iPads. So then, why iPads?

So if there's one thing we're learning, it's that this process is all about decisions. Not "what am I going to have for breakfast?" type decisions - these decisions need to be weighed out and considered, because a plethora of other decisions will depend on these early ones.

In all honesty, the decision to go with the iPads was only complicated by one caveat. Ever since they were introcuded we have been taken with Google's suite of applications, namely Google Chrome (and their virtual favourites bar), Google Drive and Google Docs. The potential of sharing and accessing work remotely has great appeal to our population. As we were approaching our purchasing deadline there was lots of talk about Google creating iOS supported apps so we inevitably went with iPads anyways, more on that later.

When all was said and done, we chose to go with Apple iPads for this project fora few reasons:

1) Apple is universally regarded as having not only more, but superior apps, many of which can be easily tailored to education. iBooks, iTunes U, and Newsstand all provide potential opportunities for an Alternative classroom that from the outside seem almost too good to be true. One of the goals of this project will be to determine if these apps actually do improve the classroom experience for teachers and students alike.

2) The iPads offer a completely integrated package of hardware, software and networking setup and for a program like us, with little to no tech. expertise on site and limited opportunity to spend time learning new equipment, the user friendly (famous for not coming with an instruction manual) iPads won out.

3) Finally, the ease of ordering the iPad with our board (HWDSB) pushed us over the edge - after seeing an official release supporting iPads in HWDSb schools we decided to go that way. By ordering through the board purchaser we avoided any red tape regarding education discounts, we sped up the process of getting out money, and we should even get a deal on our HST.

As we've already stated, our first batch of iPads arrived a few weeks ago and we're still getting used to them and their unique iOS systems, but so far we're pleased with out decision. The Google Chrome and Google Drive apps are already installed and seem to be working well, and while we await Google Docs to be created/released we have found something that does the same thing (CloudOn - see app review elsewhere in the blog).

As always, we'd be interested to hear anything from teachers with similar experiences. Let us know what you think of the blog.

Zite app

The Zite app we believe will be useful for our students. It is a news app that over time you can mold it into following news stories and themes that are appropriate and of interest to out students. When you use Zite, you can create custom headings for its news search engine to find. These articles will be sent to your Zite. When you read them, you have the opportunity to ask for more from that author or along that theme. As well, you can state you didn't like the article. The app will continue to search for articles based on what you read and what your response were to each article. Eventually, you have a custom news source for your students.

Teacher Pal app

We were looking for a good app that you could use for attendance and other admin duties. The Teacher Pal app is very basic. It does allow for easy attendance and mark tracking. Though it will not be that advantageous to our set up as well will have to enter attendance into the school board system separately. Thus creating duplication. There is a PowerSchool app that is available and next year our board will be using that as their main data entry program. So hopefully, this will improved once that takes place.

Cloudon app

We discovered a free app called Cloudon. This app allows you to view all document formats on the ipad. As well, you can view and alter google docs. This may be a game changer for us in regards to ipad use. Many of our students will have a Google account that we will use for school. The concern was that the ipad would not view these documents. That problem is solved. As well, Cloudon can view PDF files.

A Beginning...

We are sending our iPads flowers.
Yup, so far it's love at first swipe.

Alright, our apologies for the delay between the last post and now, the regular "end of year chaos" took over and we thought of nothing besides culminating tasks, credit rescue, report cards and finally graduation. But all of that business is done, and so our aim is being redirected towards this project.

Since we last spoke we also received shipment on our first batch of iPads. It took only 6 days all the way from Longhua, Shenzen, China, and we tracked them all the way! It was like Christmas morning, only hotter and without any indoor trees. We will discuss why we ended up choosing the iPad vs. other tablet options in a later post.  

Since receiving the first batch we've been performing plenty of experiments and making discoveries on a daily basis. Culling the free apps from the good apps and determining how these little toys can make our jobs easier is all we are thinking about. We also need to determine what accessories we'd like to pick up - perhaps a few keyboards? One of us feels strongly about stylus use, so those are getting a good look over. We will try to update this BLOG regularly and keep you all up to date re: our discoveries and our defeats.