Only+One+iPad?

Is there a way to use only one iPad in a classroom? In fact, there are multiple ways to use just a single iPad in your role as a teacher or administrator. Below are just a few ideas that address this issue.

The most obvious way to use your single iPad is as a projection device. For me, this is truly one of the neatest features. Suddenly you have a devise in your hand where you can walk around even to the back of the classroom and still be able to proceed forward in your presentation, change webpages, zoom in or out on a page and even had it to a student to have to student solve a problem to show something to the class. In this way, the iPad encourages the role of "guide on the side" that I mentioned on a previous page.

Now, the first five ideas below were provided in a blog by a K-5 teacher, but there is not reason that the same techniques couldn't be applied in higher grades:


 * 1) ** Small group instruction **-There are countless apps that can be downloaded for free or at very little cost that are beneficial for a small group of 4-6 students to work on together. During my small group math instruction, I've used Coin Math and Math Drills Lite. The children at the small group table take turns (round-robin style). While one child answers the question/problem on the iPad, the others work it on white boards or with money manipulatives. The iPad gets passed around the table in a clockwise motion and we continue this until everyone has had at least 2 turns.
 * 2) ** Paired with Document Camera **-I'm fortunate enough to have a Promethean ActiView camera in my room, so many times, I've simply placed my iPad under the document camera and projected the image onto our ActivBoard. One or more students can take turns clicking the iPad. I especially like to show BrainPop's featured movie using the BrainPop app. I've also used Grammar Jammers in this way.
 * 3) ** As a Center Activity **-If it's not being used with small groups (or maybe after we've finished), sometimes I allow small groups of students to take turns playing games on the iPad in groups of 2-4. (I love this idea for school-purchased iPads, but as the one I have is my personal iPad, I do this sparingly). Some of the apps I've used in this way are Crazy Tangram and Rocket Math.
 * 4) ** As an Interactive Slate **-With the Splashtop app ($4.95), I can control my computer with my iPad. This allows me to walk around the room and use my iPad as an interactive slate. Instead of having students come to the board to click, drag, write, ect...They can do the same things from their seats on my iPad! This allows for even more interactive lessons because of the time efficiency. Let me explain...previously if a page on my flipchart lesson called for something to be revealed by clicking, I found that having a student walk up to the board, click the object, then walk back was not very efficient and slowed down the momentum of the lesson. Therefore, I simply clicked it and moved on. Now, I can give that control back to the students as I move around the classroom.
 * 5) ** As a Student Response System **-With Promethean's free ActivEngage app, students can respond to questions using the iPad, rather than ActiVotes, ActivExpressions, or other mobile devices. ActivEngage works right alongside the other devices and groups of 2-4 students can "share" the iPad when choosing their answer. One desk grouping could use it (3 desks are in a group in my room), then pass it to the next group for the next question. This allows for more active engagement and collaboration. It reminds me of the "Think Pair Share" strategy we use in reading. I've yet to try this out in my classroom, but I've explored the app and this is definitely on my To-Do List.

Now an obvious way that the iPad can be used alone is to use it as your textbooks... with, for example eBooks. You can told the iPad much more easily that a large textbook. You can have sections of a page highlighted... and even have notes available. Watch the following video to see eBooks being used:

 Using eBooks in the Classroom

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