
  7. Do you pay much attention to your student home or lock screen wallpaper? Change it up often?
I am going to start this Series on this blog. I hope to have a few people send me information so we can all learn what apps are being used in our classrooms and why. Are there other questions I should ask teachers about their iPads?