Teaching From an I-Pad
In the music room, I have a Promethean Board. I use Active Inspire for rhythm reading, teaching on composers, visual aides for dance formations and pictures of the things we were singing about. I use it as the music we read instead of each student having a copy of music. My board is an invaluable part of my instruction.
When on a cart, I use the I-Pad instead of my clunky dinosaur of a laptop or another teachers' computer to connect to the Promethean Board and project images. Here's why.
Pros:
-It's small and easy to cart around. (If I carry my own laptop around, that's instrument space the computer is taking up.)
-Lessons are all accessible while connected to the internet. (You download the PowerPoint app on the I-Pad, create the presentations on the computer, put them on your OneDrive or GoogleDrive app depending on your school system, and there they are in the cloud, accessible during any lesson. You can also save presentations directly to the devise and go offline as well.)
-You can put your music for the lesson on it.
-Teachers love that you don't need their board. Often times, the teachers in my building need their computer during their planning time to input grades, write plans, etc. If I used their computer, they'd have to come up with something else to do and that can cause some strain on the collegial relationship there.
-You can wirelessly connect to a Bluetooth speaker and play music that way (less cords).
-You can use education apps like Plickers during assessments.
Cons:
-Active Inspire can't be used on an I-Pad.
-When connected to a board, the board simply works as a projector, not an interactive interface. (In another words, you can't do things from the board. You have to do it from the I-Pad. If you teach students who run up and touch the board like I do (we have several self-contained autism classes at my school), this can be a pro. I control what happens on the board- not the students.)
-You have to know where the VGA hookup for every board in the building is... and some of the newer boards you have to crawl under to hook up to- so if you aren't the get on your back and crawl under the board type... of course, you need to investigate where all the VGA chords are before you make a decision. They may all be in a great place in your building.
-You need a VGA converter purchased from Apple to be able to hook up the I-Pad to the board. (Mine cost $50.)
As tricky as navigating the cons of this is, once you figure out the kinks, it's really a great tool for mobile teaching.
