Setting up the iPads for intervention

Building iPad Wallpaper

Last spring, the technology department received 20 iPads from the PTO.  The reasons for purchasing these iPads was to use them in intervention settings throughout the building.

I have had an iPad for years and was on the verge to becoming a convert.  Then I had to manage more than one.  My feelings changed quickly.

I should have known after reading Steve Job's biography.  The term "single-user experience" took on a whole new meaning.  Apple wants everyone to own an iPad, not several people sharing one.  Apple has, however, complied with schools like us and has released enough tools to make it plausible, yet not nearly as easy as it should be, to set up iPads for multiple users to share.

Now my knowledge of all things Apple is limited, but I will share with you here the steps I used to set up different user profiles, added apps, and also planned the management of the iPads.  There may be an easier way, but I have found that this way works the best for our building (note: we work in a building with several technical limitations that I will describe throughout the post).

The iPads arrived in the spring.  Excited, an IT guy (the guy) and myself went to a training session about managing the iPads using the Configurator app.  The app is a tool that I believe Apple made after the fact for the iPads because it is clunky and not nearly as intuitive as most of Apple's offerings.  I am pretty sure that Apple created this app after demand for iPads in public environments became apparent. With that said, it still is not difficult to begin setting up profiles and backing up settings and creating an entire profile that does things like lock in-app purchases, password protections, other things you wouldn't want your child doing on the iPads.

After the workshop, I put together a method for setting up the iPads by taking home one of them, setting it up with the iTunes account, and then created a backup of the device.  Then, I was able to apply the backup to the rest of the devices.

Since then, The teachers using the iPads have found more apps and are beginning to find ways to supplement instruction and increase student achievement.  Now, we are dealing with the second phase of the implementation by creating several profiles for the iPads, making it reasonable to purchase apps in bulk and distribute to the grade levels that need selected apps that may not be appropriate for younger or older students.  This keeps app purchase costs down, but becomes a headache for trying to keep the different iPad profiles updated.

I set up three profiles.  Intervention, Primary, and Secondary.  After marking three iPads as the "master" for their selected profile, I can now copy selected iPads to their preferred profile and pass it on to the teachers for use.  We are still putting the final touches on this phase, mainly because:
1.  We lack a wireless network, so I must take the iPad home and do any updates or uploading there.  This simply just takes up time and adds a step or two to actually setting up the master profiles.
2.  Configuring apps is a pain.  You have to constantly keep checking which apps are checked in the list, or not even added to the configurator yet, adding more steps to an already confusing process.
3.  We have had constant troubles with the district iTunes account, so the account we use is a generic one I set up using my school email address.  Not ideal, but certainly easier to distribute apps.

Overall, using iPads in the classroom for intervention has been successful so far.  As we acquire more usability out of them through the use of wireless networks, I feel the sky is the limit.  Until then, we will continue using the iPads as best we can and I will continue to refine how and when iPads are updated and configured.

Tweeting Art

At the beginning of the school year, one of my goals is to get the students to become more reflective artists and discuss the principles and elements of art to enhance communication skills.  With the amount of time that we don't have available already, I was struggling with a way to get the students to talk more about their art without taking too much class time up.  Being the Art/Technology teacher, I dug deep into my technology tool bag and came up with an idea that will hopefully help me achieve my goal.

My Art Tweet
Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in educational circles.  Teachers are finding ways to incorporate the microblogging platform into their lessons in order to reach and engage students to participate and communicate using 21st century skills that will be beneficial to them in the future.

Twitter gives me just the right amount of characters to have students write about their art.  The 140-character format makes students think carefully about what they would like to tell others about the artwork and the process of creating it.  But, with standard Twitter rules, my elementary students are too young to have their own accounts, so I created one with the handle "MES artbot" and created a "worksheet" that gives students 140 blank spaces to add their art tweet.

After the students are finished with their tweet, I have them paste the half-sheet onto the back of their project.  Once that is done, I go through the projects in the morning and find a project with a great tweet.  Then, I take a pic of the project and post the tweet.  Here is what it looks like:


Tweets by @MESArtbot

Close Encounters of the Google Drive Kind

Our district, like many, has made the transition to using Google Apps for Education.  I could go on all day discussing the benefits and limitations that GA's has for schools, but for this entry, I would like to focus primarily on how this impacts the elementary students in my building and how I decided the appropriate procedures for me to introduce GA's in the technology classroom.

How to teach GA's to an elementary student?  Well, there are many different scenarios that can be used.  Most importantly from a teacher standpoint, is that you are able to have some prior knowledge of what your student's skill levels are.  Not just in terms of technology skills, but especially in reading.  There is certainly a lot of reading that needs to be done in order to communicate the specifics within GAs.  One way that I have tried to eliminate the reading deficiencies, is to share with the students a sort-of textbook GAs presentation.  As we go through the unit on GA's, I can adjust and update the presentation and students can access it within their Drive from home.

The presentation will always be a work in progress as we continue to add new skills for using GA's.  However, this presentation allows students to access skills we have covered in class and gives them the ability to review the presentation from home or during classroom computer time.  The point is, they can review this on their own time and hopefully share this resource with their parents when they are working in GA's.

Why a Google Drive presentation?

I could have just as easily used a site to collect and share this information, but I thought it would be too cumbersome of a project.  Here, I can add a page for each skill easily without having to manage a whole site.  Also, I wanted to be able to put the presentation right in their hands, and not have them look for it.  By sharing the presentation, the students will be able to find it easily and use it while they are signed into their account.  I could have used a document, but Google does not allow videos to be embedded into their documents, only presentations as of now.

You have resources, now what next?

The first step, is to get students to log into their account.  We do have a district login web page, but I have taught the kids that from home the easiest way is to just go to Google.com and click the "sign in" button in the top corner.  Teaching the students this way gives them the knowledge that if they can access Google, then they can access their apps.

Student usernames and passwords were generated by our technology department, and I simply create cards with labels on them that students use in the technology lab.  Also, an extra card is made for the 3rd and 4th grade students that they can take home and share/use with their parents.

Next post:  Our First Google Apps Assignment