Sharing Resources-iPad

As schools start using iPads more and more for teaching and learning the choice of method of saving content and transferring files created on iPads in schools is growing, and indeed evolving on a daily basis.
Ive previously touched upon this in an earlier blog entry - submitting work on an iPad, although things are changing fast out there, and now there are even more solutions......

Lets take the scenario where schools have introduced a single class set of iPads (16+). In this kind of set-up, usually the iPads are shared between different classes, and so it is essential that students are able to save their work and then be able to resume their coursework next time they are using the iPad - which for many schools may not necessarily be the same iPad. 

The problem is that all the apps don't share in the same way.  Some allow sharing to Dropbox, Box, WebDAV, Googledocs or emailing.  Currently these are the preferred options for saving and sharing for many classes and staff.
However, for many teachers this is confusing, they are unsure about which method of sharing they should be using for which app.  The inconsistency between apps is not helpful for the busy teacher and they would prefer a common and effective system for saving work with all apps when using iPads for learning.

Some of the more reliable methods for sharing and retrieving student work include this list of suggestions from colleagues: 

Showbie - see previous blog entry for details - now with teacher voice-recording facility to feedback on students work :-)

Three Rings - see previous blog entry for details.

Filebrowser

You can add your school network drives to this app, allowing you to open and save from your school network to and from a variety of apps.  It works well with the iLife suite (Keynote, Pages), Book creator and strip designer.

This is a huge step forward in using shared devices in school, but schools need more apps to have the ability to export the actual project file and not just the final file, that is the book creator file and not just the final ebook.

Documents Pro - Store and view documents, transferring them easily from any Mac or PC.  Supports PDF viewing and full-resolution images. Play music; watch movies; access your cloud storage or download from the internet. The WebDAV file transfer works well on internal wireless networks.

iFiles is also a favourite amongst teachers but some users have reported that on occasions iFiles doesn't always show up in a web browser when trying to upload content into the file structure.



My final app for now is Edmodo, used by many teachers to set assignments and annotate responses. Many schools find that students are happy with this solution as it is cross platform and supports learning with library resources.

Let me know what you decide to use and how it goes!

Submitting work via iTunes

If you're using an iPad you may have noticed that some of the Apps, such as Keynote, iMovie, Garageband, Pages and some book-creator apps give you an option to export work to iTunes.  This is really simple to do and offers the teacher a simple, convenient way to access student work and mark it.
1. From the App choose the Export icon and select iTunes.
2. Now open iTunes on your Mac.
3. Make sure sync via wifi is enabled so that you can access student iPads discreetly.
4. In iTunes, on the left select the student device you want to view work on.
5. Next, scroll down the main window until you can view 'File Sharing' and click on the App that did the sharing in the list (you may need to scroll within the list itself). Your document should appear, with options to 'Add' or 'Save To'.
6. Choose 'Save To' - view the work and annotate/ mark as appropriate.

For more about this visit Digital Roadtrip's blog.

Sharing work on an iPad is evolving on a daily basis.  Its far from consistent or ideal at the moment but im sure that a standard will emerge over time.

Ideally, students need to be able to publish everything directly.

The best method would be for all students to have their own personal, reflective-learning blog which would be accessible by other students, teachers and parents. It's focus would be on 'How I learn and what I have been learning' or as UK primary teachers like to refer to it - WALT and WILF - 'We are learning today' and 'What Im looking for.'

Essentially this system will replace the  existing networks running in school and all work will be saved to the Cloud or similar.

For more information contact me: barbaraainscough@mac.com

Follow @boobelle

Submitting work on an iPad

For those schools introducing iPads into the classroom to support learning and teaching, one of the biggest concerns from teachers in schools is about students sharing their work with the teacher and how students will submit assignments for assessment. 

As far as I can see, there seem to be four key options for doing this across a range of Apps:

• Email a document
• Send to WebDAV
• Send to Dropbox
• Use Edmodo

• Lots of Apps do have a 'send as email' option, however most students will not have school email accounts, so emailing is ruled out altogether.

• A second option supported by various Apps is to send to WebDAV.
  Try Dav-Pocket for iPad and iPhone, which is free.  It is very simple to use, fast and secure and links to your Google Docs account, which is a real plus for some schools.You can access your Google Docs via WebDAV without directly needing to use a Google Account. But first you need to authorise DAV-pocket to access Google Docs.
  To get started create a DAV-pocket account.
  Once successfully created, the link 'Authorise DAV-pocket service' will become available.
  Click to Authorise and you are taken to the Google Account sign in page. Signing in is necessary to authorise DAV-pocket access to Google Docs.  Click 'Grant access' and now you are all set-up via WebDAV using your DAV-pocket account.

• A third and very popular option is to use Dropbox -  this works well, it's free, fast, secure and for most teachers, intuitive to use. Where an App only supports the email option for exporting work, then you can also use sendtodropbox.com account for the iPads.
  Although the students will not have direct access to the Dropbox account, they are able to send to an 'Attachments' folder in your Dropbox. The teacher can then view and download work from Dropbox as required. In order to do this students will need to connect with Dropbox to get a unique email address and then start sending files - after a few minutes the files will appear in the Attachments folder, ready to be viewed as and when.

• Ive just heard there is a fourth option, but Ive not tried this myself yet.  The Edmodo iPad app now enables students to upload media to their library and then send in as an assignment. This would allow for a great workflow for students to create a digital portfolio of all their work, which they can view from any computer or device.  Edmodo is free and many teachers rate it highly as a tool to support learning.

If you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear from you .......
For more information contact me: barbaraainscough@mac.com

Follow @boobelle