K-2 iPad roll out - day 1

Today we introduced iPads to the Kindergarteners. Wow! Over the next week the students in grades K,1 and 2 will all begin to use iPads in the classroom. We were so fortunate to receive some funds that allowed us to purchase an additional set of 22 iPads and a cart to store them in. Their use will be shared based upon a schedule that we developed with those teachers who were using them. Basically the classes have one hour blocks assigned to them each week. We thought that this was much better than the sign out system – (which is how allocate the use of the current upper school laptops). It allows them to be certain of the availability of the device.

We spent some time over the last month creating the roll out plan. As usual the details took time and the syncing of the apps did as well. We are looking into CASPER (An IOS device management tool) to help but until then we are working with what was given to us by Apple. What is great is the wireless syncing and the wireless automatic download of new apps (Unfortunately limited to 10 devices per iTunes account). We are looking into a more efficient means of syncing the apps, but until then we will manually sync.

Apps – We have pre-loaded the iPads (2’s by the way) – with several apps – that we decided would be a good start for general use across K-2. What is one of the most important pieces is the collaboration – there are ½ a million apps available and therefor critical that we all can help search and define those best suited for the students. I will be observing and meeting with the teachers both individually and collectively to assess and determine next steps. We will meet as a unit monthly to talk about lessons learned and any new apps that were discovered – this is the gold!! I will post the Apps that we went with shortly.

Below are a few pictures of the students in action on day 1  (click on pictures to make larger)