Well it seems the 5.1.1 is here. Not a huge update, doesn't really look that there will be an awful lot of different in how they are being used in our school but hey, generally speaking most updates are good.
It does mean that after recently learning how to setup an image and restore the single image onto multiple iPads that I now need to go through them again after about a week of use. At least this time I know what I am doing.
It really isn't a bad thing as the middle unit has recently acquired their iPads and have been checking out and installing apps like crazy, so the homescreen icon structure needed to be tidied up anyway. The good new is that with this update I don't need to install the update first and then restore the image as I had to do with the 5.0 to 5.1 update, saving a lot of time. Starting at 7:30am, with 16 iPads at about 20 minutes each, this was going to take up a chunk of time, but it does allow me to smash through many of the odd jobs in between.
Another part to note is that when I did the 5.1 update and the image restore I had to forget the wireless network certificates and re-install them, adding yet another bit of time to the task at hand. This time it seemed that I only had to re-enter the password and proxy credentials as they came up instead of forgetting and re-installing.
Yesterday saw the running of the IPS Cross Country. Across the board this was run very well. I was responsible for the smooth running of the Prep, 1 and 2 section of the cross country. This year we made sure the starting line was in front of a large straight and was rather wide so that by the time students were trying to converge around the corner there would not be as many collisions. Considering that only 2 sets of tips occurred for 160 students I figured it was quite successful. The event ran on time and as we powered through the races we discovered that we completed all races ahead of time, being super efficient on these days is a rarity and is not taken lightly.
It was rather lucky that I decided to take out an extra set of ribbons in case I lost some as there were a couple of close finishes ending in ties. This allowed the Infant unit to make an on-the-spot decision to provide 2 blue ribbons instead of trying to really think about first and second.
Thursday 10 May 2012
Sunday 6 May 2012
Technology in Victorian Schools
Our school recently had a visit from a nearby South Australian school that had a variety of focus points.
One of them was ICT in the classroom with my role being to discuss more in detail about how we use the iPads. I could not believe the shock on their faces when I referred to having my own laptop supplied by work, and that the school had even supplied some iPads for teachers.
I had no idea what they wanted to start with and was relieved when they started asking questions and I knew what to talk about. We discussed how I set the iPads up on the network, how I organised them by setting up 1 and creating an 'image' that was then installed on the rest of them, even as to how I found which apps to use. An important query was how do I monitor the content of free apps with some of the advertising being age inappropriate for schools. Most of this is resolved by having a play around with the apps and check for the content involved while the rest is resolved by discussing with students what it means to be cybersafe and what choices we find age inappropriate material. So far this year I have had one advertisement that showed up on 'educational' software that was inappropriate and upon sending a complaint through this was very quickly resolved.
This visit made me think of how lucky Victorian schools are to have such a high technology focus in the classrooms (even though I think it could still be made higher) making it easier to teach at a technological level in par with the real world that students are currently living.
It also made me think of the difference I could make in such a school. It is effectively a blank slate for ICT teaching. I don't think I will have much luck finding a similar school in Victoria but this would be an ideal type of school to consider moving onto.
A huge success in iPads appears to be coming from the Middle Unit of our school, where teacher iPads are being extensively used for assessment. The most basic example is having a reading conference form stored on the iPad as PDF, annotating the record and storing it in Drop Box. When doing this with twenty-four students per fortnight you can imagine the number of trees we are saving, not to mention the huge amount of storage space on teachers desks.
(Please don't go into the carbon debate that we are burning fossil fuels to power the iPads, I am going to go 'la la la' while I imagine the iPads being recharged using Solar Power.)
I will finish this with a quick post mentioning my daughter Imogen and that she has great direction tracking skills for reading at the age of 5 months. It is such a shame that not all families spend time developing basic skills such as this or don't even see it as a priority.
Cheers
Rob
One of them was ICT in the classroom with my role being to discuss more in detail about how we use the iPads. I could not believe the shock on their faces when I referred to having my own laptop supplied by work, and that the school had even supplied some iPads for teachers.
I had no idea what they wanted to start with and was relieved when they started asking questions and I knew what to talk about. We discussed how I set the iPads up on the network, how I organised them by setting up 1 and creating an 'image' that was then installed on the rest of them, even as to how I found which apps to use. An important query was how do I monitor the content of free apps with some of the advertising being age inappropriate for schools. Most of this is resolved by having a play around with the apps and check for the content involved while the rest is resolved by discussing with students what it means to be cybersafe and what choices we find age inappropriate material. So far this year I have had one advertisement that showed up on 'educational' software that was inappropriate and upon sending a complaint through this was very quickly resolved.
This visit made me think of how lucky Victorian schools are to have such a high technology focus in the classrooms (even though I think it could still be made higher) making it easier to teach at a technological level in par with the real world that students are currently living.
It also made me think of the difference I could make in such a school. It is effectively a blank slate for ICT teaching. I don't think I will have much luck finding a similar school in Victoria but this would be an ideal type of school to consider moving onto.
A huge success in iPads appears to be coming from the Middle Unit of our school, where teacher iPads are being extensively used for assessment. The most basic example is having a reading conference form stored on the iPad as PDF, annotating the record and storing it in Drop Box. When doing this with twenty-four students per fortnight you can imagine the number of trees we are saving, not to mention the huge amount of storage space on teachers desks.
(Please don't go into the carbon debate that we are burning fossil fuels to power the iPads, I am going to go 'la la la' while I imagine the iPads being recharged using Solar Power.)
I will finish this with a quick post mentioning my daughter Imogen and that she has great direction tracking skills for reading at the age of 5 months. It is such a shame that not all families spend time developing basic skills such as this or don't even see it as a priority.
Cheers
Rob
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