ICT Help

Navigating

The home screen on the iPad is dominated by app icons. Apps can be loaded by touching the icons. You can close any app and get back to the home screen by pressing the round home button.

By swiping the screen right and left you can switch between different pages of apps. At the bottom is the dock. The apps in the dock remain visible regardless of which page you are on, so these should be the apps you use the most.

Some of the apps are in folders. Folders can be opened with a single touch. To get back out of the folder, touch outside the rounded box or press the home button.

To move apps around, hold your finger down on any app icon for a few seconds. This makes all the icons wobble frantically. Apps can now be moved from one page to another, into and out of the dock, and into and out of a folder.

New folders can be created by moving one app icon on top of another and holding it for a few seconds. The iPad will pick a folder name itself, though this can be easily changed.

The little 'x' at the top left of the icons will delete the app from the iPad (it will warn you first though).

By swiping one single finger down anywhere on the screen but the very top, the search tool will appear.

This can be used to quickly search through apps, contacts, notes, events, emails and reminders.

Multitasking

To switch between apps, there are a number of options:

Use all four fingers and swipe to the left. Swipe right to get back.

To see all open apps, double click the 'Home' button or swipe up with 4 fingers. This brings you to a screen where open apps are visible both as page previews and icons. You can swipe through the left and right, though swiping on the icons moves through faster.

To close an app, swipe the page preview up and away.

Control Panel

Swiping from the bottom of the screen brings up the control panel. This allows you to, on the top row from left to right: Control music, Enter 'Airplane Mode', Turn WiFi on/off, Turn Bluetooth on/off, Turn 'Do Not Disturb' on/off, Lock/Unlock Orientation.

On the lower row from left to right: Control volume, Change Airdrop settings, Send video and audio wirelessly (see AirServer), Change brightness.

Calendar

The calendar has a day, week, month, and year view. The best place to add events is probably week view. To add an event, simply hold down your finger on the correct day and at the correct time for a few seconds. Once the event appears, if don't let go, you can change the time and date by moving your finger around on the screen. If you want to add an 'all-day event' you can hold your finger at the grey section at the top of the display.

You can now finely edit the event by giving it a title, a location (if you want), change the time or date, create a repeating event (e.g. one that repeats every week etc.), invite others, add an alert, and change between your personal or shared calendar.

By selecting an existing event, you can edit it and delete it.

Camera

There are in fact two cameras on the iPad - a front facing camera and a rear facing camera. The icon in the top right can be used for switching between them.

The camera app will also record both still photographs and videos. This can be changed by swiping up and down on the words 'Video', 'Photo' and 'Square'.

The large round button on the right hand side will take a photo or start recording video.

The picture on the bottom right will show existing photos.

Camera Roll

The Camera Roll is the centre for a lot of creative work that gets done on the iPad - it acts as both an inbox and an outbox for images and movies. Whatever is placed there can be made available to any other app. An example of how it is used:

To save a picture from the internet to the camera roll, search in Google Images (if you add the letters png to your search, you are more likely to find a picture with a transparent background.

Select the picture you want and choose 'view image'.

Once the picture fills the window, hold your finger still on the image and wait for a few seconds. Select 'save image' when it comes up.

If you now go to 'Photos' then your images will be there.

They should also be available to any app. The first time you do this, the app will say '.... Would Like to Access Your Photos' Simply select 'OK'. If the photos are not present, then you or someone else will have selected 'Don't allow' in the past. See 'Privacy' Section for how to change this.

Privacy

If you are using an app and find you cannot access the Camera Roll, or that the microphone isn't recording, the chances are that there's something wrong with the Privacy settings. When you first use an app which needs to access the microphone, or photos it will ask your permission. If you or someone else says 'Don't Allow', the app will never work with these services until you change Privacy Settings.

To change this, go into Settings and select 'Privacy' on the left hand side, you can select Microphone or Photos and make sure that apps have access.

Sharing

For many apps on the iPad, this icon means 'Share'. This might variously mean that the file can be emailed, instant messaged, added to the camera roll, uploaded to dropbox, or printed.

FileBrowser

FileBrowser allows you to view files on your laptop or the server on the iPad and move between the two. In order to view files on your laptop, you will need to enable something called SMB sharing.

On your laptop, go to 'System Preferences' and 'Sharing'.

Select File Sharing and then Options. Make sure that "Share files and folders using SMB" is selected, and then tick your account below.

You are now ready to open FileBrowser on the iPad. By default this is on the dock of the iPad.

On the left hand side, select 'Scan' at the bottom. At the top of the left hand side, touch the curved arrow.

Assuming you are on the same WiFi Network and you completed the first few steps, your computer should now appear here. Touch it to connect and enter your laptop username and password. You should also be able to connect to the Server whilst in school in the same way. You can now navigate through the folders as you normally would.

To save something from the iPad to your computer, go to 'locations' at the bottom of the left hand side. Choose 'Photo Library' at the top, then 'Camera Roll' on the right hand side. You should now see all the pictures in your Camera Roll. Choose 'Select' in the top right, and choose the files you want to transfer. Now choose 'Copy' at the bottom - a message should come up - choose 'OK'. If you now go back to your computer/the server and choose the icon shown below, you should be given the option of pasting your files to your computer.

This will wirelessly transfer files from one place to another. It means that older children can save work from the iPad directly into their folders. There is even an option to take a photo and have it go straight to the folder of your choice, saving on the need to transfer files as you normally would with a digital camera.

Strip Designer

Strip Designer is an iPad app which allows you to create comic strips. Once you're in the app, simply choose 'Create new' and select a template for your pictures (e.g. Titled Pages) and then a layout.

Once in the app, you can double tap on text to edit it, or touch it once and select the icons at the bottom to change the colour and font etc.

You can also touch 'add photo' to add a picture from the internet, a drawing or use the camera to take a photo there and then.

By selecting the '+' button at the bottom, you can add speech and thought bubbles, stickers and text effects.

If you select stickers, you can add your own drawings and photos, allowing you layer images on top of each other and create characters and objects which can be used in other cells. Just choose 'Sticker' then 'Your Stickers'. Select the '+' to create a new sticker, then choose whether you want to use an existing picture or draw your own.

If you want to isolate just one image from a photo You can use the mask tool to paint out backgrounds.

When you've finished, select 'Share' at the top, select the 'share' icon and then add to photo album

Skitch

Like Strip Designer, Skitch is another app which is great for annotating pictures. The moment you select 'new', the app is looking for a picture to annotate. One option is to take a photo, and annotate this, another is to select one of the pictures from the Camera Roll at the bottom of the screen. For more options you can select the 'up arrow'. This will show more photos, as well as giving the option for annotating blank page, a map or a website.

Once you've chosen a picture, there are a number of options for annotation. Text can be added, along with arrows, shapes and drawings. You can also annotate with a tick, cross, exclamation mark, and question mark.

Colours and brush sizes can be changed by selecting the circle on the left hand side.

Tiny Tap

Tiny Tap from Daniel Sheffrin on Vimeo.

Websites

You can combine multiple websites into one handy link by using a site like fur.ly. Simply paste in all the web addresses, type in the code and get a simple web address in response.

You can then give this link to the students and they can use it to select all the webpages by using the navigation bar at the top:

If you want to avoid typing in the 'prove you're human' code each time, you can sign up for your own account.

QR Code

A QR code, or Quick Response Code is a type of barcode which can be easily scanned by a phone or tablet computer. It can contain all sorts of information such as a website address, phone number, email address, a point on a map, contact details or calendar event.

QR codes can be read on the iPad by using 'Scan' in Utilities. Once Scan is loaded, you can use the camera to position the code in the white frame and, if necessary, tap on the code to focus it.

QR codes can be generated by using a website like qrstuff or scan.me.

You can use this code to share links to websites with children, perhaps by combining it with fur.ly. The barcodes can be printed, or made part of a worksheet. QR Codes can also be used in conjunction with a site like Kidblog, allowing a direct link to children's work to be made available. They can link to videos, pictures, places or just plain text. Once you get going with QR codes, your imagination is the limit.

Kidblog

Kidblog is a website that allows you to create a safe environment where children can post written work and pictures online. Once this is done, children and teachers can comment on the work.

To sign up your class, go to the website and click on 'Teachers'.

Fill out the form.

Once logged in, you'll need to add the members of your class. They will each need a password, which you could generate at random or get by copying their learnanywhere passwords. There are two ways of adding users:

Now children can login to Kidblog. Each class will have it's own web address which you can find out by logging in yourself. Children are now free to add their own work and comment on each others' work. They can use the iPad app or the website to do this.

If they want to comment on each others' work using the iPad app, they will need to select 'View Site' first.

AirServer

AirSever is a piece of software that goes on your laptop and allows you to mirror the screen and sounds from your iPad to your laptop. This means you can quickly display the contents of the iPad when your laptop is connected to the Interactive Whiteboard, it also allows you to make recordings of the iPad screen and sounds, and even narrate instructions as you do so.

AirServer can be downloaded here (Click on download, then 'Already Registered').

Once you have opened up the install file and dragged it into the 'Applications' folder, go into 'Applications' and double click on the app to open it. All that will happen is a small icon will appear in the menu bar at the top of the screen.

You can click on this to get a selection of options. The first thing you should do is select 'Activation' and enter the activation code (see Dan).

Now you can go into preferences and choose a password.

Once you have set this up, take any iPad and drag from the bottom of the screen to bring up the control centre.

Select the airplay icon, find your computer and select it. You will be asked to enter the password.

Once this is done, select AirPlay again and turn Mirroring on.

You can use AirPlay in a number of different ways e.g.