Flash and the iPad

Worried about displaying flash based videos, simulations and  
animations on your iPad? The Puffin App is the solution. Puffin
is an app that streams flash content to your iPad. Use the Puffin
App to run flash based web animation, video and simulations.

App Store - Puffin Web Browser

Track Student Engagement with your iPad and Class Dojo

Class Dojo, a web based program, now available as an app, tracks student classroom engagement and behavior in real time. With a free Dojo account, students can create their own avatars that teachers use to track and award points to recognize positive class contributions such as participation, helpfulness, creativity, insight, work ethic and presentation skills.  Dojo works well on your iPad, and with Apple TV's screen mirroring feature, teachers can walk around the room with iPad in hand, listening and watching group work, discussions or experiments/labs, and give meaningful feedback . Class Dojo is now available as an app, is web based and works well on both iPads and iPhones and Smartphones.

Behavior Management Software - ClassDojo

Socrative Student Response System

            Socrative is a free student response system designed to engage students using their iPads. Try an "Exit Ticket" to capture student understanding in minutes and have the results emailed to yourself in an Excel report. "Exit Tickets" are predesigned and have loaded questions built into the App that quickly and efficiently collect student understanding. 

Once you have mastered the "Exit Ticket", you can create your own custom Questions or Quiz Activities in the form of M/C, T/F or Short Answer. 

Students will need to download the free Student App. 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/student-clicker-socrative/id477618130?mt=8

Faculty need to download the free Teacher App.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teacher-clicker-socrative/id477620120?mt=8

Qrafter

A QR Code (Quick Response Code) encodes information (URL, Location, Contact Card, Event, etc.) into a matrix barcode that can be printed out or emailed to students.  Qrafter both creates and reads codes, making it a useful app for both teachers and students. Teachers can differentiate their classroom by posting print outs of QR Codes linked to websites, apps, map coordinates e tc. to engage students into a lesson or post codes in hallways to garner student curiosity and excitement. Codes can also be created to invite students to extra help sessions, dances, club meetings, athletic informational meetings etc. Students simply scan the code using their iPad or Smartphone, where they can sync the date, time and description directly into their iCal App.  

App Store - Qrafter - QR Code Reader and Generator

Educational iPad Blogs and Websites

Here are some useful links to blogs and websites for teachers and students using iPads.

Apps in Education

Http://appsineducation.blogspot.com

Free Technology for Teachers

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/04/7-services-for-sending-group-texts-to.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Apple in Education

http://education.apple.com/ipad-learning/

The iPad Classroom

http://www.scoop.it/t/the-ipad-classroom

Ed Tech Teacher

http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/teaching-technology/mobile-technology-apps/ipad-as

iEducation App Reviews

http://www.iear.org/

Mac Rumors

http://www.macrumors.com/

iPads in the Math Classroom

This year, students in grades 7-10 will be using iPads in their math classes. Students will be able to download their Pre-Algebra, Algebra, or Geometry textbook right onto their iPad and access them anytime, anywhere. Good news for students- no more heavy books to lug around! Good news for teachers- students won't be "forgetting" to bring their books to class! These new texts, which include illustrations, animations, photos, videos, and self-assessments, are designed to make interactive learning with an iPad available to all students inside and outside of the classroom. 

While those who are new to the iPad may just use it as a textbook to start, and that is fine, some tech-savy students are already quite comfortable using their iPad to take notes, do their homework, and submit assignments using some of our recommended apps. Below are two snapshots of a student's work taken during a math class this past year. On the left is a shot of the notes a student took during class using the text feature of Notability. On the right a student used the writing feature to work through practice problems during class.

Another neat feature of Notability is the ability to transfer notes. Students can send  notes created in the App, such as a homework assignment, to their teacher, or the teacher can send notes, such as the day's lesson, to the student using either email or a cloud service, such as Box or Dropbox. This creates a paperless exchange between the student and teacher.

With the upcoming implementation of AppleTV into the classrooms, both students and teachers will be able to project wirelessly, through the classroom projector, what is on their iPad for the whole class to see. This will allow teachers to roam around the classroom, making sure everyone is on task, but still be able to teach on their iPad.

Apple TV and Classroom Configuration

 

This fall, Apple TVs will be installed in all classrooms at BC High. An Apple TV doesn't really resemble or function like a TV as you know it; however, it will allow you to free yourself of the dongle and mirror your iPad screen using your projector or Smartboard set up. "What's a dongle?" you ask. Well, it's the adapter used to plug your iPad into the projector or Smartboard. By mirroring your iPad screen, you can present your Keynote, homework or problem set and annotate directly from your iPad. All this, while you roam freely throughout your classroom, engaging students, giving feedback, and of course looming over shoulders of students, checking for appropriate iPad usage. Here are some desks configurations, you may be interested in deploying in your classroom to enhance your new found freedom and mobility.

Here Comes the iPad.....

It's the first day of school. Twenty five students have their iPads open. You're pretty sure they're smirking at you just a little bit . You've been asking yourself a lot of questions during the summer...how will I know they're on task? Don't the students know MUCH, MUCH more about these things than I do? You know how to use "Watch ESPN" and play "Angry Birds", but what happens when (and you know this WILL happen) there's a technical issue in the class? And you don't know how to fix it? It's always been YOUR classroom, your little corner of the world, where you're in charge, where you know more than the adolescents...hasn't that always been the truth? And now, they gave you the....iPAD! Just when you had it at least partially figured out, they sprung this one on you, didn't they? But wait a minute! Before you decide to use that little machine as really expensive book end (wouldn't that be a conversation starter?) or serving tray, hold on...be patient because, before long,  I believe that you're going to view that machine as a tool, as a friendly mechanism helping you do what you've always done: guiding and cajoling and helping these students become the loving, intellectually competent, open to growth,  religious young men who are prepared to contribute significantly to society.

iPads will not revolutionize education. BC High certainly does not need a revolution to teach its young men...the school has done a pretty fair job for the past 150 years. Instead, the iPad offers the classroom teacher a wide supply of user friendly resources designed to assist you in your daily job. You'll find some of the resources very helpful, others not so great. There is no pressure to become an Apple Genius overnight...or ever.

The iPad Resource Team has produced three iBooks, each targeting a different level of iPad experience and knowledge. Hopefully, within these three books, you'll find some practical strategies and ideas that you'll be able to incorporate into your classroom. If you're unsure about this whole iPad experiment or uncomfortable with the machine itself, take a look at iPad: The Basics. It provides an excellent overview on using the iPad, as well as explaining many of the machine's basic functions, and troubleshooting strategies.

The second iBook, iPad: The Apps, focuses mainly on content specific apps that you may find helpful within your subject matter. These apps represent suggestions from the iPad Resource Team...there are many other apps that you may already be using. Many are free, so why not download a couple and make your own determination?

The third iBook, iPad: Classroom and Beyond , moves beyond subject specific apps and investigates social networking, web curation, flipping the classroom, going paperless, and exploring new media. In other words, almost anything you needed to know about the full incorporation of the iPad into the classroom.

Enjoy the iPad, explore how it can be employed to further your students' learning. Remember, it's not a revolution or brave new world...it's a really effective, well designed, user friendly machine that can enhance your teaching and help you better connect with your students. The iPad Resource Team, Kara Brennan, Eric Gartside, Amie Kuzara, Jen McLarnon and Jack Travers will be around to listen and help.

IRT Convenes to Create iBooks

Members of the IRT are pleased to announce their creation of three ibooks; iPad: The Basics, iPad: The Apps and iPad The Classroom and Beyond. Each book highlights information, instructions, skills and techniques to meet the needs of the faculty.

iPad: The Basics, covers topics such as passwords, settings, charging, closing active apps, emailing files, using the camera, updates, using the VGA adapter, printing, Apple TV and accessing 'My Documents' on the iPad. 

iPad: The Apps, highlights subject specific apps, as well as common education apps such as Socrative, Notability, and others. 

iPad: The Classroom, focuses on apps and websites that integrate well with the iPad, providing ways for faculty to engage students and implement lesson plans using iPads. iPad The Classroom, also meets the needs of faculty eager  to go paperless, differentiate instruction and assessments and flip their classroom.

8th Grade iPad Geniuses Volunteer at Arrupe Orientation

The boy geniuses, Jamie Kowilcik, Ryan Kowilcik, Bobby Beniers, Michael O'Donovan, Ethan Harris, Luke Sideropoulos, Andrew Pollis and Bach an Nguyen volunteered at Arrupe Orientation to demonstrate their expertise using iPads, specifically, the note taking app, Notability.


Notability is a note taking app that allows students to:

Write and type notes

Highlight

Create a palm rest

Record voice overs

Organize notes into folders by subject and categories

Cut/copy/paste

Outline

Insert and re size text boxes

Bold, italicize, underline, bullet

Insert web clips, PDFs, photos, and take photos with the iPad camera

Import PDFs and RTFs from cloud services

Auto-sync to cloud storage like Box and Dropbox

Password protect folders an documents

Spell check

Export via email, Dropbox, Box or print

Notability - Unleash Your Note Taking Ability.

Bobby Beniers '17, discusses file creation, organization and exporting notes to cloud services in Notability.