Setting up shared classroom iPads 13/365

Over the christmas break Santa delivered my class a set of 8 iPads. I have more than 8 kids in my class so here is how I’ve set up my iPads to keep the personal function while keeping logins to a minimum.

First things first…
Before I even opened the cupboard, the class crafted an essential agreement about the care of the iPads. As always it can be easy for the kids to get negative, don’t run with the iPads. So I challenged them to come up with positive instructions. The essential agreement is plastered to the iPad cupboard and will be referred back to regularly.

Assigning iPads
Rather than treating iPads like a classroom laptop route where google makes it easy to work on any device I deliberately went for the assigned iPad route to keep signing in and out to a minimum. I buddied up some of my more proficient kids with those new to the school or who are still lacking in confidence.

Keeping track of iPads
The problem with iPads is they all look the same and numbering isn’t the easiest way for the kids or I to identify which iPad belongs to which person. The solution is that the kids took a selfie and that is both their lock screen and desktop.

Managing all those photos
Flickr’s iPad photo app is really spectacular and easy to use. I have a class flickr account that is signed into on all of the iPads. The kids can upload photos privately or publicly. They can also arrange them into folders for shared projects. I have an open account that parents can access and they really value photos that can share with family members abroad.

Google drive
Both kids are signed into the iPad and just switch accounts by using the cog setting. Many apps now have an export to google drive which makes this very hand when the kids are sharing work.

Blogfolios
Each child in my class has a blogfolio powered by blogger. The class is using two Apps to manage their blogfolio. The first is the native blogger app which is great for photos and text. I have one child sign in and their buddy adds them as an author to their own blog. That way the kids can simply switch between blogs rather than having to go through the process of signing in and signing out.

For video the kids use easy blogger junior. I’ve signed in on my google account and then added the kids to the iPads. The kids then just hit their name, select their video and it uploads to their blog. The videos are uploaded to unlisted youtube account. There’s a limit of only 120 seconds on video which is about the right length for Year 4s.

Regular clean outs
iPads inevitably get fill of clutter. We’ve schedule sometime on Friday to go through and delete old photos and upload learning to the cloud.

When they have to borrow someone else’s iPad…
AirDrop is a fantastic function that the kids quickly adapted to using when we had a cart.

It will be interesting to see how this works over the rest of the year…