iPads in the ABE Classroom

swbrandt@mnliteracy.orgEducational Technology TrainerMinnesota Literacy Councilwww.mnliteracy.org

Warm-UpWith a partner or small group, discuss:

1) What have you heard (or seen) that interests you in iPads?2) What are your questions about the iPad? 3) Why do you want to use iPads in the classroom?

Be ready to share your thoughts with the rest of the group.

Are iPads a reasonable choice for your program? Here are some factors to consider:

Pros +Form factor –lightweight, thin, yet with a large enough screen to view things clearlyBattery life – up to 10 hours vs. 3 or 4 hours for a laptopTouch screen technology is becoming more widely used, more familiar to studentsApps = cheaper software (including many free or free to demo); format allows for creation of millions of apps by both small and large developers“Cool factor” and intuitive design – “friendlier” than a traditional PCLower price point for a basic iPad than for a basic laptop computer

Your thoughts? _____________________________________________________________________

Cons -A new technology to learn Labor intensive software distributionKeyboarding is difficult without an external keyboardRelies on wireless networks- slower connections/less secureLimited number of ports/adaptersPrice rises when you add accessories like cases and keyboards

Your thoughts? ______________________________________________________________________

Considering Cost: iPad 2 and iPad 3

March 2012 iPad 2 price ranges from the Best Buy website are shown below.Price differences are largely based on the hard drive size and 3G (cellular network) connectivity.

March 2012 iPad 3 price ranges from the Apple website are show below.As with the iPad 2, price differences are largely based on the hard drive size and 4G (cellular network) connectivity. iPad 3 prices are typically $100 higher than an iPad 2 with equivalent features.

Navigating the iPad (Portions adapted from Getting Started with the iPad by Patrick Jordan http://ipadinsight.com )

iPad External Buttons – Turn It On and Off and Lots More

You’ve probably noticed that the iPad has very few buttons. When holding the iPad in Portrait mode, there is the Power button at the top right, the Home button bottom center, and the Volume and Mute buttons near the top of the right-hand side of the iPad.

How to Power Off the iPad: To power off the iPad, hold down the Power button for a few seconds, until you see the ‘Slide to Power Off’ bar across the top of the screen. Slide across that and the iPad will shut down. To restart it, press the Power button again for about 3 seconds.

Uses for the Home Button: The home button is your key to navigating your way around the iPad. When you are in any application (or app as applications for iPad and iPhone are known) you simply tap the home button to return to the home screen, where you’ll see all your app icons.

If you have multiple home screens (which you will if you start adding more apps to your iPad) tapping on the home screen will take you back to the screen that the last used app is located on. To immediately jump back to the first home screen; just tap the home button again from whichever screen you landed on.

A double-tap on the home button brings up the Multitasking Bar. This bar shows you all of the recently run apps. A single tap on any of them will switch you to that app – so this is a very fast way to switch between apps. From the Multitasking Bar you can also use basic controls for your iPod media player app, adjust the brightness on the iPad, and toggle the screen orientation on and off (more on this below).

Dock Connector Port: Just below the home button, on the bottom center of the iPad, is the dock connector port. This is where you plug in the cable used to sync and charge the iPad.

This doc connector port also allows for hook ups to various A/V cables and inputs including keyboards, external drives, external battery backups, and card readers.

How To Quickly Mute the iPad’s Volume: To mute the iPad’s volume (across all apps) you can use the Mute switch at the top right-hand side of the iPad, or hold down the volume down (bottom) portion of the Volume button on the right side of the iPad for 2 seconds.

In the settings area you can also set the “mute" button to “hold orientation” instead so your screen doesn’t change from portrait to landscape.

Using the Multi-Touch Interface

Basic Controls: The iPad is a touch-based device, meaning you can do everything you need to do on the device through taps, swipes, pinches and other gestures on its screen. Here are just a few examples of the ways you can use touch to control the iPad:

– Tap on app icons to open apps.

– Tap buttons and icons within apps and games to get around and take actions.

– Pinch outwards with your thumb and forefinger to zoom in (increase size of text/images) in all the built-in apps (Photos, Maps, etc.) and most 3rd party apps. Pinch inwards to zoom back out.

– In many apps, you can also double-tap to zoom in and double-tap with two fingers to zoom out.

– Swiping up and down and left and right moves you around a page or between screens within apps. Swiping left and right moves you between home screens when you begin to have more apps than can fit on just one home screen (the limit per home screen is 20).

– Tap and hold is also a useful touch action at times, for instance when saving images.

Bring up the Search: Using the Spotlight search on the iPad is a great way to find things quickly and even to launch apps quickly. To bring up the Search screen, when you are at the first home screen just swipe left to right once. From any other home screen, just tap the Home button once (to return to your first page) and then once again (don’t do two quick presses together – one and a pause and one more).

*** You can decide exactly what is included in Spotlight searches via the Settings app. Go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search to set which areas of the iPad are searched when you use it. You can choose to include or exclude contacts, apps, mail, notes, and more.

The iPad Dock

The dock is the bar that sits at the bottom of the home screen. It can hold up to six of your favorite / most frequently used apps, so that they are always easily at hand to open up. You can add and remove apps to the dock to fit your tastes. To remove an app from the dock tap and hold on the app’s icon until it begins to wiggle, then simply drag it out of the dock and onto the home screen. To add an app to the dock, tap and hold on any app icon until the app icons begin to wiggle, then drag the desired app icon onto the dock. (This also allows you to rearrange app icons or move them to different home screens.)

How to Lock Rotation on the iPad Screen: This setting tells the iPad not to change orientation while you are using it. Use the Multitasking Bar, as mentioned above. With the Multitasking Bar open, scroll all the way to the left on the bar and you’ll see a square icon with a circling arrow inside it. Tap on that icon to toggle screen rotation lock on and off.

Using Notes on the iPad: Once you have opened a new note and typed in some text, you can tap within the text to place your cursor for editing. If you tap and hold your finger on the screen a magnifying glass will appear allowing you a close up of the text. When you release you will have the option of Selecting some of the text or all of it for editing purposes. You can also tap with two fingers slightly apart to highlight an area of text.

Using the Camera on the iPad 2. Tap the camera icon to start taking pictures. Tap the camera icon on the middle of the task bar to take a picture. The slide in the lower right hand corner of the task bar lets you switch to video mode. The icon in the upper right hand corner lets you take a picture of yourself.

Surfing the Web with Safari Activity: go to these two websites. Do you notice any issues with how the sites display?

https://www.mnliteracy.orghttp://www.wechoosethemoon.org

Activity: Visit 3 websites you would want your students to use:

1 works / doesn’t work

2 works / doesn’t work

3 works /doesn’t work

As you have probably figured out by now, the iPad does not support Flash. Many websites incorporate Flash, so you may have trouble using your favorite websites on the iPad. When in doubt, test it before you send students there!

The App Store – Adding Apps to the iPad:

In all, there are over 50,000 apps designed specifically for the iPad as of this writing, and well over 200,000 apps designed for the iPhone that will also run on the iPad.

The App Store is where you go to find, download, and install apps on your iPad. You’ll need an account with Apple’s iTunes in order to use the App Store. It’s free to set one up though it does require that you specify a payment method (credit card or Paypal). There are many good free apps for the iPad and also paid apps of course. The majority of paid apps fall somewhere within the $0.99 – $9.99 range, though there are some that are more expensive as well. Here’s a list of apps and games for the iPad that Apple features in their iPad pages on the web – a good mix covering a range of categories: http://www.apple.com/ipad/apps-for-ipad/

ACTIVITY : Open the App Store. Search through the free apps and download at least three. (Check out the “Recommended Apps” handout for suggestions if you don’t have any ideas of what to look for. Note that not all apps on that list are free to download.)

Apps I tried:

1 liked / disliked

2 liked / disliked

3 liked / disliked

4 liked / disliked

5 liked / disliked

How To Move Apps on and Between Home Screens: You can move apps around within a home screen and between home screens. To do so, again you tap and hold on any app icon until the apps start wiggling. Then tap on the app you want to move and drag it to your desired location for it.

How To Remove an App: If an app is not what you expected or is no longer useful to you, it’s easy to get rid of it. Just tap and hold on an app icon until the icons start wiggling. You’ll see a little X within a black circle at the left top of the app icons – tap on that X on any app you want to remove.

Using Folders to Organize Your iPad Apps:

Once you get to know the App Store you will probably find that your collection of iPad apps grows very quickly. Soon you may have many home screens worth of apps and it can become a bit of a challenge to organize them. Folders are a huge help in this area.

To create a new folder you tap and hold on any app icon and then drag one app onto another one that you want to group it with in a folder. That will create a new folder, to which you can then add further apps (up to 20) as desired.

Rapid App Switching: The iPad has an elegant system for switching rapidly between recently used apps – via its Multitasking Bar. You double-tap the Home button to pull up the Multitasking Bar. It will show you all of your recently used apps – and you can switch into any of them by just tapping on them on the bar. If you swipe to the right on the Multitasking Bar you also have access to basic controls for the iPod app, a brightness slider control, and the screen.

How To Force an App to Close: If you have an app on the iPad that has stopped responding properly, and will not close just by the normal method of pressing the Home button, here’s how to force it to close down. Hold the Power Button for a few seconds until you see the Slide to Power Off bar – don’t slide on that, and don’t hit the Cancel button at the bottom of the screen – go and press and hold the Home button for a few seconds while those are showing and wait until you see the app go away and a drop back to the home screen.

Working with Microsoft Office Documents on the iPad: There are several good options for working with MS Office documents on the iPad. Here are a few of the better ones:

QuickOffice and Documents To Go: Two of the leading apps for both viewing and editing MS Office docs on the iPad.Office2 HD is another good option here.Apple’s iWork Suite for the iPad: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote make up this suite for the iPad.

How to Hard Boot the iPad: If your iPad becomes unresponsive – i.e. does not react to taps and gestures on the screen or to home button presses – then you need a hard reboot to snap it back to normal behavior. To perform a hard reboot you hold down the Power and Home buttons at the same time for close to 10 seconds. Ignore the Slide to Power Off bar across the top of the screen when it appears and just keep holding the two buttons until you see the iPad screen go black and then see the Apple logo on the screen as it restarts.

Free Exploration Time: Things to Try

Research and explain the following: How to make bookmarks the Safari browser the iPad.

Research and explain the following: How to print with the iPad.

Use the Maps app to find driving directions.

Use the YouTube app to find iPad tips or tricks we did not talk about.

Use Photobooth to create a series of cool pictures and demonstrate them in a slideshow.

An activity for two iPads: download the Skype app, create an account (or login with your existing account) and do a Skype chat with another group.

Download either the Kindle app and a free Kindle book, or the iBooks app and a free iBook.

Research three ways to get a document onto your iPad.

Visit the iTunes store and download 2 free songs.

Visit the iTunes store and download a free podcast.

Sync with Your Computer

Syncing information between your iPad and computer is a vital part of making best use of the device. Items you can sync include photos, contacts, calendars, music, movies, apps, and more. You should setup sync between your computer and iPad as soon as possible and get in the habit of doing a sync regularly. You will also get major updates for the operating system software of the iPad via iTunes on your computer.

iOS 5 has an option that will automatically download the updates for system software.

Syncing your computer will do a backup of everything from your iPad to your computer and also transfer purchases made via iTunes (and Audible.com )to your iPad.

For a good overview of syncing your iPad with your computer, see Apple’s support document on this subject here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1386

2 Hours Later

What I came to learn:

1

2

3

What I found out:

1

2

3

What I still need to find out:

1

2

3

My next action steps to move forward are:

1 Date ______________

2 Date ______________

3 Date ______________

So what’s worth downloading?Here is a list of recommended apps:

Educational – Teen/Adult Audience1. Khan Academy2. iTunes U3. Clear Speech from the Start4. Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary HD5. Oxford Advanced American Dictionary6. Good at Math7. VoiceThread8. Math Drills9. MathBoard10. Flashcardlet (Flashcards) – used in conjunction with the Quizlet.com website11. GED Exam Math12. OmniGraphSketcher13. U.S. Citizenship 2012 Edition14. Science 360 for iPad15. Solar Walk – 3D Solar System Model16. iReader VOA Special Lite (access to content from VOA News Special English website)

Educational – Children’s (may also be useful for adults learning literacy or basic skills)1. ABC Pocket Phonics (Lite)2. Starfall ABCs3. LetterForms4. Learn to Read, Learn to Write5. The Missing Letter (Dolch Nouns)6. See.Touch.Learn – teachers can create lessons using this app7. U.S. States and Capitals Puzzle Match8. Presidents by the Number9. Super Why! for iPad10. Super Speller: Create Your Own Spelling Tests11. Sentence Maker

Books, Videos, Music & other Media1. iBooks2. Kindle for iPad3. Pandora Radio4. PBS for iPad5. NPR Music6. Video Editor Free7. Videolicious8. ScreenChomp9. Flickr10. Shutterfly for iPad11. TED12. Smithsonian Channel for iPad13. NASA App HD

News1. MPR News2. NPR for iPad3. ProPublica4. The Guardian Eyewitness5. CNET6. CNN7. Zite

Communications & Social Media1. Twitter2. FaceBook3. Skype4. Gmail5. Yelp!6. Flipboard

Productivity1. Documents to Go2. Dropbox3. Evernote4. Writings5. iA Writer6. iWork Suite: Pages, Numbers, Keynote7. UPAD8. Calculator for iPad Free9. SlideShark: PowerPoint Presentations on the iPad

Reference1. Encyclopedia Britannica – note: though listed as free, it costs $1.99 per month to use.2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary3. Dictionary.com4. Google Translate

Other1. Weather+2. Google Earth3. Drawing Pad4. ColorBox HD5. Photo Cookbook (Quick & Easy)6. Epicurious7. WallPapers HD8. Readability – read webpages in an easy-to-read format9. Alarm Clock HD Free10. Vital Signs Camera - Philips