If you consider using iPad for teaching, you might have a few questions. For one, you wonder how you can use an iOS device to teach your students and help them learn better. Alternatively, you wonder if it is possible to do things with an apple iPad that you might not be able to with other cheaper and more available tools.
A great feature of using iPad for teaching is that it is a lot cheaper than a desktop or laptop computer; it is certainly more mobile.
Speaking of computers, their introduction into the classroom was supposed to transform learning and teaching. And while there have been some innovations, the fundamentals of learning and teaching have remained the same.
Using iPad for teaching can perhaps build on these foundations to truly transform learning and teaching practices. With that, here are some practical ways to get started!
Using iPad For Teaching To Connect Outside The Classroom
Since the iPad is a mobile device, it lets you extend connectivity beyond the classroom. With the iPad’s internet capability, your students can have information on demand. When the students have questions, they can google insights and clues to start their studies.
When using iPad for teaching, students gain access to a plethora of primary source data and documents to help their investigations wherever they are, be it at a football game, a restaurant, on the bus, and in or out of the classroom.
Unfortunately, since an iPad pro doesn’t come with disk drives, CDROM capability, and USB ports, sharing capabilities with other devices and computers must be done over the internet. Dropbox enables students to create personal accounts to store field notes, photos, documents, and more. Students can access these documents from any internet-capable computer or device.
Discover how to convert notes to PDF on iPad.
The HMH Fuse iPad app gives students the whole Houghton-Mifflin Algebra One book and some tools and exercises for learning algebra.
Another great app is Evernote which helps students track their notes. Mendeley helps your students organize student work and carry it with them wherever they are. Project Gutenburg can be used to increase student engagement. Students can download classic books and other classroom material to be read on just about any free book reader app.
Using the iPad for teaching, teachers can interact with their students by controlling computers from the iPad using the Remote Mouse app.
Thanks to a simple cable, you can also use your Apple iPad to create and present a creative and unique Prezi presentation. With the Prezi app, teachers can control notes by twisting, pinching, and sliding their fingers across the iPad screen.
Apart from the plethora of free games and pointless iPad applications, as a diligent teacher, you can find a host of educational apps that can challenge your students in extremely creative ways.
Kinesthetic Learners
The iPad Pro has various features that offer interesting learning and teaching possibilities. Its motion sensor can be used in various learning applications.
Most students can be termed bodily-kinesthetic learners, and the motion sensor can make it easier for students to use their hands to control virtual or real robots, learn balance skills, and more via an iPad app.
As an extremely portable tool, this tablet’s camera enables you to improve documentation. You can use the Field Notes LT iPad app, which lets students take various copies of their observations. Each note has a date, time, photographs of the students’ observation, and GPS location. These notes can be shared, collaborated, and published instantly.
A useful iPad app is Clineometer which helps measure the surface or level of a wall. It can also be used to measure precise angles of decline or incline. Thanks to the accelerometers on the iPad, you can conduct physics experiments of change in force or acceleration.
Think of all the possibilities; you can take an iPad with you on a roller coaster ride, where you can calculate force and angles. You can even use seemingly regular apps like Angry Birds to teach your students about physics. Add some rubber cases to the iPads to measure repetitions, balance, and exertion levels.
Your students can also attach voice recordings and videos to the field notes in this iPad app. A great iPad application to help students dictate and type their words is the Dragon Dictation app.
Another iPad app is the Assemblee app, which students can use to collaborate on the findings and conclusions of their projects. The great thing about this iPad application is that it doesn’t require the students to be in the same location.
Discover how to make recordings using the iPad.
When using iPad for teaching math, the iPad’s GPS establishes local in profound ways. Students can use the preinstalled Map iPad application to calculate the distance, actual speeds, and routes of certain word problems.
The math involved in decision-making and trip planning can be brought to life thanks to actual maps, real-time photographs, and weather information.
Furthermore, the TourWist iPad app can help students take 360-degree “tours” of interesting locations worldwide. DerManDar is another app that lets students take their very own 360-degree pictures of locations they visit.
