I recently have decided to redefine what I will be blogging about for this class. Originally this blog was going to be mostly a place to chronicle new tools and systems that we are introducing into our district and a place where teachers inside our district could come for tips and tricks for using all of the available resources inside the school district. Now I would like to focus on iPads, and Apps for education.
So with that being said let me give you some links to help get you started if you are new to iPads in education.
photo by John.Karakatsanis on Flickr
Apple Volume Purchasing FAQs
http://www.apple.com/education/volume-purchase-program/faq.html
Apple has added a volume purchasing model for business and education. It allows schools and businesses to buy Apps in volume. There are a lot of rules to make sure you follow in order to be legal. This link answers some questions you may have.
Apple Education App Store
https://volume.itunes.apple.com/store
After you have read the FAQs above you can use this link to browse the apps available through the volume store. You can also see if the developer has decided to offer a discount for volume purchases. Apple allows developers to reduce the cost of an App by 50% after 20 licences of an app have been purchased in a single purchase. This is something the developer must choose to do.
iTunes
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
This is the link for the download page for iTunes. Get familiar with this software.
AppShopper
http://www.appshopper.com
This is a great site for discovering apps that have recently had price drops. I really like this site because it is updated regularly, but also because of the features it has for sorting. I have been able to save a lot of money personally, as well as for my district by checking this site regularly.
Otterbox Cases
http://www.otterbox.com/
If you are planning on using iPads in elementary setting, then you really should use a good case to increase the life of your iPad. I really like the cases that otterbox makes. They are sturdy, but not too bulky. I have had a lot of success with the defender cases. There are many other cases out there, so I would also recommend a search on amazon.com to find a case that best fits your needs.
Check out these links to get a little bit of a better idea of what it takes to start using iPads in a classroom. In the next post I will share with you my top 10 must have apps for a kindergarten classroom.
Thanks for sharing this info Geoff. I love - truly LOVE - my iPad; however, I haven't really figured out how to implement it into teaching yet. (I teach a a community college.) Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteMost of the experience that I have in implementing iPads in education comes from the k-6 environment. Here is a link to an evaluation project that was done on using iPads in higher education. http://www.onlinecollege.org/2011/11/18/evaluating-the-ipad-in-higher-education/
DeleteThanks for the comment.
This post is great! We are in the process of deciding what to do with extra money our PTO raised last year, and iPads are at the top of my list! I probably wouldn't have thought to get cases until they arrived and I realized how naked they looked. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteCases are very important. In our district we have tried many cases and we really do like the otterbox cases.
DeleteGeoff, I use AppShopper extensively. Another similar one, that isn't quite as user friendly, but just as useful is Free App Magic.
ReplyDeleteI recently found out that they made the Otterbox for iPads. Needless to say, I put it on my "wish list" that my husband gets every holiday!
ReplyDelete