iPad Pilot Program Launched!

We finally launched the iPad Pilot program in eighth grade science on Monday! Many of the students had not before used an iPad and were very excited to use one in the classroom - one student even wanted to continue to work on his class project during his free period today so he could finish (I wonder if the iPad influenced him?). 

The teacher has big plans for this class - she is using several Apps that together help to create an interactive learning experience for the students. mTouch+ enables students to access their Moodle content from the iPad; Explain Everything is an app that lets students create content for the class - they can draw and type as well as record the screen and their voices while drawing and typing! A powerful assessment tool. Another App they are using is Evernote (a personal and professional favorite of mine!). Evernote enables the students to take notes on the iPad, personal and group, and share them not only with their classmates, but also between any devices they have. Evernote syncs between mobile and desktop devices as well as with the Internet. You should definitely check it out! Here is the link to their website: http://www.evernote.com/ 

Of course, there are several Science Apps they are using. Chem Lab, VideoScience, and QRC Elements are a few of them!

Final Setup of the iPad Pilot

I spent Thursday and Friday of last week setting up all of the iPads for the classroom. It was a tedious process - we have 15 iPads to set up. One thing I did not realize about the case for the iPads is that you can not sync and charge at the same time! If the sync cable is attached, then the iPads will not charge. Other than that glitch, the set up went well. I had to touch every device because out of the box, the iPads have to be configured at the hardware level as well as the software level (you know, all those questions that came with iOS 5?!).

See my next post for what is happening in the classroom with them!