2014 has been a very busy and exciting year so far with the introduction of our first BYOD iPad Programme (click here for details).  Following many months of planning, parents were provided with purchase and setup information and some attended setup workshops in the first week of this term.  On Monday of week 2, the students eagerly arrived at school with their iPads.

iPad Boot Camp

During the second and third weeks of this term, students participated in ‘iPad Boot Camp’.  12 sessions of approximately 40 minutes were held over the 2 weeks, led by myself, our teacher/librarian and the class teachers.  The topics covered can be seen on this certificate, which they received at the end of Boot Camp.

Students created an iPad Boot Camp journal using the Book Creator app, where they summarised each session with text, photos, screenshots, images and voice recordings.  Here are a couple of examples from Taylor and Tayla.

You can read the girl’s reflections about iPad Boot Camp on their class blog by clicking here.

Apps

We started the year with a list of 45 apps (see here) that students and parents were asked to load onto the iPads.  So far, the students have been regularly using Adobe Reader, Book Creator, Google Search, Mathletics Student, Pages, Safari and Sock Puppets.  Adobe Reader has been particular useful in allowing students to ‘mark up’ a 33 page pdf document with typed text and freehand text and drawings.

The students have also been taking their iPads to German and Creative Arts.  In German, they are preparing presentations titled ‘Mein Selbstporträt’ (My Self Portrait) in Keynote and making use of the virtual German keyboard and the Google Translate website.  In Creative Arts they have been creating still life digital paintings in Drawing Box, with stunning results.

(Click on thumbnails to enlarge)