A Mobile Life For Me

'iPad' photo (c) 2010, FHKE - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/This year I have been using tablets in and out of my classroom for a variety of tasks and I have loved the experience. I have been switching between my Acer Iconia A500 Android tablet and the Apple iPad 2 received for winning the TIP's award. Saving time when it comes to grade reporting has to be the biggest reason for using a tablet alone. I loaded Splashtop on both tablets I use along with my laptop. A few taps on the screen I have my laptop's screen on my tablet screen. This allows me to enter grades in both Edmodo and our Power School gradebook as I check student work during class, a huge timesaver. Also, I can pull up the e-book we use for learning Scratch programming and can go over questions students have which is also nice. Needless to say, I plan on making more use of using tablets in my classes and other teaching duties. It is the mobile life for me!

Here are a few applications I use with either my Acer tablet, iPad, or even my iPhone 4S and how I use them:

 

  • Read school email but not reply (it is forwarded to a Gmail account I created when I was a tech coach).
  • Take attendance through Splashtop.
  • Show a presentation using either Quick Office, Keynote, or Splashtop and either an HDMI cable, VGA adapter, or WiFi connection.
  • Communicate with students and other teachers via Edmodo. While the Android and iPhone apps are nice the iPad app is the full Internet version. I wish the Tablet app would do this too.
  • Write reports, memos, or other documents with Quick Office. Just don't expect forms to come out the same way.
  • Shoot and edit videos with iMovie or Slice.
  • Blog and share pictures with my students, parents, or teachers using Blogger or the Squarespace apps for iOS and Android (glad this one is available).
  • Take notes in meetings with Evernote.
  • Run a quiz or do exit tickets with Socrative.
  • Surf the Internet for lesson ideas although it is limited due to access restrictions.
  • Read and share ebooks.
  • Share videos downloaded from YouTube or Streamline.
  • Grade student work with Edmodo and/or Splashtop.
  • Confer with other Education Professionals with Twitter, Google+, and/Edmodo.
  • Quickly divide the class into teams with Team Picker (iOS) or Random Student (Android).

There are probably many more things but I just can't think of them right now but feel free to leave a comment to share how you use your phone or tablet in your classroom.