Tricks for Screencasting your iPad

Have an iPad for your classroom and wish that your whole class could see it on the "big screen?"
No problem! Here are quite a few wireless solutions for you...

(1) Apple TV - Go ahead, spend the money. In its fourth generation, Apple TV is definitely pretty cool and will hook directly to your projector system, but it comes at a cost of close to $150 (the 3rd generation can be found for almost a third of that price now, and completely serves the purpose you'll need). You'll be able to Air Play any Apple device (even newer MacBooks), link in to your Netflix account (plus lots of other content), and might even be able to stream YouTube without it being blocked by your school's web filter (Bonus!!). It's a great solution, that is, if your projector is new enough to have an HDMI input. If you're old-school VGA like most of us, you're out of luck.

(Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Apple_TV_2nd_Generation.jpg)

(2) Reflector 2 - This is just one of several apps / website solutions that can be used to screencast your device. Reflector 2 allows you to mirror multiple devices to your computer, which then allows for projecting. At $15 for a single user license (multiple users can get a discount) the cost is much less prohibitive than the Apple TV option. With a little bit of work, you can mirror multiple types of devices (iOS or Android) at the same time within the same system. This offers an advantage over the Apple TV which only works with iOS devices.

(Image source: http://airsquirrels-images.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/23114506/Reflector-2.png)

(3) Zoom Screen Share - The Zoom app is primarily used for web conferencing, and it's one of the better ones I've used when it comes to maintaining a good connection. Like many videoconferencing apps, it comes with a screen sharing feature that supports iOS devices like your iPad and iPhone. And guess what? It's got a free version! Set up a Zoom meeting on your desktop computer and connect to it with your iPad via the meeting code. Voila! Free screen sharing for up to 40 minutes with just the basic version of the App. One thing to note - you can screen share within an app that you're using on your iPad and it works great. True mirroring (so that students can see your desktop icons, every tap you make, etc.) requires both devices to be on the same (wireless) network.

(Image source: https://zoom.us/)

The Zoom app would provide a great way for you to test out the features of the iPad (or connect via Android devices as well) and see how much you would truly use it during instruction. You might find that it's enough for the purposes you'd use it for, or it would be a good way to make the decision about whether or not to spend the money on an Apple TV.

Wireless screencasting with Google Cast for Education

One of the best features of a Chromebook is its portability. That's also perhaps its downfall. Sometimes you want to be "plugged in." For example - projecting a screen to the front of your classroom to guide students through an activity. That can be accomplished via an HDMI cable, but a lot of older school LCD projectors are still kicking from the dark ages of VGA. Previously, going wireless meant investing in a secondary device to act as a receiver for your projector (such as Chromecast or Apple TV). There must be a better way.

Enter the new Google Cast for Education App, available from the Chrome Web Store. Teachers at schools using GAFE accounts can download the app to their Chrome account on whatever device is hardwired to the projector. Students (or the teacher on a portable device) can download the Google Cast Extension for their Chrome browser.


Google's hook straight from the Project Manager:

"Teach and learn from everywhere in the classroom with Google Cast for Education"

Once the teacher broadcasts as a "Receiver" and shares with groups of students (you can share with an entire Google Classroom group at once or single users), students can click the Cast extension in their browser window and choose which receiver they'd like to cast to.

Here's a link to the support page from Google. I just tested it and it works great. Keep a couple of things in mind:

• The computer receiving the information needs to be running the App.
• The computer casting (sending) the information connects through the Extension.
• You can share with as many user groups as you want. To restrict access (and avoid a hostile takeover by one of your students) you can adjust the settings so that users looking to cast have to be approved before their view is shown.
• Users who are casting can choose to display their entire desktop (helpful for walking students through Chromebook tutorials, etc.) or just one browser tab (protects privacy of the casting user and keeps the receiver user a bit more focused).

Perhaps you'd like to cast a view of your own Chromebook's desktop up onto the screen so that students can follow along with your instructions. Yes - that's possible. Use the App on the projector computer, and click the Cast Extension from your Chromebook's browser.

Maybe you want one student to share a screen with another. Students can download the App too and act as a Receiver.

Want to showcase a student's work in front of the whole class? Have them cast to your Receiver.

Looking to push out information from the teacher device to a student one? Having a student computer as Receiver effectively lets the teacher device cast to and "take over" the student device with the content you want them to see.

Finally - don't worry if you don't have Chromebooks - any computer with a Chrome browser affiliated with a Google Apps for Education account can screencast to another one. It would be a great way to look at student work from all the different desktop computers in a traditional computer lab, as well.

Summer Snapshots... #2 - Google Apps, Extensions and Add-ons for Chromebook Classrooms

Having a Chromebook to use in the classroom for the first time is as exciting as opening up a fresh spiral notebook or personalizing a new 3-ring binder. (I secretly think that I became a teacher so I could continue to buy new school supplies each year.) Chromebooks are intuitively simple machines - they are not loaded with "extras" that you have to spend hours exploring. Their power, then, is fully realized when you begin using the suite of Apps, Extensions and Add-ons that Google curates for all types of users. 

Sifting through the thousands of options in the Chrome Web Store can be daunting, so here's a list of the ones that I have used over the past few years that I think are worth exploring right away (note that the descriptions are, for the most part, directly from what was provided in the Web Store):

Google Chrome Apps:

Apps are web applications that run on the Google Chrome Browser. When you use a Chromebook, they appear in the "All Apps" icon when you hit the Launcher button (the little magnifying glass in the lower left corner), so they are almost like the "Programs" that you might be used to with a Windows-based system. Lots of apps are already available when you sign in to a Chromebook, especially if you are a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school. You can pin apps to the "Shelf" (i.e. Taskbar) by right-clicking (that's done by two-finger clicking on the touchpad of the Chromebook) on the icon you want to pin. Start by pinning Google Classroom and Google Drive - you'll access them a lot.

Apps to add to your collection (via the Chrome Web Store):

Google Keep - Quickly capture what's on your mind and share those thoughts with friends and family. Speak a voice memo on the go and have it automatically transcribed. Grab a photo of a poster, receipt or document and easily organize or find it later in search.

Padlet - Padlet is the easiest way to create and collaborate in the world. It works like a sheet of paper where you can put anything (images, videos, documents, text) anywhere, from any device (pcs, tablets, phones), together with anyone.

PowToon - PowToon lets you create awesome presentations and animated videos - it's like a hybrid between a slideshow and a video, with a great drag-and-drop interface. Students love creating and animating with this app; teachers love the ability to create dynamic presentations.

EDpuzzle - EDpuzzle empowers teachers to make any video your lesson. Crop a video, explain it with your own voice and embed quizzes at any time. Take any video from YouTube, Khan Academy, Learn Zillion, etc. make it perfect for your classroom and more engaging for your students. Make any video a true lesson by making it to the point, personal and effective, plus get all the data about your students so you know if they truly understand the lesson.

Pear Deck (as well as Socrative and Nearpod which have very similar features) - Interactive presentations and formative assessments to engage every student in your room, every day! Plan and build interactive presentation deck directly from your Google Drive. Launch a live, interactive session on the projector. Every Single Learner joins the live session on his or her device and participates.

Remind - Remind offers teachers a free, safe and simple way to instantly text students and parents. Teachers can send or schedule reminders, assignments, homework, assessments, or motivational messages directly to students' and parents' phones. Interactions are safe because phone numbers are kept private, and messages are sent with no open replies.

Google Chrome Extensions:

Extensions help you configure the Chrome browser itself. They can again be accessed through the Chrome Web Store, and when added will appear as small icons in the upper-right corner of the browser. Extensions are designed to modify and enhance the functionality of using Chrome. You are also likely to run across links to add extensions from websites that you frequently use (Pinterest, for example, has an extension).

Extensions to add to your collection:

Share to Classroom - Get your class on the same (web) page, instantly. Web Page Sender allows users of Google Classroom to collaborate in realtime. Teachers can "fling" or share urls with students, and students can fling urls to teachers.

Save to Google Drive - The Save to Google Drive Chrome extension helps you save web content or browser screenshots to your Google Drive.

Readability - Readability is a web and mobile app that zaps clutter and saves web articles in a comfortable reading view... provides a better way to read online, turning any web page into a comfortable reading view right in your web browser.

Google Drive Add-ons:

Add-ons are tools built by third-party developers to enhance the functionality of Google Drive tools (Docs, Sheets, Forms, etc.). Unlike apps and extensions, you don't access them through the web store. Instead, they can be searched by clicking the Add-ons menu button from whatever Google tool you are using. Choose "Get add-ons" to search for what you want to add. Each one comes with options and help instructions once they are added. If you find yourself thinking "I wish Google Docs did [insert some advanced function from Microsoft Office]..." chances are there is an add-on to help.















Easy Bib - Automatic bibliography citation generator




Sorted Paragraphs - Sort your paragraphs, lists, bibliography and individual table rows or columns in either alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order.




g(Math) - Create graphs of functions and inequalities (including plotting points and finding the line of best fit) and write complex math in the sidebar & insert it directly into your document.




MindMeister - Turn any bullet-point list into a visually appealing mind-map and insert it directly into your Google Doc.






Save as Doc (for Google Sheets) - Convert any Google Sheets spreadsheet into a Google Document for improved legibility of lengthy cell text entered manually or through a Google Form submission. Basically, this will make Google Forms submissions readable!