Administrative Use of the iPad

1.  Using a website to record information

Copyright © James G Lengel 2010 •

2.  Using Google Docs

Classroom Observation with Google Docs

http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1261-Daily-Walkthroughs-with-GoogleApps-and-the-iPad.html

See what how one principal used Google Apps.

3.  Limiting the Number of Apps Used
http://www.eduleadership.org/2010/09/01/essential-ipad-apps-for-principals/ 

4.  Using a Walkthrough Form in GoodReader with Annotations and Finger Signatures 

http://www.cliffpaulick.com/blog/2011/walk-through-of-how-to-sign-documents-with-the-ipad/

The Research Says

Walk Through Model

Find some interesting research on how other schools are using iPads and how it will help you.

1. Podcasts

When he arrived at Gulf High School in June of 2008, Knobl brought his passion for technology with him. Jeff Miller, a math teacher at the school in New Port Richey, Florida, assists Knobl with his weekly podcasts and functions as both editor and critic. The podcasts feature highlights of the week and target students, staff, parents, alumni, and the community.
Education World ® Administrators Center: Principal Podcasts Get to the Point (Link to the article)

http://ghs.pasco.k12.fl.us/clips/knobl.html
Listen to one or two of the podcasts they created. Can you make a podcast like this in Sonic Pics Lite? Go to your school website. Download three pictures of your school. Record at least three sentences to make a podcast to share. Podcasts work just as well with still images.

2. Observations

Nadine Smith, principal from tiny Centre High School, demo-ed a great use of the iPod for classroom observations. As a high school administrator, she wants to help teachers implement McREL’s nine strategies. So she created a simple survey using the Forms creator with Google Docs. While doing her classroom observations, she opens up her Google iPod app and simply checks off boxes on the online form. When she gets back into her office, she can organize the data quickly and easily.

Does your school district have a plan for moving EVERYONE into a 1:1 learning model? If not, get on it. The kids are ready. All your teachers are NOT ready, but they never will all be. You don't need an iPad in your hand to be an innovative and forward-thinking educational leader. Sure it might help you feel cool, but it can't inspire and move you like a school full of students equipped and empowered with their OWN mobile learning devices.

3. iPads in Jacksonville--Florida State College

The iPad is not a theoretical invader from the world of consumer IT for CIO Rob Rennie of Florida State College at Jacksonville. It's real.
The CIO, Rob Rennie, has put 350 iPads in the hands of executives, IT staff, administrators, faculty and students—all using the iPads in various ways depending on job function. It's the first phase of a project calling for a thousand iPads to be delivered throughout the college by the end of the year, including at libraries and labs where students can "check" them out.
Why does a college need iPads? Tired of staring at spreadsheets, executives wanted iPads for reporting purposes, Rennie says. The iPad's elegant interface could serve up information such as budgets, staffing issues and status of projects. Students and faculty could leverage iPads for e-books, PDF handouts, as well as Florida State College's wealth of information on its Web portal.

4. iPads Everyday

For Administrators:
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-reviews/1787-education-why-ipad-absolutely-matters.html

Time:
I have worked in both Windows and Mac districts. The current district that I work in is a Mac district. I am sure some network engineer can talk all about the wonderful differences between the two. However, in a fifty-minute class, it takes eight minutes to boot up and start a program on a Windows machine, two minutes for a Mac, and 30 seconds for an iPad. Learning time matters and the iPad is simply the best. Furthermore, battery life matters. Between in-class learning and homework, in an ideal world a student would need a maximum of seven hours of on-time for one to one interaction. This includes all functions of learning. Desktops, laptops, and netbooks often can’t do this. The proposed HP Slate looks to have a five-hour battery. Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook can but only function as an e-reader. The iPad is the only device that can meet this requirement of functionality.

Cost:
In my current district we are a Mac laptop district with approximately a 1 computer to 3 students ration. Each Macbook is approximately twice the cost of an iPad. This does not include carts. For approximately $50,000 more, during our normal replacement cycle move to a 1 computer to 1 student ratio in a school of 500 students. Cost savings would occur in licensing fees (Microsoft Office Suite compared to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for the iPad) as well as other programs found at a far less inexpensive level at the iPad and the iPhone/iPod touch level, no longer purchasing or reduced purchasing of assignment notebooks, whiteboard slates for the classroom, geometry templates for the math classes, copy paper reduction, copy machine repair, and textbooks for the home.
Computer Set-up:
Regardless of the system, there are frequent times in which network techs need to touch every computer. In every system, the tech creates a model and transmits it to the computer. Frequently this still needs to be done at some point via wire. In the iPad sync model, the tech creates one profile, quickly brings it to the class and is able to put that model onto all of the computers far quicker than with a laptop or netbook.

5. Download Podcasts

Download podcasts for your own professional graph from iTunes U
Tim Sample at the 2008 Maine Creativity and the Arts Conference