iPad Initiative - Volume Purchase Program

Apple IDs. Check. 

Sync cart. Check.

30 iPads connected. Check.

Synced free apps. Check. 

Now lets spend some district money!

Apple App Volume Purchase Plan
To maximize our small budget we decided to go with Apple's Volume Purchase Plan. Many of the apps in Apple's VPP are sold at a discount. The more you purchase, the more you save. Many apps are up to 50% off! I would love to say that we went in this direction because it was the easier process. However, it's actually a little more involved than just going into the App Store to download and sync. Well, the initial set up is. Here's the low down.
Program Manager
To enroll in the program, I had to identify someone as the VPP (Volume Purchase Plan) Manager. This needed to be someone who would will set up the VPP account for the campus or the district. This person would also submit purchase orders for VPP vouchers. More on the vouchers a little further down. In the end, I decided to take on this role. My goal is to extend our iPad program, if we see positive results, to other campus. With my position as the district technology coach, I felt this was a good idea.
Program Facilitator
The next step was for me, the Program Manager, was to identify a VPP Facilitator. This person would be the one who does all the app purchasing with the VPP vouchers. Everyone I spoke with does this a little different. Some PM designate a person on the campus, others designate someone in the district office. After talking with our team, I was nominated. Lucky me. Once I workout any kinks in the process, this will be moved back down to the campus level.
How it works
With the Volume Purchase Plan, the Program Manager will submit a purchase order to buy a certain dollar amount of Apple VPP Vouchers. These can be purchased in $100 dollar increments. Once they are purchased, these vouchers will be mailed out to the PM in 3-5 business days. The PM then sends those vouchers to the Program Facilitator. The PF will then go to the VPP portal (different from iTunes) to redeem the vouchers and purchase the apps in various quantities. App specific download codes will then be emailed to the PF to begin downloading the purchased apps to the devices. The downloads can be done by the PF, the teacher or the students. It all depends on how you are managing your devices. With our situation, the teachers will be performing all the downloads and syncing.  
That's the Volume Purchase Plan in a nutshell. 

iPad Initiative - Setting Up Apple IDs

The next step in our iPad initiative was to figure out how to create Apple IDs for our end users (teachers and students). How should we do this? 
We considered the following:
1. Do we allow teachers to use their own Apple IDs when they set up their iPads?
2. Will the district reimburse a teacher for buying apps for the classroom using their own credit card?
3. What if the district purchases apps? Who keeps the apps?
4. What if a teacher changes classrooms / campuses or leaves the district?
5. Students do not have district emails so how am I going to set up their Apple ID?
6. Will each device need an Apple ID?
7. Do students need an Apple ID?
In my head, this list went on and on. After consulting with our team, the technology department, various Apple reps and of course, Twitter, we decided to go with generic emails for teachers to help set up generic Apple IDs.
Teacher IDs
Our technology department though it would be best to use generic teacher emails so that it could be passed on to another teacher should a teacher leave the district. This had to be done in Active Directory as well. If you'd like more info on how that was done, let me know.
The emails looked something like this

iteacher61@normandysd.org

In addition to the teacher, we also have a Instructional Technology Specialist who will support the campus teachers. We provided that individual an iPad and created them an Apple ID as well. 

The "6" was the grade level and the "1" stood for the first teacher in the grade level. The teacher will then set up their iPad with that email as their Apple ID. If a teacher leaves the district, then the new 6th grade teacher would step into their place and iPad and Apple ID could easily be passed on. 
Student IDs
We determined that students would not need IDs. We would instead create an Apple ID for the iTunes account that would be shared across the 30 devices. So this eliminated the need for individual IDs on each device. I spoke with an Apple rep and he said this was acceptable under the Apple Volume Purchase Plan. We would still be required to purchase 30 Pages apps, for example. More on how we are doing that a little later. Our technology department created another generic email for the iTunes account. Due to the fact that we were using a Bretford sync cart (with the hopes of adding more carts / iPads) we used an email similar to this

ipadcart1@normandysd.org

Ok, now that we have the Apple IDs in order, I'm moving on to setting up the Volume Purchase Plan. But that's another post. 

iPad Initiative - Now What?

Our Bretford Sync Cart and 36 iPad 2 devices are in! 
Now what? 
This was now the question I was faced with. In the beginning it all sounded so easy and fun. We'll give kids these iPads and they'll use them and it will all be so wonderful. Well, someone needs to determine how we are going to manage these little puppies. That someone was going to be me. 
After watching a few lengthy webinars, tweeting with various colleagues, reading most of Tony Vincent's website and talking to various Apple reps, I have my strategy. Build the plane while flying it!
We will enroll in Apple's Volume Purchase Program. This will allow us to purchase our apps in volume and distribute them out to the devices. One of the best perks of the program is that many of the apps are 50% off! Tony Vincent does a great job of explaining the Apple Volume Purchase Program here. It seems like a very complicated process. I'm not looking forward to this. However, we are only working with 30 iPads so it will be a good way to test this process out. 
All 30 iPads will be placed on a Bretford PowerSync cart to charge and sync all of the devices. The cart did come assembled. This was a relief. On the cart we will have one PC, with iTunes, that is dedicated to the cart. All iPads came engraved with PROPERTY OF NORMANDY SCHOOL DISTRICT to help with identifying them should they end up lost or stolen. We also plan to use the Find My iPad app to assist in locating any device. 
My first step will be to work with our technology department to create generic email addresses to set up Apple IDs for teachers and students. This may require working with our Active Directory. I want to keep the emails generic so that if a teacher leaves the district the Apple ID and any apps purchased with district funds will stay with the district. I'll keep you posted. 

iPad Initiative - The Low Down

In December 2011 the Normandy School District was awarded the Innovative Technology Education Fund Fall Grant. The purpose of submitting the grant was to improve student achievement in literacy skills though the use of mobile devices. In addition to that we wanted to increase teacher effectiveness in technology integration. Four teachers and two technology specialists from Lucas Crossing Elementary are involved in this initiative and I am extremely excited to be a part of this project. This initiative impacts approximately 80 students (grades 2, 3 and 5)


With the help of the ITEF Fall Grant and district funds we were able to purchase the following. 

• 36 16G Apple iPad2 devices
• 1 Bretford PowerSync Cart
• Various iPad apps
• 40 hours of professional development through the Cooperating School District
• 1 day registration to the Midwest Educational Technology Conference for each teacher

We are definitely going to be building this plane while we are flying it! More to come!

Poll Everywhere Demo Results

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METC 2011 Rocked!

I wanted to put out a quick post. I had my first iPad/iPhone/Android Digital Band Jam last week at METC 2011 (The Midwest Education Technology Conference).  I have to say it was pretty sweet getting to jam with some of the METC presenters! There's nothing like geeking out and jamming with bloggers I follow! Kevin Honeycutt on guitar, Rushton Hurley on iPhone and Tammy Worcester on Galaxy Tablet. Be sure to follow them on Twitter. Enjoy.  @kevinhoneycutt  @rushtonh  @tammyworcester

Go easy. This was our first gig! Hopefully we can get the band back together. That's me with the ipad!

What Going On At METC2011 Wiffiti Style!

Virtual Field Trip With Microsoft's Photosynth

What is it:  Microsoft's Photosynth takes photos, mashes them up and creates a 3D scene out of them! Photosynth allows you to pan in and out of several two dimensional images, stitched together and create a three dimensional experience. This one allows you to "walk around" a statue of Anne Frank.

How to integrate it: With MS Photosynth, you have the ability to create a virtual field trip for your students. Need to take your students to Philadelphia but you live in Austin? No problem. You could always just whip out a photo of Independence Hall that you found on Google, put it up on your IWB and viola! Instant field trip, right? BORING. With Photosynth, you can take a "walk" in and around the building that our forefathers once set foot in. Take a look a the example below.

If you DO have the opportunity to take students on a field trip, have each student take pictures of the trip and upload them to Photosynth to create a collaborative interactive presentation.

History For Music Lovers

There are teachers who go above and beyond to ensure that their students are hooked on a lesson and then there is Amy Burvall, from the Le Jardin Academy in Kailua, Oahu, and her creative partner, Herb Mahelona.

The two decided to make history fun and exciting by using popular music that they and their students were listening to. So they changed a few of the lyrics, created their own music videos and posted them to YouTube. Want to learn about the French Revolution? "Lady Gaga" can tell you all about it. Does the Black Death sound grim and morbid? Not when "Gwen Stefani" sings it!  

I've got to give it to Burvall. She puts herself out there by getting in front of the camera and singing all of the songs. But it sounds and looks great. Her students must get excited when she is about to introduce the next unit on Cleopatra as "Fergie"!

Here's a link to a recent story in the Washington Post and a link to their YouTube Channel.

ActivInspire - How To Create Containers

Here are a couple of screencasts that I had made last year on how to create two different types of "containers" using Promethean's ActivInspire software. I've also embedded the directions so that you can print them out.

The first screencast demonstrates how to create a basic container that will only contain one object and then reject other objects that do not belong. (Bonus! When I published this screencast on YouTube, I must have forgotten to delete the extra tutorial at the end. So you'll get some bonus material at the end of the "Container Tutorial". Enjoy)

The second screencast demonstrates how to create a set of containers that will each contain multiple objects and reject other objects that do not belong.

  

But... If you want to save yourself some time on creating containers, I highly recommend downloading the two resource packs - Containers Made Easy 1 & 2 from Promethean Planet. Click here for the link to those resource packs. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.