iPad Pro Ideas on using the iPad Pro for teaching?

[silverblack]

I am curious what apps the teachers out there are using in their classrooms. Care to share your setup?

I'm particularly interested in those that involve the use of Apple Pencil and equation writing.

 

[silverblack]

I have been testing GooNotes 4's pdf annotation for inking during lecture. I would create my slides in PowerPoint, and then import them to GoodNotes.

Three features I found really impressive:
1. It has a TV OUT mode, which locks the display output as whole page view, so the projector view will remains unchanged when I zoom in and out during inking. In addition, all the user interface menus are hidden from audience. See video, at about 8'30"

2. With #1 above, I could even run the split screen and it won't show to projector. So I could have PowerPoint showing my slides with completed notes (in stealth mode), while I project from GoodNotes.

3. Once paired with Apple pencil, the app disables inking with fingers. So only the pencil will write, while finger touches are used for zooming and erasing. This means perfect palm rejection.

 

[username:]

I don't have an iPad Pro yet but I believe powerpoint will soon have an inking feature added. I thought keynote already had inking?
While interesting, this is nothing really new. The only thing different is a better stylus. This setup is also possible on iPad Air 2.
I don't believe the pro offers teachers anything of great advantage over other iPads.

 

[laudern]

I've been a primary school teacher for close to 10 years and have had ipad offered to me a few times. I find them pretty useless most of the time. Maybe if you are doing rotations and have one rotation an ipad activity you might make them worthwhile.

The thing is most free "educational" apps are pretty bad and littered with in app purchases. The school doesn't want to be bothered by teachers asking to buy apps with school funds.

I prefer to use a compter/projector combination for displaying and using digital content.

 

[cardfan]

My wife has these expensive smart boards they use. Any time I bring up getting her an ipad, she says it'd be useless to her.

 

[Cashmonee]

I am a high school math teacher. I am using Notability and AirPlay to write out notes, examples, etc. I also use split screen for things like Pcalc and Safari to show calculator work, or look something up, etc. Notability is great because it syncs seamlessly with Google Drive and allows me to easily share the notes with students through Classroom (our school is a Google school). No pencil yet, should be here Monday.

I have a Promethean Board like cardfan describes. In the near future it will be taken out and replaced by whiteboards. The eventual plan for my classroom is whiteboards along the entire length of three walls for student use. I will then have two TVs opposite each other to use my Apple TV with the iPad Pro. All of this should hopefully happen over the coming summer.

 

[JD2015]

Final argument
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are also worth considering.

 

[Traverse]

Well, I have an iPad Air 2, but I'd use the pro the same way. I work the homework problems on paper, scan them to my computer as a PDF, annotate them in PDF Expert and then use split view when I teach so I can see the eBook and my solutions at the same time.

 

[cardfan]

I am a high school math teacher. I am using Notability and AirPlay to write out notes, examples, etc. I also use split screen for things like Pcalc and Safari to show calculator work, or look something up, etc. Notability is great because it syncs seamlessly with Google Drive and allows me to easily share the notes with students through Classroom (our school is a Google school). No pencil yet, should be here Monday.

I have a Promethean Board like cardfan describes. In the near future it will be taken out and replaced by whiteboards. The eventual plan for my classroom is whiteboards along the entire length of three walls for student use. I will then have two TVs opposite each other to use my Apple TV with the iPad Pro. All of this should hopefully happen over the coming summer.

It's more in line that her school is very anti tech in terms of bringing your own in. You use what they deem that you use. She can't even install a program on her work laptop. Or use a thumbdrive. She works for DODEA, federal system teaching on military post.

 

[Abazigal]

Setup - my classroom finally got a projector with a hdmi port this year, letting me hook up an Apple TV using a 10m long cable (all paid for out of my own pocket). Prior to that, I connected my mba to the projector's vga port and mirrored my iPad using airserver.

Notability for annotating in PDFs. Documents are either already scanned beforehand (for textbooks) or on the spot for worksheets.

For scans, I use scanner pro or pdf office.

My files are stored in Dropbox.

iWork's suite (pages for typing, Keynote for presentations).

Camera app to transform my mini into a makeshift visualiser (our classrooms don't come equipped with them because our principal wanted to encourage the use of the smart boards). I have a cheap iPad stand to support it as necessary.

Showme as a whiteboard to write on and record screencasts (initially used educreations, but switched when they started charging and their last app update made the app practically unusable).

Other apps like todoist, I use for work but not inside the classroom.

 

[AlliFlowers]

Sounds wonderful! I have always believed that a good classroom has whiteboards on all walls. A good teacher is constantly circulating around the room, and shouldn't have to make his/her way to the opposite end of the room just to write something. Using a Smartboard has actually limited my circulation.

The original question should have been "I need to do this and this. Can I do it more easily with an iPad Pro?" You should always find the need first, and then fit the technology to your need.

I am a high school math teacher. I am using Notability and AirPlay to write out notes, examples, etc. I also use split screen for things like Pcalc and Safari to show calculator work, or look something up, etc. Notability is great because it syncs seamlessly with Google Drive and allows me to easily share the notes with students through Classroom (our school is a Google school). No pencil yet, should be here Monday.

I have a Promethean Board like cardfan describes. In the near future it will be taken out and replaced by whiteboards. The eventual plan for my classroom is whiteboards along the entire length of three walls for student use. I will then have two TVs opposite each other to use my Apple TV with the iPad Pro. All of this should hopefully happen over the coming summer.

 

[modernaccord]

I tutor AP Chemistry and Physics for local high schoolers (as a side hobby).

I use penultimate and the iOS notes app to draw detailed diagrams and pictures and help my students troubleshoot problems. If they own an iOS device (which many of them do), I just push the note off to them over text. Works brilliantly.

 

[silverblack]

I use penultimate and the iOS notes app to draw detailed diagrams and pictures and help my students troubleshoot problems. If they own an iOS device (which many of them do), I just push the note off to them over text. Works brilliantly.

Could you tell me how the pushing of files work? Is that just a Penultimate feature, or was it just AirDrop (screenshots)?

 

[sliderbot]

I am curious what apps the teachers out there are using in their classrooms. Care to share your setup?

I'm particularly interested in those that involve the use of Apple Pencil and equation writing.

I just got the iPad pro but have been teaching with an iPad of some sort for 3 years now. I use an app called Doceri to basically mark up my macbook screen through the iPad (which is projected on my whiteboard). This allows me to write over projected slides, PDF's of textbooks and even paused videos. I can give the iPad to a student to answer a question without having to get out of their seat. I've tried for many years to find a solution to teach exclusively from my iPad but the markup tools in Keynote for the iPad are just not good enough. Perhaps when I get my pencil things will change.

 

[silverblack]

I just got the iPad pro but have been teaching with an iPad of some sort for 3 years now. I use an app called Doceri to basically mark up my macbook screen through the iPad (which is projected on my whiteboard). This allows me to write over projected slides, PDF's of textbooks and even paused videos. I can give the iPad to a student to answer a question without having to get out of their seat. I've tried for many years to find a solution to teach exclusively from my iPad but the markup tools in Keynote for the iPad are just not good enough. Perhaps when I get my pencil things will change.

Try GoodNotes 4, and watch the video linked in my 2nd post. The markup capability is by far the best in my opinion. You simply import your Keynote file to the app, or via conversion to PDF first. With an Apple TV, you could even go wireless.

 

[sliderbot]

Try GoodNotes 4, and watch the video linked in my 2nd post. The markup capability is by far the best in my opinion. You simply import your Keynote file to the app, or via conversion to PDF first. With an Apple TV, you could even go wireless.

Thanks for the tip. GoodNotes seems great. It has most of the features I would need and it is actually a lot easier to more between pages then on my mac. Now if only Keynote would add more robust markup tools.

 

[mkitchen]

I've been using an iPad for a couple years to teach with and upgraded to the iPad Pro which I believe is the perfect teaching device.

Here is what people seem to not understand about interactive whiteboard. They are just a better whiteboard. They don't enhance your teaching. They are not really that revolutionary. You are still tied to be up in front of the class and teaching like you always have. Using an iPad as a virtual white board allows you to move around the room, allows you to throw student's work up on the screen on the fly, and more. It enhances what you can do as a teacher. The iPad is a game changer, the interactive whiteboard is just an accessory.

As far as my set-up. The recommendation of GoodNotes is spot on. It is the best, I have tried everything. I do use OneNote to plan my lessons and then side-by-side with GoodNotes to set up the lesson for that day. I have an appleTV hooked up to my projector and AirPlay the iPad Pro to it. Pencil+GoodNotes is amazing.

 

[Cashmonee]

I've been using an iPad for a couple years to teach with and upgraded to the iPad Pro which I believe is the perfect teaching device.

Here is what people seem to not understand about interactive whiteboard. They are just a better whiteboard. They don't enhance your teaching. They are not really that revolutionary. You are still tied to be up in front of the class and teaching like you always have. Using an iPad as a virtual white board allows you to move around the room, allows you to throw student's work up on the screen on the fly, and more. It enhances what you can do as a teacher. The iPad is a game changer, the interactive whiteboard is just an accessory.

As far as my set-up. The recommendation of GoodNotes is spot on. It is the best, I have tried everything. I do use OneNote to plan my lessons and then side-by-side with GoodNotes to set up the lesson for that day. I have an appleTV hooked up to my projector and AirPlay the iPad Pro to it. Pencil+GoodNotes is amazing.

I completely agree! My goal is to no longer have a front of the room in my class. I have been a big Notability fan, but I am going to give GoodNotes a try based on the recommendation.

 

[RickTaylor]

I have been testing GooNotes 4's pdf annotation for inking during lecture. I would create my slides in PowerPoint, and then import them to GoodNotes.

Three features I found really impressive:
1. It has a TV OUT mode, which locks the display output as whole page view, so the projector view will remains unchanged when I zoom in and out during inking. In addition, all the user interface menus are hidden from audience. See video, at about 8'30"

2. With #1 above, I could even run the split screen and it won't show to projector. So I could have PowerPoint showing my slides with completed notes (in stealth mode), while I project from GoodNotes.

I teach math at a community college. I'm currently using a Lenovo 14 windows laptop (with active pen) as white board using OneNote. I really like the idea of being able to fix a window to the screen as you describe in #1, so one can zoom in to write more clearly without the audience seeing it. The zoom box in the video you showed looks useful to. I may have to try an iPad pro to see how this works. Do you know if there's anything similar to this on the windows side?

One thing I do like about OneNote is that you work with an endless vertical sheet of paper. That makes it easy to scroll down bit by bit as needed, so students can still see the end of the previous problem, even as you start a new one. It looks to me as though GoodNotes forces one to organize things page by page?

Thanks for your post and your video; they're very informative.

 

[silverblack]

One thing I do like about OneNote is that you work with an endless vertical sheet of paper. That makes it easy to scroll down bit by bit as needed, so students can still see the end of the previous problem, even as you start a new one. It looks to me as though GoodNotes forces one to organize things page by page?

Unfortunately, you are correct that GoodNotes forces a page by page setup. No unlimited vertical sheet.

 

[RickTaylor]

Unfortunately, you are correct that GoodNotes forces a page by page setup. No unlimited vertical sheet.

It still might be worth it. My hand-writing is so so, and I really like the idea of being able to write an enlarged version of something and have it shrunk down. Additionally, the pdf files I saved would be a bit more organized than in OneNote, which breaks the pages automatically when exporting the document.

 

[AMullen]

I've been using an iPad for a couple years to teach with and upgraded to the iPad Pro which I believe is the perfect teaching device.

Here is what people seem to not understand about interactive whiteboard. They are just a better whiteboard. They don't enhance your teaching. They are not really that revolutionary. You are still tied to be up in front of the class and teaching like you always have. Using an iPad as a virtual white board allows you to move around the room, allows you to throw student's work up on the screen on the fly, and more. It enhances what you can do as a teacher. The iPad is a game changer, the interactive whiteboard is just an accessory.

As far as my set-up. The recommendation of GoodNotes is spot on. It is the best, I have tried everything. I do use OneNote to plan my lessons and then side-by-side with GoodNotes to set up the lesson for that day. I have an appleTV hooked up to my projector and AirPlay the iPad Pro to it. Pencil+GoodNotes is amazing.

[doublepost=1471313191][/doublepost]Your information on the iPad Pro was very helpful. I have one last question which I've done the research on but would like your thoughts. My projector is a VGA projector. In my research, the Kanex HDMI to VGA adapter was recommended using to hook to the apple tv.

 

[Abazigal]

[doublepost=1471313191][/doublepost]Your information on the iPad Pro was very helpful. I have one last question which I've done the research on but would like your thoughts. My projector is a VGA projector. In my research, the Kanex HDMI to VGA adapter was recommended using to hook to the apple tv.

It's the best of a bad option. The adaptor works, but in my experience, what happens is that the image will appear shrunken / letterboxed on your screen. Imagine the image of your iPad occupying only the center middle part of your screen (roughly half the area of the display). You can adjust your projector to zoom in on the image, but the image will turn appear fainter and less sharp, and you screw up the projector settings for your other colleagues who might share the same classroom as you. It's not really a fantastic experience for you or your students.

What I ended up doing was to connect a MacBook Air to the projector, then mirror my iPad to the laptop via an app called Airserver. It's also the most costly and cumbersome, because you need a router as well, and the app sometimes malfunctions, but it resulted in the best results once everything was set up.

 

[ctg7w6]

The original question should have been "I need to do this and this. Can I do it more easily with an iPad Pro?" You should always find the need first, and then fit the technology to your need.

I agree to a certain point. Sometimes, however, you find new technology that has uses that you never thought about. Not saying it's the only way to be, just that teachers should remain open-minded. Sometimes you don't know what you "need" or what would be a useful enhancement until you stumble across it or it is recommended to you.

 

[AlliFlowers]

I agree to a certain point. Sometimes, however, you find new technology that has uses that you never thought about. Not saying it's the only way to be, just that teachers should remain open-minded. Sometimes you don't know what you "need" or what would be a useful enhancement until you stumble across it or it is recommended to you.

A great reason for teachers to continue doing research, or attending the annual ISTE conference.

There are dozens of blogs now that have weekly articles on the latest/best iPad app for whatever field or grade level. Twitter is filled with that advice, as well, and there are weekly #edtechchat charts that would benefit you far more than asking the open ended question. You can go straight to Twitter and search on that hangtag for past chats.