Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Apple TV and iPad Pro a Match Made for Chemistry Teaching!

Today was another milestone.  I gave my first lecture while moving around the classroom...and never stopped writing on the screen at the same time!

Up to this point I had to keep the iPad Pro tethered to the VGA cable so that the iPad would project. So although the iPad Pro makes my lectures much better as I can write on my lecture outline which is on  the iPad with the Apple Pencil I was still stuck in the front of the classroom.

Apple TV changes all of that.  I simply tethered the Apple TV to the VGA port with the HDMI to VGA adaptor.  In other words this connects the Apple TV to the projector.  Then with an up finger swipe on the iPad I got to the Apple AirPlay Screen.


You can then select which Apple TV device you want to use.  A four numeral code will come up that you input the first time and then your iPad is "mirrored" onto the screen just as if you were connected with a cable.  And the best part is you are now untethered.  This code makes it so that you cannot "hijack" an Apple TV device that is in another room, although I was only asked for the code the first time so maybe  I can take over my colleagues lecture tomorrow!!

We now have an Apple TV device in each of our rooms.  I was able to give the Apple TV a specific name with the room number followed by Chemistry.  We just store the device in a drawer and take it out and plug it in right before we use it.  This process takes just as long as tethering the iPad to the lightning to VGA cable I used before.  I can have it all hooked up before the projector is warmed up.

I could walk around the room as I wrote on the iPad and what I wrote was on the screen.  This allows me to walk around the room and interact with my students, assess their progress, and not lose the ability to write on my notes.  I did not have to walk all the way from the back corner of the room to the front to resume the problem I had started.  I could even lay the iPad in front of a student, hand them the Apple Pencil and ask them to finish a problem I had started.  I am going to have to find a new "rhythm" with this new freedom in the classroom.  The only other issue was that the projected image is smaller.  In other words for some reason the image projected does not take up the same amount of screen space as when I project while tethered.  We will have to figure out a way to fix that.

So far I have been able to train almost all of our Biology and Chemistry Faculty in using the iPad Pro in their lectures and labs.  This device gives professors a new freedom to not be stuck in front as the "sage on the stage".  We can now move about our students and interact with them and even hand them the device and let them teach once in a while.  I must say though that I work with the best group of talented, hard working, and inspiring colleagues.  They teach me so much, want to keep learning themselves, and we all work so well together.  My dean and her support staff have kept saying "YES!" to so much of what we have asked for.  As much as the technology is useful and helps us create at a higher level, I think that having is good group of like-minded people willing to take risks and try new things may be even more important.