Teaching with Ipad

It sounds like you want you iPad to mirror onto a projector or a TV. I would highly suggest purchasing this iPad-VGA connector. It mirrors everything that you're doing with your iPad onto a projector or screen! I use this every day in the classroom. I have to say that all my lesson plans are streamlined through the iPad now. From power points, to keynotes, to filming myself for subs and other times I'm not there, using different apps to write notes (and use much like a doc camera), to showing a useful YouTube video, and now iBooks textbooks, the iPad is come tell revolutionizing the way my kids learn :) it's amazing. Check it out here... http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/mirroring.html they're 30 dollars, but they're also cheaper on amazon! (I think those are knock offs, though)

Good luck!

While the VGA connector will allow the iPad to connect to the projector, and will be a much higher quality image than the document camera (as well as removing the problem of the hand blocking the view of the screen), it will not allow the teacher to walk around and put the iPad on a desk - in fact, many people find it to be a very loose connection. To have a wireless connection to the projector, you'll need to use an Apple TV and connect it to an HDMI-compatible projector (which most school projectors are not - although I have seen references to HDMI-VGA adapters). The iPad can then project to the Apple TV.

A limited option is to use an app such as Splashtop Whiteboard to remotely control your computer and then annotate on top of it. So you could call a PDF up on your computer, connect the iPad to the computer using Whiteboard, and then write on top of the PDF there.

I had similar frustration which was aggravated by the fact that I give student presentations at many different schools and return at each individual school yearly at most. I put everything on pdf and upload it to MobileMe for the Science teachers to retrieve. Then I depend on their "SmartBoards" to give the presentation.

I give volunteer presentions on the Apollo-11 landing. I tested the Saturn-V and the Lunar Modules that were used on the program.

Wanna come down to DC? :-)

For most purposes, I find Splashtop Remote (simpler version of Whiteboard - just control, no annotations) to be fine. I had some initial bugs with Whiteboard, but the people at Splashtop were very helpful - and when I finally restored my iPad to factory settings and recreated it (I had some problems installing the 5.0.1 update, and until I did the restore my iPad was moody) it's been fine.

There has been some discussion on the iPad educator's ning about using Apple TV's with projectors - right now that seems to be the best solution, but problems are that a) most projectors can't take the Apple TV, requiring adaptors (and it doesn't seem clear if those work), b) installation (you need an additional ceiling power source - most have it with the projector, but it's one other factor), and c) passwords (too easy to get on someone else's Apple TV). But the ones that do have it working seem happy with it... I'm hoping to be able to try it with a pilot teacher next year.

PogoPossum wrote:

Wanna come down to DC? :-)

Actually, I wouldn't mind. I'm retired and this is one of the ways that I keep busy. Unfortunately, the obvious problem is food and lodging costs.

And our 4th grade decided to take our space unit out and beef up the flight unit. We found some wonderful flight simulation websites which we used - websites which we can't play on the iPad, and which I always give as an example of why we're sticking with laptops instead. 🙂

As each of us has stated many times in the past, the iPad is not a substitute for a true computer.

We are planning to visit some schools that are fully iPad to see how they're working - there are some trade-offs that might make the iPad a good replacement for the laptop in elementary school, but I want to see if it's worth the loss of these interactive websites. Maybe our next replacement cycle around...

This is slightly off-topic but one thing that I have done is to combine my iPod Touch with my Bose BT speaker to add audio to selected portions of my presentation. The Touch with the BT speaker is a combination that works really well.

Well, it is all related to teaching with the iPad - although not in the exact way the OP intended. :-)

It's the end result that counts. If the kids benefit, that's all that I care about!

Which is why I need to upgrade to the next iPad when it comes out ... it's all for them, I'm doing it for the kids. 😁

That was how I justified the Bose speaker!