iPads, tablets and IWB's

iPads...

They are starting to pop up in primary and secondary schools all over Australia and from the blogs I read - all over the world. Mostly on a trial basis to see what teachers and students can do with them in the classroom.

One of the questions I have been asked at conferences recently is "How do I integrate my IWB with an iPad?"

There are a couple of ways to do it...

• AppleTV method - With the release of iOS5 the new AppleTV and a new projector with HDMI - you now have a great solution to getting content from the iPad to the projector wirelessly. 
• How does it work? Connect the AppleTV to your projector and link it in with the same wireless network as the iPad. The iPad will recognise that there is and AppleTV on the network and let you mirror what is on the ipad to the AppleTV and therefore the projector.
• The downside to this is that anyone with a iPad will be able to push their iPad screen to any AppleTV screen on the network. In some schools that would be too much temptation for some kids.
• Cloud Whiteboard solution - Use something like the eBeam connect cloud whiteboard. This lets you control who gets to participate and track participation. With the additional free app of eBeam Snapcam students/teachers can send photos to the whiteboard. It will also work with laptops and Android tablets as well.
• How does it work? You connect your laptop to the IWB as per normal - go to eBeam connect, login and start a new board. up in settings there will be a meeting number that you can show to students so they can also join the board after logging in on the iPad.
• The downside - Its a bit slow at the moment due to it being a beta program based in the US. 

If you know of any other way to integrate the two technologies feel free to leave a comment so I can follow it up.

The Royal Show and Coin Machines

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I went to the Perth Royal Show last night. For those of you who are not from Australia, it's like a State fair in the US where farmers come to town to show off their produce and animals, there is also a side show and exhibitions.

One of popular machines in side show alley is the coin pushers - you know the one where you drop in a coin and it pushes them all together and if you are lucky some will go over the edge.

As a kid I never really noticed the mechanics - just the possibilities of a huge windfall right in front of me. This time I had a look at the machines themselves - as the coins get closer to the edge, the machine has a "gutters" on each side (usually covered) that coins fall into - you won't hear them go through as the have dampened the sound as they fall into the machine safe box. There is also the lip on the edge of the cliff that puts a little more resistance on the coins about to go over forcing more coins into the gutter. The overall effect is a machine that looks like it will give out change but is actually maintaining the status quo collecting a lot more money than you think.

Coincidentally (no linguistic pun intended) I came across this piece today by Kevin Honeycutt - Who likens the machine to schools. I agree with the analogy, you seem to put a lot of time and money in but you get very little reward, even though you can see it right in from of your eyes. I would include the gutters as places where change gets lost due the construction of the school and it's policies. It is always an "out" for teachers who are being pushed to change but find it easier to do nothing and blame it on the system. It's also why kids sometimes want to tip the machine over (TILT! TILT! TILT!) due to the sheer frustration of not getting anything out of it.

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Learning to use IT in the classroom

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I visit a lot of schools during my working week for both demonstration and training. One thing that always crops up is the percieved lack of ability of anything tech based. There is certainly the desire to use it (either push or pull), but there is not a lot of training opportunites for teachers in the use of IT. There are paid services out there but most schools don't think of investing in them because, well the roof is leaking and the fence is broken and there is just not enough money to go around. If you do have money to throw at it go and get Atomic Learning from my friend Bryn Jones - a brilliant concept with a huge bredth and depth of IT in education training for both teachers and students.

Here is a free one I will be passing on to those teachers who are at the beginning stages of integrating IT into their classroom but need the extra confidence gained from more formalised training.

LearniT-TeachiT http://www.nortellearnit.org/technology/

Videos and best practice to help teachers make confident steps in using IT in their classrooms.

Thanks to Larry http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org for the tip.