Set+Up+Guide

By Jonathon Cusack (2011)

Setting up an iPad project in schools is no simple task. But the following guide will provide you with everything that you need to firstly consider and then get started.

 **How many iPads for your school?**  A firm decision needs to be taken when assessing how many iPads are needed for your school, the money is going to come directly from school funding, they are not a DEC supported device. With your school you should really look at how the Information Technology is being used. If there are computers rooms gathering dust or only being used for word processing, interactive white boards and eBeams that aren’t being used or only used as a replacement for a regular white board then the number of iPads should be kept to a bare minimum. We have a school of approximately two hundred and sixty students, and at this stage ten is the ideal number. Ten iPads allow for use with small groups or one iPad between two or three students. It’s important to remember that the iPad should only be used as a support device, the teacher is still the facilitator of learning. Students should always be supervised when using any App, much like they are supervised throughout the classroom when they doing any other work. A bank of thirty iPads is not necessarily going to make an effective lesson, and at nearly six hundred dollars per device a smaller number is easier to manage, easier to update and certainly easier to be effective as a learning tool.  If you talk to your local supplier, or even a chain like Target then it may be possible to get some sort of discount for a bulk purchase. We were able to secure a deal of 5% off each device when we bought them at Target. Although they didn’t arrive all at once, this extra saving allowed us to buy cases for them that were just one grade better.

 **Which iPad?**  The base model is more than sufficient, the 16GB Wi-Fi model. At our school we have four Mac AirPorts which give all of the major areas of the school access to the Wi-Fi network. When the iPad is initially connected once it will remember the network and join automatically. Remember to put the DEC proxy settings into the network under the settings tab, Server: proxy.det.nsw.edu.au Port: 8080. Then when you open Safari you will be asked for your username and password. This your user name and password for the portal. If your iPad is upgraded to iOS5 then all the Apps that work on line will function. However if the iPad is still on iOS4 it will not, as iOS4 does not allow third party Apps to have proxy access.  Alternatively if your school wishes to avoid the DEC portal, which means the students must be under constant supervision, then the 3G model is available. The downside being that you must accept the fact that you will have to pay monthly for data charges and each iPad will need its own sim card.  Finally, remember that a new line of iPads is introduced every eighteen months, so if you look, you will be able to find a better product, or alternatively, waiting will allow you to buy the previous model for much cheaper.

 **Cases? Storage? Charging?**  The case isn’t as important as it might seem, as long as there is some form of basic protection then they will be secure, it’s a very sturdy device. However, kids are kids and so at our school I originally took all the students in small groups to use the iPads and test the Apps. At this time I gave them basic iPad care education. Now all the students have a basic idea of how to take care of them and use them from start-up to shutdown. But this of course comes down to supervision, with ten devices it is much easier to ensure the iPads are being treated with respect, and a whole class set would make this more difficult.  The cases with a keyboard are something that we didn’t purchase. It essentially turns the iPad into a MacBook and defeats the purpose of the touch screen when it comes to typing. It takes something away from the interactivity of the device and learning is somewhat disengaged. A case with a keyboard is about three times the size as a smaller version and therefore considerably increases the size of the iPad as a whole. It’s very easy to find a deal online, with eBay you can buy them direct from China and they will arrive in a couple of weeks. This should be the first thing that you do, even before purchasing the iPads, you don’t want to have devices without cases waiting to be used because they have no case.  Finding a place to store and charge at the same time is important. At our school we put them in our server cupboard, each cable can come through a slot at the side of the cupboard and at the back are the power packs plugged into a twelve-slot power board. The prices of the devices that are built for storage and synching are very expensive; this is a much better option. The cupboard can be locked securely every evening and the iPads will be charged and ready for use the next morning.

 **What about an iTunes account**  Setting up an iTunes Account for each device would mean that if you ever wanted to update the iPad or install new Apps then every single time you do this you would be required to log out and log back in to the new account. This also means you have to purchase one copy of the App for every single iPad. The amount of time to do this would require one teacher to be the ‘iPad Teacher’ at least two days a week. The problem is, with iOS5, this is the requirement. It is your schools decision to have one account. The ruling has been one account per device after the iOS 5 update.  Also set up a separate Gmail account to use instead of the schools email account so you can keep track of all the information coming in regarding iPads. This will be the email that is used for Dropbox and other joint accounts.  If you wish to use a credit card with your iTunes account one easy solution is to just buy a Visa gift card, which has an expiry of six to twelve months. Then if you require more credit you can buy iTunes gift vouchers, which are regularly on sale. This method is much better than putting the schools credit card into the account as it restricts how many App purchases can be made. Also, the restrictions that disallow ‘in App purchases’ should always be on.

 **Synching?** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> A thirteen-port USB hub purchased online for approximately forty dollars, and twelve iPad cables for one dollar each (they are the same cables for an iPod and iPhone) working through a Macbook is all that is necessary. They all synch at the same time and work perfectly. If you have put the restrictions on that disallow the installing and deleting of new Apps then this must be turned off so they can be synched. They will not update if this is turned on. Also if you are upgrading to a new version of the iOS software then this can only be done one iPad at a time. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> All of our iPads are organised into Stages and Key Learning Areas. The Apps match the guide that I distributed to the teachers. The guide has the App name, outcome and a brief description of the App in a table. With over two hundred and fifty tested Apps this is an essential guide for the teacher. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> I’ve found that it’s vital to make every iPad the same so that the App has the same position on each iPad, this is simply because the students can find the App each time they use an iPad. To do this simply make a master iPad, this is our Administrator one, synch it and iTunes will automatically make a backup of it. Next, plug in the new iPad and wait until you are given the option to set it up as a new iPad or restore from back-up. Then restore it from the back-up made from the master. After this, simply change the name of the iPad by clicking on it in the iTunes menu. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> I’ve numbered each of our iPads and given them a wallpaper with that number on it so the students can remember which iPad they were using. These wallpapers were made in Photoshop and imported to iPhoto on the Macbook in use and then imported onto the iPad through the Photos tab in iTunes.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> **How to use them on a day-to-day basis and reach their maximum potential?** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> Interest should be gauged from those teachers who are more likely to use them and those that are not. It does take some time for teachers to fully adopt them into their learning program, as they are a very new device and a new way of learning. This is really related to how familiar and how comfortable the teachers are with the iPad. But it absolutely needs to be emphasised that they are not there to occupy students’ time. There are zero games on the iPads at our school and that is how it must remain.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> **How to train teachers to use iPads?** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> We’ve had a borrowing system set up which allows teachers to take them home over the weekend so they can use them and trial all of the Apps for themselves. However this is not enough, the teacher needs to be able to see the iPad in action. But again, if the teacher has unused computers in their room then it is possible that they are going to be hesitant to use an iPad. One solution has been that we have had brief training sessions in staffroom meetings, small steps at a time. The interesting thing is, the students are very comfortable to learn from the iPads and they gather confidence fast. The simplicity of Apps such as Keynote or iMovie mean that very little guidance in terms of teaching the students how to use the App is needed. As such, student presentations with work they have completed on the iPad gives teachers the opportunity to see the possibilities of the device.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> **How to get data off an iPad and share it?** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> There are multiple ways to get data off an iPad. At our school we have Dropbox, Printopia and Email all set up so that students can share work. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> Now working with ten iPads I do a regular cleanout of students work. This means that students don’t have their own folder to save their own data into it, so each time a student works on an iPad they remember which one they worked on and then they can go back to it. However once the unit of work is completed the file is deleted from the iPad. If the student has a hardcopy and there is no reason to keep the data then it should be deleted. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> With Dropbox the process is a little different, each class has its own folder and they are able to share the data through this method. Dropbox could not be easier to use, just press ‘Send to Dropbox’ instead of print, the data is on the Mac and also online. Remember that this is an external third-party App so it will only work with iOS5. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> Printopia is probably the most powerful assistive application for the iPad. What it does is allow all the printers that are available to that Mac to be shared on the Wi-Fi network, the iPad is able to find the printer and work as normal. It is not an App, it works on a Mac that is always on. Once downloaded, for a cost of twenty dollars, and installed, it appears under ‘Other’ in the System Preferences Pane and its settings can be edited from here. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> Students are also able to email their work from the iPad to another DET account. It is a somewhat complicated process to set up the mail but once all of the details are available it's easy. One drawback is that they can send mail but not receive, but if you need to access your email then Safari works just fine. Also, remember to change the signature of the mail to show where the file came from, e.g. iPad 1. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> Lastly, the iPad screen can be shared with the Apple VGA Adapter for a cost of thirty-five dollars. It can be plugged into any Interactive Whiteboard, eBeam or LCD Screen. This only allows for output, not input so the iPad still needs to be used rather than the whiteboard. It’s a great way to demonstrate to a class how an App works or explore an App a whole, such as using a twenty-frame.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> **Maintenance?** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;"> The iPad does get quite dirty so they need a regular clean with an LCD screen cleaner. Also whenever the iPads are updated the new Apps are not in their correct position, in folders with the others. I always let two Year 6 students do this, they love the responsibility and is done in half the time I could do it.