Category Archives: iPads

The Great iPad TurnIn Event: 2014 edition [Middle School]

We’ll be taking your iPads up on MONDAY, MAY19 during the school day.

This is a LONG message – please read ALL of it!


 

Here’s the list of what’s below:

  • WHAT to turn in:
  • WHEN:
  • WHERE:
  • WHAT HAPPENS IF I FORGET:
  • WHAT HAPPENS IF I CAN’T FIND MY CHARGER
  • HOW DO I BACKUP MY PICTURES/NOTABILITY NOTES?

 

WHAT to turn in:

  1. iPad
  2. Charger
  3. Charger Cable

WHEN:

  • Monday, May 19, during the school day.

 

WHERE?

  • Your teachers will know on MONDAY. They will not know before then, so DO NOT BOTHER ASKING THEM!

 

WHAT HAPPENS IF I FORGET?

  • Bring it on Tuesday.

 

WHAT HAPPENS IF I CAN’T FIND MY CHARGER?

  • You could go out and buy an equivalent replacement, say from PeachMac.
  • or Your parents will be charged $30 for it.
  • You should go look again.
  • Try looking inside the couch……or under your bed……or in the doghouse.
  • I suggest you go do some extra work, or get a job.

 

HOW DO I BACKUP MY PICTURES/NOTABILITY NOTES?

Pictures/Videos

  1. On your iPad:
  2. Go through your pictures and delete everything you don’t want to keep.
  3. Make sure your Google Drive App is setup –> Fire it up, and login if it asks you to.
  4. If you’ve never backed up your pictures:Create a new folder. Call it “2014 pix” – or whatever you like. Open it up.
  5. If you HAVE backed them up before: open up the folder you used before.
  6. See the big plus sign in the upper right corner? Click it.
  7. Click “Upload Photos or Videos”
  8. Click “Camera Roll”
  9. Click 4 or 5 rows of pictures/videos – you should see a blue checkmark show up on the picture icon.
    [If you do too many – say, 100 pictures – it will take much longer and might crash]
  10. THEN click the bigger blue checkmark at the top right corner.
  11. You should see a message {1 of 5 files uploading} show up at the bottom of the screen.
  12. Keep going until you get everything uploaded.
IMG_0637
Click to see a bigger version

 

Notability notes

  1. Fire up Notability.
  2. On the opening screen, click the GEAR icon, bottom left.
  3. Click the Auto-Backup Button
  4. Click the Google Drive button.
  5. Login, YES give Notability access [it’ll ask].
  6. You should see a message stating that your notes will be backed up in PDF format. Click OK, but that is NOT what we want.
  7. Next to the Google Drive button you should see a gear icon. Click it.
  8. Change the File Format to NOTE.
    That way you’ll be able to re-import them into Notability if needed.
  9. Click back out of the settings menu.
  10. Wait a while. Make sure your notes have been backed up by switching to your Google Drive and peek inside the Notability folder.
Click to see a bigger version
Click to see a bigger version
Click to see a bigger version
Click to see a bigger version

IF YOU WOULD LIKE PDF COPIES of your notes, do this:

  1. Go back to the first/main/opening screen in Notability.
  2. Click the “All Notes” bar, at the top.
  3. Click the EXPORT button, top left. It looks like a rectangle with an arrow coming OUT of it.
  4. Click the “All Notes” bar again. All the notes should highlight and have checkmarks on them.
  5. Click the Export button again.
  6. Select where you want to send them – email or Google Drive. I suggest Google Drive!
  7. So click on Google Drive.
  8. Set the folder where you want to save them – I suggest the Notability folder.
  9. The formats: Choose PDF.
  10. Paper – YES if you want the backgrounds to match the notes. NO if you want a white background.
  11. Recordings: YES if you want the audio to be exported as well….if you have any notes with audio.
  12. Click the “SEND TO GOOGLE DRIVE” button.
  13. Wait a while. If you are at home and have a lot of notes, wait a LONG while.
Click to see a bigger version
Click to see a bigger version

iPad Keyboards and Styluses

As we approach One-to-One  status, several have asked the iPad guy about picking up keyboards and styluses for use with their iPads next year.

Although we haven’t done tons of research [and would welcome emails from anyone who has experience with these things], MDStech does know 2 things:

  1. Selection of the hardware is VERY personal. Some styluses we’ve tried were abysmal, some were great, and everyone’s opinion on which was which varied greatly.
  2. Cheap hardware is NOT worth the money.

Here are a couple of articles reviewing keyboards. remember that you would have to purchase a keyboard that is NOT attached to a case – you will NOT want to pull the iPad from the Griffin Survivor provided.