Great session at RNH - many iPad questions!!

We had a terrific session down at the Reservoir Neighbourhood House the other week (21 April).

Four teachers, 4 iPads, 1 windows laptop and one projector.

Here are the questions & topics we started with. So many questions, some still unanswered.

PD register on the google drive, and other forms

• People were having trouble with the PD register, but we found out that Peter has put iPad-friendly link on the intranet. Thanks Peter!! *

The TV and the iPad 

Yes, we do need the appleTV to broadcast to the TV. We're not sure if people at the RNH will have access to an appleTV. So, what are the alternatives?

• A long HDMi cable and an iPad-to-Hdmi adaptor
• or plug the iPad into a data projector using this cable / adaptor option
• Let's find out more about the appleTV option.. Fraser? 

Looking for some teaching suggestions for very low level language and literacy


What are the good apps for teaching and learning?

• Assunta has a list for apps to trial on the iPads, including financial literacy with "Eddie Currency" (US app store only); Peter made a great list of apps too, and michael has integrated both of these lists into this file, "Apps for learning".
  (Anyone can view this file without sign-in. PRACE teachers please edit the file, add your comments & ideas - in the google drive/PRACE-shared-docs/e-learning/iPad (general info) folder).
• A Queensland VET group has put together a list of iPad & mobile apps for language and literacy, titled "Love Apptually". The apps are categorised to (for?) the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).
  (Direct PDF link.) (Link to Qld training site.) (Summary poster pdf)

We'll come back to this next time. Please add your suggestions in the comments below ;-)

Other iPad business, looking for ways to 

• cut & paste links on the iPad - eg from the web browser to an email
    ( .. we worked this out, and then found an easier way to do it )
• play NEAS mp3 files on the iPad via google drive
    ( .. Zoe is currently trialling this, using an app called Documents )
• record student voices and find the mp3 audio files
    ( This really varies according to the audio recording app you're using.
  Michael has reviewed a number of apps in this document. )
• get photos off the iPad and onto other computer / or in the cloud..?
    (  You can upload to google drive via the google drive app on your iPad.
    (  You can also plug in the USB/Lightning cable into your iPad & computer. The computer will then see the iPad as though it's an external drive.)

• editing photos - Catherine showed us how to add brightness in the camera roll
    (  .. "Edit" - top right corner )
• add shortcuts to iPad desktop
    ( .. home screen via safari share )
• different ways to get into the intranet
    ( .. eg sites.google.com )
• make folders for apps on the home screen
    ( .. drag one app icon onto another )

Also: 

• Which apple account should we use for the iPads - students vs personal?
    ( .. most people thought best to use student account in apple app store )
    ( .. but for google drive accounts, best to use your own PRACE account )
• What are the iPad apple store logins?
    ( .. not going to write this on the blog, but most people seem to know this now )
• What about printing from the iPad?
    ( .. this is working at Merrilands, thanks to Fraser & Ron's hours of problem-solving, but not at RNH yet. ) 

How to navigate the google drive
We'll have to come back to this one, including file sharing and permissions.

Other questions 

• what about labels in the gmail?

Other things to learn in future?

• stop-motion animation, says Catherine

If you need more detail than the tiny scraps offered here, let me know in the comment section.

All the best, Michael Chalk
digital learning coordinator at PRACE



* Many of these links will only work for people signed into their PRACE account.. apologies if you're visiting from elsewhere.

Photo: "Finally, I got my Ipad" by Jeuhua Yin, flickr, CC-NC-ND (creative commons at flickr).