It's probably a bit of an exaggeration to say that 720p resolution is borderline useless for displaying anything.
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iPad Pro IPP 12.9 for teachers?
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It's probably a bit of an exaggeration to say that 720p resolution is borderline useless for displaying anything.
A student who opens a PDF to work with it while typing in words needs to split the screen in half, leaving them with 684x768 pixels to work with for each program. That's too little to really display anything at all, especially with the number of toolbars and whatnot your average Windows program displays on top.
This is not an assumption - I didn't walk into a classroom my first day as a teacher, see a 720p laptop, and go "oh well guess I can't give them digital handouts". I tried. I tried giving them normal documents, causing them to zoom around to be able to read anything and subsequently have a few PCs crash just from the strain of navigating a PDF file (not joking - that's the performance of these things). I tried making documents with larger font sizes, only to lose the ability to get a good overview of things and cause issues whenever working with tasks that require scrolling back and forth through documents that are then much longer than they would be. The final nail in the coffin was the inability to use small font sizes to fit more into one document in cases where it is crucial to be able to display all content on one page, such as certain tables.
Basically, the difference between what was visible on my 2048x1536, then 2732x2048 ipad screen compared to their 1368x768 was just too massive. Especially when the problem can be solved by printing it on paper, which many students prefer (and even more are indifferent to, so at least not negative) anyways. I don't print everything, and a lot of the time ask them if they want a paper copy instead (which then often results in me printing a full class set anyways), but it's certainly a problem that would never exist if they either all had retina iPads or proper computers.
These are school issued computers btw - hence the uniformity of their underperformance.
Well, good for you - my experience was different and I spent plenty of time troubleshooting, re-installing, replacing the machine together with Apple it was pointless.
Anyway - I'll likely keep the IPP, but also got a Surface Pro yesterday using the money I got from the Macbook and from selling the Air 2 for which I don't have much use anymore. For the classroom, the IPP is really great. The whole file-picker thing needs some getting used to, but the app situation is, obviously, fantastic and lots of apps (like Goodreader) offer features you just can't get on a laptop (at least not for 10 bucks...)
The SP4 is more of a backup thing for me if I need to get serious work done, on business trips etc. I set it up last night and have to say that Windows 10 has come a long ways since I last tested in on an older XPS 13. The app situation has improved - and, what's more important, the desktop apps are now finally getting updated with scalability and they look absolutely fantastic on that high-res screen. I've only had it for a day, but so far, I haven't encountered any of the major issues people have been reporting. I got 4 firmware updates yesterday, so I guess Microsoft has been hard at work since the device's initial release. The keyboard is fantastic, btw. and the trackpad is also ok (easily the best one I've ever used on any windows computer), but with the touchscreen, that's secondary for me. Just glad I have it when I need it (e.g. for remote desktop).
I think I've now found a solution that'll keep me happy both inside and outside the classroom. Let's see what Apple releases later this year - if they manage to get a super light Macbook Pro out, I might sell everything and just go for that one, as long as the keyboard has been improved over the 12" Macbook.
This thread brings back a wish I've had for ages for a portal dedicated to iOS teachers. There are a few personal blogs out there, but what would be really nice is one place where multiple iOS-wielding teachers came to share their experiences. A dedicated section for accessories, apps, etc.
My first guess would be using a service like Pinterest to consolidate resources and blogs.
I guess the challenge is more of maintaining it.
How do you use Documents on iOS for editing files that are stored on a cloud? (any cloud) I have found the process of downloading, editing, and uploading using Documents (or any other similar tool) to be a very convoluted process.
So how do you do it? (I'd love to learn about a method that is more streamlined than what I've encountered)
I set up the folders to sync, rather than download individual files. That way, if I have a folder named e.g. "2016 teaching", that folder will be synced to a local copy on my iPad. I work with the files normally and then when I sync back it pushes whatever changes have occurred since last sync.
In practice it works like Dropbox on a computer, except for that I disabled autosync so I manually click sync instead.
I'm using Office365 for all mine now since our school system bought a subscription for everyone. I can open directly from Word/Excel/PPT for iOS, or edit online. Previously I was using Dropbox, but then I did have to constantly download, edit, upload. 365 really makes things easy.
thanks. I must be missing something. whenever I try to open a document from within Documents it wants to copy the file to the sandboxed storage for the app. that then results in having to copy the modified file to Documents' sandboxed storage.
What types of files are you trying to edit? Why go through Documents? Are you editing them while you don't have an Internet connection?
Sorry if you've mentioned these before, but I can't remember the details -- too many threads!
Then you haven't set it up to sync.
- You go into Network, connect your cloud storage account, and then navigate to the folder you want to sync (while still under Network in Documents).
- Once inside the folder you want synced, you hit the button named "sync" at the top. This adds the folder to your local sandboxed storage and sets it to sync.
- It will then start autosyncing the folder the first time. Once it's done, you have a copy of said folder and all subfolders on your iPad.
- Any changes You make will be synced back either automatically or when you head into the main area of Network and hit sync (not the same sync button as before - that one set up sync, this initiates existing sync pairs). Whether it happens automatically depends on settings.
What you're likely doing is heading into Network, your cloud storage account, and then clicking individual files. That will create a single copy in the sandboxed storage and is a different system than what I'm talking about.
Thank you for those instructions.
Yes, that is what I did. However, in the various scenarios that I've tried, Documents is unable to open a particular file directly in the app that I want to use to edit it with. It wants to copy it to the specific app's sandboxed storage area.
For example:
I have Documents syncing a folder that contains MS Word docs.
From within Documents, I locate the .docx file and select "open with..." and choose "copy to Word".
That action then copies the file over to Word's sandboxed storage area where I can then edit the document. But in order to actually edit the file it makes another copy in OneDrive.
When I am done editing the file, I have to then send that file (from within Word's file list) back to Documents and navigate to the location within Documents where the file originally came from.
Another example:
I have Documents syncing a folder that contains iWork Pages docs.
From within Documents, I locate the .pages file and select "open with..." and choose "Copy to Pages".
That action then copies the file over to Pages' sandboxed storage area where I can then edit the document.
When I am done editing the file, I have to then send that file (from within Pages file list) back to Documents and navigate to the location within Documents where the file originally came from.
I don't know about Word, and I use FileBrowser, not Documents. But with Pages, what I do is open Pages, tap the + in the upper left corner, and I get a list of locations I can open files from. I pick a file from FileBrowser, and any edits I make are saved directly to the copy in FileBrowser, and no extra copy is created in Pages. I'm guessing this should work the same way with Documents.
Ah, finally I'm with you. In those circumstances, I access Dropbox directly from the apps whenever possible (either through integrated support or support for locations, like Night Spring mentions).
There are times I have to move the file back - but not often.
Thanks for taking the time to read through this.
My normal workflow is indeed to open the files directly from within the apps. But I've been reading numerous references to using Documents as a file system aggregator/portal that I thought I must be missing something. Thank you for clearing that up.So, I had a crazy idea about this whole "place to share stuff" notion.... use iTunes U!
I've played with it a little bit before, but can't use it since I'm not in a 1:1 situation. For iPad-wielding teachers, however, I think it's a good way to do it that's both easy to set up, somewhat closed off, and already integrated with the App Store and whatnot.
For this to be a truly community driven endeavor I'd need to add people as instructors at some point. To see if this idea even has merit, however, I ask that those who are interested add the course and check it out as I add my stuff to it first (which I won't do all at once, but when I have a few min spare) and then those who're there can discuss if it's something that's viable to open to more contributors.
To join, download iTunes U, and use course code EDF-DXH-JJD.
Feedback on the idea would be appreciated.
I've played with it a little bit before, but can't use it since I'm not in a 1:1 situation. For iPad-wielding teachers, however, I think it's a good way to do it that's both easy to set up, somewhat closed off, and already integrated with the App Store and whatnot.
For this to be a truly community driven endeavor I'd need to add people as instructors at some point. To see if this idea even has merit, however, I ask that those who are interested add the course and check it out as I add my stuff to it first (which I won't do all at once, but when I have a few min spare) and then those who're there can discuss if it's something that's viable to open to more contributors.
To join, download iTunes U, and use course code EDF-DXH-JJD.
Feedback on the idea would be appreciated.
I've registered.
Many years ago I created a course called "so you have a computer in your classroom....now what." This was back when only a very few teachers had a single pc, and fewer still knew what to do with them. I'd like to address iPads from this angle, rather than the usual 1:1. There are still more educators with an iPad, while the students have phones...or pens and paper.
Many years ago I created a course called "so you have a computer in your classroom....now what." This was back when only a very few teachers had a single pc, and fewer still knew what to do with them. I'd like to address iPads from this angle, rather than the usual 1:1. There are still more educators with an iPad, while the students have phones...or pens and paper.