Thus far in our iPad deployment we have focused on the installation of the iPads used in the classrooms with the mobile cart and working with the professors who teach these classes: Professors Amy Todd, Rebecca Romanow, Cat Mazza,. Early this week, our iPad technical lead Venu Kumargajjala installed all the apps on the iPads in the mobile cart with John Mazzarella’s help. Students in 11 courses: Anthropology 273, English 102 ( 7 sections), Anthropology 113G, Art 380, and Music 121 began to use iPads in their classrooms.
Students are really enjoying using the iPads. However, there have been a few minor issues which our team members are working to resolve.
- The iPads ask students for a password to connect to Mobile 2 hub when a password is not necessary. The iPads connect to wifi without a password.
- Second, the apps are dispersed across the screen of the iPad . This creates a messy desktop making it difficult for students to find the app they need. Remember we are sharing 14 iPads across 11 courses and that’s a lot of apps! What we plan to do now is consolidate all the apps for each course in a unique folder named for the course so the students can find their course apps more easily.
- Next, we have not secured the apps so that students cannot disable them by accident. We are addressing these issues now to improve iPad performance and use.
- Additionally, we have had some problems with the hubs that power the iPads. We replaced them once two weeks ago, and will be replacing them again this week because they are not charging the iPads.
- Finally, we are still finding and training our student staff to move around the mobile cart. May thanks to John Mazzarella, Robert Fitzgerald, and Richard Fish, Andrew Levy, Andrew Reitenbach, and Omar Cedeno, Brian Butler and VenuKumargajjala, Vivian Tran and Mary Simone for all your help with getting the cart delivered and picked up.
Thanks to everyone for all their support!