iPad in Education

[caramida]

Wanted: Someone who can help me figure out what I need to turn an iPad into a teaching appliance. I have a nebulous list of features in my head (including running in-classroom A/V switching and management), and I'd love to see it put into practice. I just don't have the tools or knowledge to implement this.

Anyone game?

Comments

[caramida.livejournal.com]

If there's another piece of $500 tech that will do the things I want while being something I can carry around the classroom, show me.

[sylphslider.livejournal.com]

I guess I'm confused. What are you going to do, A/V-wise, with the iPad? Run movies on it? What's switching and management?

[caramida.livejournal.com]

At UCB each of the big lecture rooms has a touchscreen that controls all the AV in the room. It allows you to switch from one video input to another, to run the DVD player, to raise and lower volume, to raise and lower the video screen, etc. The touchscreen was a sort of super-remote that ran a hardware hub which controlled all of this.

I'd like to have something like that software on a tablet I can carry around. The iPad will already run basic word processing, spreadsheets, play video, etc.

[mr-pandakun.livejournal.com]

They make remote software that can do things with a Mac - i.e. open Front Row, use the DVD player application, adjust volume, etc. but I haven't seen a more "universal" remote. You might be out of luck as far as that goes. Unless you luck out and the place you're teaching has a really excellent A/V setup and the IT staff with the knowledge to set it up.

Now, most of this depends on what environment you're going to be in. If you were in, say, a situation where you were projecting a movie on to a surface - like a wall - then the projector would have either a VGA or DVI input, in which case you can connect it directly to (I think) the iPad and run a DVD/video/what have you from that. Given that's probably all high schools would have for A/V, then cool. But at that point, you'd also need good stereo speaker output too. So iPad as a media player works, but you lose the remote-ness of it. You could possibly use it as a paperwork reducer - taking roll call, etc.

My only warning is that it'd be even easier to steal, so bringing it on campus is something you'd want to keep your eye on at all times.

[caramida.livejournal.com]

In my imagination, it's software running a Bluetooth connection to the hardware media controller that connects to a Digital Projector. So I guess I need a designer as well as just a software engineer.

In addition, I'd love to have the roll-taking capability, but that could be another piece of software.