New to iPad integration in Schools - need help

[Brenda Hauff]

I am a technology teacher in a middle school that mostly runs PC. i need help with integrating and setting up 200 iPads that we received as part of a grant. I am new to this mac world. I can see some great possibilities with this device. We have run into some snags.

 

One is how do you have students turn in work. Does anyone use eBackpack? I have requested an email account to be used on all our 200 devices but I am having problems getting this approval. Because it is seen as a student email. But it appears to me to be the easiest way to turn in work on the ipad is by emailing the teacher. I know this will not solve all our problems some items will be to large to email, but it is a start.

 

One suggestion that has been discussed with me is to have the kids print instead of email?

 

I also know that WebDav would be an option, but not sure what is all involved in that and what I would need. Quess I need to do some research.

 

Thanks any brainstorming or ideas would be helpful.I really want this to be successful. The kids are asking me everyday, several times a day sometimes. When will the teachers get to use these. I know we have some work before that but we are getting close, and I feel turning in work is a huge deal.

 

We will have 7 carts with 24 to 25 iPads each. The teachers already have their ipads. We are using iOS5.

 

Thanks Brenda

 

[Penny]

Does your district use Google Docs?  If so, students can share their homework with their teachers upon completion.  If you are going to print instead you may consider putting a wireless printer on each cart.  This will give students the option to pirnt. 

[Matthew Schuring]

Hi Brenda,

We are not using as many iPads at our school, but do have one cart, and I think the solution we have may help you.  I setup an email account msapplecart@#####.  Using iPhone configuration utility, I set it so that all of my iPads can send from that account, but do not receive any emails from that account.  One of the nice features of pages on the iPad, is that students can email the document in either a pages, pdf, or word formatted document.  This should in particular be helpful for you and your mostly PC school.  What helped us also with sending the student work to the teachers was the naming scheme we used.  We had the students begin their document title with their period number, so it looked like this:  P# flastname Eng Paper.  Then on the teacher email accounts, I helped them setup an auto-filter that automatically put all of their emails from their students into the correct folder.  (The subject line of the sent email is the title of the document.)  

If you are looking for a good print solution, we also use HP1102 wireless printers with our ipad cart, and this has been a really good experience for us as well.

Here is our blog if you would like any more help.  Best of luck to you guys!

valley's blog

[Rhonda Siemons]

Hi Brenda,

I would not encourage printing documents if workflow can be managed through the device and email.  All of our students have GMail accounts.  Students are able to forward data from any app to their teachers for feedback. Teachers use iAnnotate to mark up the student work and return via email.  In preparation, students also created Collections (aka folders) in GMail to organize their work.  They also use this as a means to back up their data. Paperless is the way to go if you can make it happen.

 

Rhonda Siemons

Fairfax Middle School

Fairfax, VT

[Brenda Hauff]

Our legal department will not allow for any email. We do not have google docs or email for students. I am not allowed to have email of the student devices. Period no discussion. I am looking for other solutions........

W re looking into using a WebDAV server. I am excited about this option.... Hope we can figure it out.