教與學 - Teaching with iPad 2014-10-3

It's Week 4 already and that means I have been teaching with the new iPad for nearly a month now. I will start with positive by describing some of the wonderful things I can do with it in the classroom.

1. Navigating between slides In the presentation mode of Keynote or MS PowerPoint on iPad, the slide that will be projected on the classroom's screen is right in the centre. At the bottom of the iPad screen, you can also see the previous and upcoming slides.
2. Timing the presentation In the Keynote presentation mode, you can see the time displayed above the slide that would be projected on the classroom's screen. You can also choose to time your presentation. That is particularly helpful when I assign timed activity.
3. Using the built-in laser pointer One feature available both in Keynote and PowerPoint is that if you hold your fingertip long enough on the iPad screen during presentation mode, it will become a bright red dot which performs the function of a laser pointer. When you don't want to point anymore, you only need to withdraw your fingertip from the screen.
4. Annotating the slide It's easier to annotate the slides in the presentation mode. In the regular version of PowerPoint for example, you need to move the cursor to the lower left hand corner and then choose one of the pens before you can start drawing. It's a lot easier to do that on iPad. Also, it only requires one tap on the screen to change the pen colour if you use Keynote.
5. Recording in video One of the subjects that I am teaching now involves a lot of speaking activities in class. I have tried to record some of the performance with iPad. As I make comments based on my observation, I can show them the video and pinpoint specific thing. It is a lot easier than setting up a camcorder. Also, students seem to find it less intimating to be recorded by an iPad than the regular video camcorder.
6. Taking attendance I have been trying to take attendance using different apps on iPad. The first type is still very similar to the traditional paper record. You can select the different status (i.e. present, late, absent) for each student in the pull-down menu. The second type is to ask the students to check in using their phones as soon as they have arrived the classroom.
7. Going green Before I started using iPad, I always printed a copy of the PowerPoint slides, the answer key of class activities, a set of any handouts to be distributed and the teacher version. That is a lot of paper. Recently, I have tried not to print any of the above. I can still refer to the answer key, for example, on the iPad screen.
8. Monitoring students' attendance Instead of calculating each student's attendance manually, iPad can also help with the monitoring. Usually, the app would send you an alert if any student starts to display not-so-committed attendance.

Having said that, I also encountered a number of problems. Some are still to be solved.

1. Connecting Apple TV Imagine if you only found that the Apple TV you try to connect is offline or not responding, there is not much that can be done apart from calling for help. We cannot restart the Apple TV ourselves.
2. Challenging the wrist The iPad Air is quite light but it is still stressful for the wrist if you use it throughout the 2-hour lecture.
3. Using gestures I noticed that I have stopped or significantly reduced the use of gestures when I teach with iPad. One reason is that I am holding on to the iPad rather tightly as I don't want to accidentally drop it or even damage it.