Part 2 iPad + Family = Lessons for class use

In Part 1 I looked at how my family use the iPad, concentrating on how my children use it. In this post I am listing what lessons I have learnt from the family and thinking about how I can use this knowledge with an iPad in my class from September.

Learning and Reflection Opportunities
Although many of the talking books are not age appropriate for my 2 & 4 year olds. I can see a real place for these in my guided reading groups at school. The flexibility of having a story read to you with the words highlighted or reading it yourself and recording your narration is worth investigating with my class. Can pupils retell a story in their own words, can they improve it?








Both my kids love using Drawing Pad at home. We upload their pics to a family blog.


It is so easy to email these pictures. Using email to blog facilities I would like to try getting pupils to reflect on their learning in pictorial form. Pupils can take it in turns to reflect pictorially and post directly to our class blog, being approved by me first. I have no idea if this will work but it could be interesting.

If I have pupils with very poor phonic abilities I can see Pocket Phonics coming into play. This is a port from the iPhone and is very easy to use, encouraging pupils to say sounds and draw the letters.


I have tried the iPad with our VLE (Studywiz) and it is fine for accessing information but it is not really optimised for it. We have plenty of PCs for this so I think it unlikely we will use it for this. We also have a Google domain for staff and pupils but as google docs is read only I can't see we will use it for this either. In many ways the iPad is a different beast from other computers and I think it important not to try and squeeze it into old ICT practices. I want to play to its strengths, the beautiful touch screen, glorious multimedia presentation and amazing range of Apps.

Classroom Organisation
At home we have a sofa chair where the iPad lives. Our kids know that they can use it sitting/lying/lolling in the chair but it mustn't be carried about or used elsewhere. This is purely to preserve the glass screen and fingers crossed has been very successful. Although the beauty of a device like this is it's mobility, I will have to weigh this against possible breakage. I think to start with I will limit it's use to a just one table and rotate children to that table or investigate a cover/holder.

At home we have found that a full nights charge lasts for the whole day into the early evening, so charging it over night will probably be fine. I suspect it is also highly stealable so storing it securely at school or taking it home will be best. Fortunately as ICT manager I have my own lockable office.

IPad doesn't support multiple accounts, so setting up a class email address means we can take advantage of email sharing on the device. If I set up automatic forwarding on this account I can see if anyone tries to misuse it.

My iPad is wireless only, so by accessing the web through the school wireless and County proxy servers I ensure a safer Internet connection.

At home we keep all the kid's apps on their own pages. I will do the same at school additionally moving pupil apps to the front page and task bar so pupils see these first, making navigation even easier.




There are some things I would love to have shown to my class though plugging it into my data projector and interactive whiteboard but the vga connector is not fully functioning so this is not possible.

I have no idea what will survive from these ideas come the new term. That will be Part 3 and if nothing works I will be brutally honest.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Part 1 How my family use our iPad

Learning starts at home. My family and I have been adjusting to our new iPad, 6 weeks ownership to date. This blog post sets out how we have been using it so far. The next post will outline lessons I think I have learnt from my family for using the iPad with my class. Finally a post on what really happens when the iPad meets my class.

Father 43 (Me)
Teacher and Tech Geek. Buys anything with a plug according to his wife.
Uses it for casual surfing of the Internet for information, especially if in a hurry. It has replaced the Mac laptop which had that role up until the iPad purchase. Uses Twitteriffic and Flipboard to access Twitter. Pressreader to access Newspaper.




Downloaded a smattering of games but none have engaged him for long.

Mother 29 (again)
A social user of the web, email, Facebook, shopping and celebrity gossip.
Uses the iPad to read the Guardian using Pressreader. Will occasionally check email if the Mac laptop is being used. Will not use the iPad to shop on the Internet as She finds it takes longer and the screen is smaller.

Son 4
Uses the iPad independently and with Dad. He requires far less help when using the iPad than using Windows 7 as his mouse control is still developing. When choosing what to use his favourite apps are. Whit Woo, this upscale from the iPhone filters appropriate You Tube content. He loves Disney songs and vehicle videos at the moment.




He will also choose to use Find Me. Another upscale from the iPhone which asks him to choose a picture from a wide range of pictures.




He will also choose to use a range of singing stories such as The Wheels on the Bus, Gingerbread Man and the Three Little Piggies. Some of these allow you to colour in the pictures as you listen to the story although both children stop singing to colour in.







If He is using the iPad with His father He will listen to a talking book, although He often loses interest half way through. He loves using Drawing Pad to create simple pictures.




Drawings are then uploaded to the family open Blogger account via the email transfer. He likes seeing these online as the website is a link on his page. Other family members will often talk to him on the phone about what is on his blog which adds value to his work.




Daughter 2
She loves using the iPad and has a range of educational games she enjoys. At the moment her favourite App is Lunchbox which is a basic counting, colour matching and simple puzzle program.




She also enjoys Animal Matching which is a memory game with sounds. The lions roar and sheep baa.




Family Management
As the iPad doesn't have different user logons we have two pages of Apps that the children can use independently. This is fine at the moment but will be inadequate for older children. I suspect that in future they will have their own devices.

In my next blog post I intend to look at the lessons I have learn't from family use and how these might impact on using an iPad in my Junior year 3 class.

I would love to hear of any other family or class iPad experiences with children.

Kids apps pages







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad