iPads are light, have great battery life and are ultra-portable, meaning that those of you who are tired of opening and starting up your PC, laptop or notebook to write a blog have a quick and easy means of doing so.

And with blogging on-the-go becoming increasingly popular with iPad owners, it is important that people have an app that they feel comfortable with.

We scour and sort through the mass of blogging apps to bring teachers the best ones that are easy to navigate, have great support and are rich with useful features.

Nine months after his school introduced iPads to the eager hands of pupils and a few not-so-eager teachers, Matt Britland offers us a rare insight into how effective their implementation has been in an evaluative study which incorporates the opinions of both teachers and students. We really like how the easily-digestable data is displayed visually, and the depth of the information provided in the project outlines, which is tailored to each subject. The actual report is in a PDF document which you can download here.

Back in September we began an iPad trial. I have finally written my report.

The report includes the following sections:

• Aims
• Planning
• Implementation
• Projects
• Analysis of teacher and student evaluations
• Conclusions
• Possible recommendations for the future
• Integrating iPads into teaching and learning

Click the 'Read More' button below to download the report from Matt's blog.

Photo credit: Tsubaki Kaworu

Interested in finding out how easy it is to use your iPad as a digital whiteboard?

As our experience and confidence in using the iPad in the education sector expands, using your iPad as a digital whiteboard may seem obvious. But whether you’re a confident Apple educator or just getting started, you might be unsure about how best to go about it.

Perhaps you want to broadcast a tutorial or e-learning resource to your students or maybe create a collaborative task that can be viewed by the whole class. I’ve trawled the app store, and reviewed some of the most highly-rated whiteboard applications and recommended our favourites. I’ve also provided a short set-up and installation guide to help you connect your iPad and project or TV.

This article originally appeared in the September 2012 Innovate My School magazine.

The iPad is perhaps the most talked-about piece of technology in teaching. Enthralled by tales of educational potential and egged-on by technophile staff, head teachers might be forgiven for investing in the trendy tablets without fully considering how they should be used.

Google Earth is certainly good for familiarising children with foreign geography. Socrative provides a quick way to gauge a class’s progress. The Numbers app enables pupils to produce spreadsheets and graphs, and the Math Bingo game can help them learn arithmetic.

But these programs (or very similar ones) are available on any computer with internet access.

The point is that for many tasks - including essay writing and accessing information - iPads are probably no better than desktops or laptops. Lacking a keyboard, they may even be considered inferior for some purposes. And are the mathematical benefits of Math Bingo really best realised when every pupil in the class is playing the game on a separate device?

Many of my posts look at ways to use the iPads in Literacy and Numeracy to enhance learning and engage, motivate and inspire children. But how can using the iPad also help children in other subjects like Science, History or Geography?

Here are some ideas about how using the iPad can help students to show, share and develop their learning in these subjects, with a distinct focus on Science.

There is a real danger that iPads are going to be the latest in a long line of products that schools have purchased more because of their marketing impact than their educational use.

Grown-ups love iPads, which means parents love iPads. Parents love the idea of having had an iPad at school. Parents are undoubtedly taken in by the iPad-loving school: "The British School in Paris Prep School has issued iPads to every pupil from age 3! what a forward-looking school!" So, let's buy some iPads! Parents will love them!

A word of caution: we've been here before.

Photo credit: kjarrett

There has been a great discussion forum within our school system about iPads, Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and sharing student's work. It started with a question from a teacher just wanting to connect their iPad to the IWB. What then followed was an in-depth discussion about classroom practice and workflows.

We have all spent time and energy creating resources for our IWB, but is it time we move to new technology? We can in fact connect our iPads to an IWB via the VGA Adaptor, but would you choose to if you had other options?

Apple today announced that iTunes U content downloads have topped one billion. iTunes U features the world’s largest online catalogue of free educational content from top schools and prominent libraries, museums and organisations helping educators create courses including lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and more for iOS users around the world.

“It’s inspiring to see what educators and students of all types are doing with iTunes U,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “With the incredible content offered on iTunes U, students can learn like never before―there are now iTunes U courses with more than 250,000 students enrolled in them, which is a phenomenal shift in the way we teach and learn.”

Is it possible that the use of mobile digital technologies in the early years, schools, further or higher education contexts may have the potential to transform learning and our education establishments dramatically, supporting the creation of truly personalised learning experiences, related to each individuals needs and learning styles?

The iThink Therefore iPad? conference will present, explore and discuss the existing and potential applications of Apple’s iPad and iPod Touch within an educational context, particularly focusing on the widespread use of these devices across EYFS, primary, secondary, further and higher educational institutions. It will also focus on the viability and affordances of these devices in the current economic climate and the possibilities that they present for developing high quality, cost effective, teaching and learning.

Since launching version 1.0 in late 2012, Schudio have been working on building the best content management system available anywhere for schools, and have now released version 1.1 with iPad integration.

v1.0 provided schools with the opportunity to sign up for a powerful, stunning system that offered quick and easy set up, powerful but easy to use administration and designs that looks great on every device your users access your site from.

Schudio are now delighted to announce the release of v1.1 which includes an array of fantastic features and integrations; the most important being a complete overhaul of the admin design. Now you can use Schudio’s powerful admin interface on any device, meaning that you can quickly and easily create content in your class, on your iPad, take a picture and upload it to your site. Your students are now going home and telling their parents to look on the school web site to see what they’ve been up to that day!