Slides from my TABS-2012 workshop "Collaborative Classroom"

I gave a talk about iPads in Education. Here are the slides. Unfortunately, I cannot find any way for the slides to play the animations automatically. So, if it looks like the slideshow stopped, click anywhere within the slideshow window.

My paper on "Collaborative Classrooms with 1:1 iPads"

Collaborative Classrooms with 1:1 iPads

Nearpod for iPad

Nearpod is an interesting tool that, from the buzz the company has produced, seems to be the holy grail for education. On further testing, it proves to be useful but limited.

Here's how it works:
1. You, the teacher, create a lesson at nearpod.com ahead of time. Here is where you hit the first limitation -- the lesson cannot be created or edited on iPad. So, if you don't have a computer in your classroom, you cannot change anything mid-class. This also means that you and your students must all be connected to the Internet, since it is being run from nearpod.com and not from your iPad locally. Depending on your school's Internet speeds, this could be dicey.

• A lesson is made up of slides
• A slide can be either a content slide or an interactive slide. 
• A content slide can be a page from a PDF document or an image or a movie. 
• An interactive slide can be a poll, a quiz, a Q&A or a drawing the students produce on a blank page or on an image (e.g. graph paper).

2. In class, you "run" the lesson on your iPad:

• You give students a pin and they each enter it into the student version of the nearpod app on their own iPads. As they join the lesson, you see their names pop
• You control exactly what is displayed on everyone's screen. Results of interactive slides (e.g. poll) show up in real time to you and you can choose to display them to everyone. Same with anything the students produce on their own drawing slides.

My opinion: It is an easy entry point for a teacher who wants to have some interactivity in the lesson. If you want, you can ignore the "content" aspect of the tool and simply use it as "clicker" app -- but you need to decide on all the questions ahead of time. The fact that everyone in class is forced to be on the same page is either a plus or a minus, depending on how you teach.

A similar, but less restrictive and more feature-rich software is GoClass, but it is still in beta. It allows creation and editing of lesson elements on iPad, students can proceed at their own pace, and quizes/polls can be timed. Being in beta, the stability and buggyness of the app are unknown.

Other reviews of Nearpod:

• http://craigsworld37.blogspot.com/2012/05/nearpod-review.html
• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/05/nearpod-create-and-deliver-quizzes-on.html#.UDfYm6Pud8E

Update #2 on "iPad as Smartboard"

Success!!! After weeks of testing, I have finally succeeded in getting Option 1 to work: in the video below, I am drawing (with a different color) on three iPads and the drawing is instantly displayed on the other iPads and on the projector (projected on to the whiteboard).


   

Stay tuned for the details of the necessary equipment and the best app for this task...

iPad in the classroom

The "Apple"-dom has been raving about AirPlay feature and its potential since its introduction sometime in the beginning of 2011. What is it? AirPlay allows the iPad (2 only) to mirror its display wirelessly on to Apple TV and via that, onto any projection system you have. The catch is that in order to mirror an app, the app must be AirPlay-enabled. Apple even introduced a special section in iTunes devoted to AirPlay-Enabled Apps. So, how much adoption has AirPlay had? 




Here's the image of this iTunes section in Mar 2011 (11 apps)

and here's the same section in iTunes today, Nov 2011  (48 apps):

Given the hundreds of thousands of apps iTunes has, these snapshots do not bode well. Apple seems to have abandoned this section of iTunes in favor of a section at theapple.tv, which is larger (132 apps):

   

but still a disappointing number given the hundreds of thousands of apps out there. 

Apple wants iPad to be a classroom tool. In order to accomplish this, iPad must have an easy way to have its display projected, either on to a screen via a projector or on to a TV. 

What are Apple's plans in all this?

Update on "iPad as Smartboard"

I did not emphasize one important difference between the three options, namely, what other apps can be projected as part of the setup.


Option 1: Projector can display any AirPlay-enabled app. Right now, the number of such appls is modest, but it is expected to increase. In summary, this option will display (some) of what you are able to run on your iPad.


Option 2: Anything that your classroom PC is able to display -- you are not limited by iPad's features. This means you can project Java, Flash, Shockwave, etc.  


Option 3: same as option 2.

iPad as replacement of Smartboard

Existing Setup: each classroom contains a PC (Windows or Mac, it does not matter) and a projector with WiFi and VGA inputs (but no HDMI). 


Goal: enable students and teacher to use their iPads to 
(a) collaborate "live", with everyone's writing appearing on one "whiteboard" or "canvas", and
(b) display it instantly on the projector.
In other words, every person in class can write/draw on his/her iPad and everyone's contribution appears instantly on a single "canvas" that everyone can see on his/her iPad, and which the projector displays.

Such a setup would eliminate the need for Smartboard and enable better collaboration in classroom. 



Solutions: Unfortunately, there are no perfect solutions. Option 1 does not use the classroom PC, but instead requires the purchase and installation of 2 extra pieces of equipment in the classroom. The other options compromise on one of the requirements (a) or (b).

Option 1: install an Apple TV and HDMI-to-VGA converter in each classroom.


The only general method for mirroring iPad display onto an outside display is to use iOS5's AirPlay Mirroring app, which wirelessly mirrors iPad display to Apple TV, which can then be output by Apple TV onto whatever device is connected to it, e.g. an HDTV or a projector. Since the projector accepts only VGA, and Apple TV outputs only HDMI, we need the converter. There are at least a dozen "Interactive White Board" (IWB) apps that allow multiple iPads to work in real-time on the same shared "canvas" or whiteboard. An IWB app that works with this setup must be AirPlay-compatible. One such app is 2Screens ($5). 

Option 2: compromise on requirement (a): "collaborate live". 


This is a "single-writer" solution and it uses the classroom PC hooked up to the projector. One app is installed on an iPad and another app on the classroom PC. The iPad app has two modes. In the remote-desktop mode, the iPad controls the classroom PC, i.e. the iPad acts as a mouse and keyboard to the classroom PC. So, any applications you have on the classroom PC appear on the iPad screen and can be controlled from the iPad. In the notepad mode, any writing/drawing made on the iPad instantly appears on the classroom PC (and via that, on the projector). The "collaborate live" is absent since the app on the classroom PC can be paired up with only one iPad.


Apps in this category include Doceri, Splashtop, AirDisplay, and AirSketch.  


Option 3: compromise on requirement (b): "display instantly on the projector". 


There are a number of applications which provide a single "canvas" on which multiple iPads can write/draw in real-time, i.e. IWB from Option 1. These apps can periodically export the results as images or PDFs, and these exports can then be displayed on the projector (for example, using an app mentioned in the previous option). At any time, the projector in this solution displays a recent snapshot of the collaboration effort, rather than the collaboration "live". 


IWB apps include ZigZag, SyncSpace, SyncPad.

I have been crazily testing the various apps and setups mentioned in this post and will soon write up my conclusions on the best ones.