Eating an Elephant

With the number of iPads our district is putting into classrooms there have been many questions coming from all directions.

"What do I do with these?"

"When are you putting all the games on here?"

"Why won't these work?"

"Where do I start?"

"How do I eat an elephant?" That question is the only one that I feel like answering somedays. The reason I like it more than any others is because the answer applies to almost all the other questions.  "You eat it one bite at a time."

One of the first pieces of advice we have given teachers, especially those that have not had the opportunity to work with the iPads as an instructional tool, is to pick one app. Just one app and work with it. When you feel comfortable with it, move on to another.  One of the first apps I suggest starting with is Educreations. This app is a great way to create videos on a basic whiteboard background as tutorials or demonstrations of what you have learned. If you haven't used this app, download it and play with it. Another app I would start with is Evernote. This is a great note taking app that allows for a variety of formats for inputting your notes. Take a picture, type some text, add audio or copy and past. Whichever you choose, you can do it in Evernote.  You can login into the web version and create folders, then share them with other users. The only drawback is the amount of space and limits on what can be done with the shared data in the free version. I have already spoken with one teacher that chose this for her first app to work with and is very excited about the possibilities.  

After working with these two apps, you have taken two big bites out of that elephant.  Let me know what app you choose as your first and I can share that with everyone.