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All iPads iPads for kids out of school now

1BadManVan

1BadManVan

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 20, 2009
3,316
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Bc Canada
I gotta say I’m very thankful now that I spent the money and got them iPads for Christmas after learning they have no closed all schools where I live. A good chance it will be for the rest of the year.

The amount of educational apps available for them is incredible, especially because the schools in my area use iPads in their classroom. They are also releasing more apps and sites for more free educational learning plans.

Anyone else’s kids locked out of school from this outbreak? Hopefully everyone’s safe and healthy, I know many aren’t in as good of situation as we are for child care. Luckily my wife works from home and I work fo the railroad, so we still both have an income.
 
UnLiMiTeD558 said:
I gotta say I’m very thankful now that I spent the money and got them iPads for Christmas after learning they have no closed all schools where I live. A good chance it will be for the rest of the year.

The amount of educational apps available for them is incredible, especially because the schools in my area use iPads in their classroom. They are also releasing more apps and sites for more free educational learning plans.
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I tried pretty hard to get my kids to use their iPads as their “school computer”. But in the end they chose to go with $100 Chromebooks and they worked out surprisingly well. They’re ridiculously cheap, they work flawlessly with Google Classroom and they have a keyboard built in (instead of being a $150 add on).

Anyway, I’m really hoping that some of these tech giants step up and find a way to get computers in the hands of the millions of computer-less kids finishing the school year at home.
 
So far chrome books aren’t as popular where I’m at. iPads and MacBooks seem to be the norm which works for me
 
Been impressed with how well they can do multiple things as well. 11 year old was having a Facebook audio group chat while playing minecraft and watching a Netflix show in the corner and not a single hiccup. starting loading them up with some education games and apps as well and they are enjoying it.

Not pushing the schooling too much yet since they are technically still on their spring break but these will definitely be their weight in gold. Already have a few Bluetooth keyboards in the house that my 6 year old loves to use to practice her spelling and typing up sentences.

Curious if sales on these have gone up at all knowing so many kids will be stuck at home for months possibly
 
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Can someone explain how iPads work for schooling at home? Very curious
 
Ghost31 said:
Can someone explain how iPads work for schooling at home? Very curious
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I have been home schooling for 10 years at all education levels. We are not connected to a school for remote learning. The iPad is great as pen and paper replacement. Doing math on iPad is far superior than on a computer and even pen and paper. Curiously, the STEM topics benefit most of the pencil as drawing, writing equation, etc are central to teaching and learning. Books are of course easier to manage on the iPad. On the whole, for traditional learning, the iPad is excellent. Online teaching, see end of post.

I tried to get my kids to program using the Swift app. Works OK and we have not explored it fully due to poor interest. I judge that many of the other software on iPad for creativity is at a sufficient level for learning the basics. Supporting apps for experimental chemistry and physics can be better but money is needed for these kinds of development.

As teacher I am intersted in the content the students/pupils create rather than which tools they use. The principle of most apps are the same (like drawing, video editing, text editing, etc) and usually a skill that we do not bother about. The content always reflect the learning of the particular topic. So scaled down version of apps are actually benefitting learning of a topic as focus can be put onto the content/learning rather than the app.

In the university setting where I teach, the new websites supporting online teaching and learning is designed for touch interface with large icons, text etc. No issues with compatibility as far as I see. Access to Onedrive and other sharing options are of course working great on iPad. It seem that the edu world has embraced platform independence at least from my perspective (hurray!) which benefit iPads.
 
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iPadified said:
I have been home schooling for 10 years at all education levels. We are not connected to a school for remote learning. The iPad is great as pen and paper replacement. Doing math on iPad is far superior than on a computer and even pen and paper. Curiously, the STEM topics benefit most of the pencil as drawing, writing equation, etc are central to teaching and learning. Books are of course easier to manage on the iPad. On the whole, for traditional learning, the iPad is excellent. Online teaching, see end of post.

I tried to get my kids to program using the Swift app. Works OK and we have not explored it fully due to poor interest. I judge that many of the other software on iPad for creativity is at a sufficient level for learning the basics. Supporting apps for experimental chemistry and physics can be better but money is needed for these kinds of development.

As teacher I am intersted in the content the students/pupils create rather than which tools they use. The principle of most apps are the same (like drawing, video editing, text editing, etc) and usually a skill that we do not bother about. The content always reflect the learning of the particular topic. So scaled down version of apps are actually benefitting learning of a topic as focus can be put onto the content/learning rather than the app.

In the university setting where I teach, the new websites supporting online teaching and learning is designed for touch interface with large icons, text etc. No issues with compatibility as far as I see. Access to Onedrive and other sharing options are of course working great on iPad. It seem that the edu world has embraced platform independence at least from my perspective (hurray!) which benefit iPads.
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This will be a new thing for us at our home for education through the iPads. The school district said it will be a couple more week to get some stuff in place and ready to go. For our school atleast, I know they use MacBooks and iPads so I’m confident it will be a smoother integration into home schooling for the remainder of the year.

the kids have already been exploring and experimenting with some of the education apps that I’ve found. I don’t expect this to be a flawless process but i know these will definitely be of help through this time,
 
My kid’s school sent ipads home with them to use during the shelter-in-place. They do all their course work using schoology, noteability, google docs, and zoom.
 
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UnLiMiTeD558 said:
This will be a new thing for us at our home for education through the iPads. The school district said it will be a couple more week to get some stuff in place and ready to go. For our school atleast, I know they use MacBooks and iPads so I’m confident it will be a smoother integration into home schooling for the remainder of the year.

the kids have already been exploring and experimenting with some of the education apps that I’ve found. I don’t expect this to be a flawless process but i know these will definitely be of help through this time,
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We are already discussing the future of teaching at my university. This forced stay at home really kickstart use of IT, distance teaching, teaching and learning automation at my university and I gather it will linger. The management has been yelling for this for years, now it happens. The world will be very different after this.
 
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I home school two of my grandkids all the time (they have a younger sibling on the autistic spectrum and a new baby sister, so I’ve taken over for a while), and we use iPads almost daily for school. There’s really no limit to the apps and things that are available. Khan Academy has fantastic stuff available for kids of all ages - they’re our favorite, but there are thousands of educational apps that are really great.

It’s funny - back when I home schooled my kids, they all had iBooks. At the time we thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. I can’t get over what can be done with tech these days.
 
Off-topic, and at the other end of the scale, but I bought my mother an iPad when rumours of a 12-week lockdown first started to be heard.

A lot of libraries offer free access to digital services which allow you to download newspapers, magazines, ebooks, and audiobooks. You can do a search to see what's available from your local library. It’s worth checking out if you’ve got a library card. If not, and I suspect most are shut by now, you might be able to use a friend or family member's card.

The apps that my library offers services through are BorrowBox, RBdigital, and PressReader.
 
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AJB1971 said:
Off-topic, and at the other end of the scale, but I bought my mother an iPad when rumours of a 12-week lockdown first started to be heard.

A lot of libraries offer free access to digital services which allow you to download newspapers, magazines, ebooks, and audiobooks. You can do a search to see what's available from your local library. It’s worth checking out if you’ve got a library card. If not, and I suspect most are shut by now, you might be able to use a friend or family member's card.

The apps that my library offers services through are BorrowBox, RBdigital, and PressReader.
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My mom is very thankful for her iPad during all this for sure. Helps her keep contact with the grandkids during all this with the video chats.

unfortunately my wife’s grandmother has a cheap older Galaxy Tab e and doesn’t even know how to install messenger app on it lll
 
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