One of the reasons we got 60 iPads is so that they could be shared amongst colleagues. This week I witnessed my fellow teachers dive in to the iPad-in-the-classroom experience. First, Michelle Navarro tried them out in her Biology class. She asked the students to draw a "signaling pathway" using a whiteboard app. The app was supposed to let two students work on the same drawing at the same time through bluetooth. However, I think our internet blocks this from happening. We are also unable to talk between iPad and Apple TV so we are unable to project the individual iPads wirelessly. The students have to walk up to the front of the class and connect their iPad directly to the projector. We are working with our IT department on this. Anyway, when I visited Michelle's class the students were engaged even if not exactly as planned.
My other colleague Cheryl Shimazu used the iPads in her Chemistry 111 lab. In this first semester General Chemistry class, she had the students use a "screencasting" app called ShowMe to perform and record a chemistry problem as they solved it. They got so into it that the students and Professor Shimazu forgot about the time. I came in to pay a visit at the time the class was supposed to be ending and they were still very much involved! When Cheryl realized that class was already over it was quite a scramble to collect all of the iPads. But just the fact that they forgot time tells me a lot.
So in both of these cases the planned activity took much longer than expected but the students appeared to be quite motivated and engaged. This seems to be the theme with my own experience as well, which I will share later.
Nuts and Bolts
Obviously we need a system to make sure that these devices don't grow legs and walk away. To keep it simple I assigned my students the same iPad. The two sets of 30 iPads have different colored covers, red and gray. So with a label maker we labeled the iPads 1-30 for red and the same for the gray iPads. We put one label on the screen (not covering the view), one on the outside of the flap and one on the back of the cover. We tried to make the labels look as professional as possible. I think if it looks like we are taking good care of the iPads the students will too. However, we picked a bright yellow label.
For the check-out sheet, I decided to go digital. I thought it would be best to use a Google form to that the students could simply fill out digitally and send. Michelle created the first one and I used her basic idea for my forms. I made one for each class. You can see the form I created below. (If you click on the image of the forms you get an enlarged version that you can actually read.)
There needs to be accountability. So my colleague Michelle created a contract:
I included the tinyurl on the contract. It was easy for the students to input this url into the web browser and go and fill it out. But I don't want them to have to input this url every time they use the iPad. There is this neat little trick with Safari on the iPad. There is a button in the top left corner with an arrow. (On iOS 7 it is an arrow pointing up from a box) Once you hit this button you will see this:
Although the contracts were paper, much of the rest of the "management" can be digital. That way I have no forms or slips of paper to lose. Thanks to my colleagues for the help and ideas.
In Styli
There are lots of kinds of stylus out there. I decided to go with Griffin. It turned out to be well under ten dollars. (Thanks for finding that price purchasing department!) I have had a Griffin for a long time and it seemed to be dependable. I am sure there are others that are just as good, but I had to end the online research. I should have ordered the styli months ago. Not having them slowed things down. But once we got them I had a student label them with the same bright yellow labels as the iPads. I gave them the numbers 1-30 again. These styli have a clip on them just like a ballpoint pen. So I simply have the students hook the stylus over the flap of the iPad when they turn them in. That was the best idea I could come up with. At least I know if one is lost what number it was and can go back to the student.
Students are already starting to see the value of the iPad on their own
At the beginning of the semester I had this one student come up to me holding her own personal iPad. She asked me if she could input all of her lab data directly on the tablet. I usually require the students to go to my web page and print out the lab manual and bring it to each class. She wanted to do it all electronically. I remember telling her "No, I am just not there yet." But I think as soon as I got home I regretted that decision. So the next week I told her that she could input her data onto the tablet. The app she is using is "Notability". That app allows you to import pdfs. and then write on them with a stylus or finger and it works just like writing on paper. I think there are lots of issues to settle. Could students then just email or post their work on line for the next group of students to just put on there iPad and then turn in as their work? I need to work this all out but I think that more and more students will be bringing iPads to school and will want to use them to collect and record lab data. Another issue is, how will this student turn in her work? Will she email it to me? Will she just end up printing it out anyway? If she emails it will I have a management disaster trying to organize all of the student work? How will I know that the work is original to the student? Anyway, I decided to try it out now since it is only one student.
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