iPad Discovery: Presentation Magic Geekery

Since getting my iPad 2 in July, I have spent every moment possible playing and downloading this app or that app attempting to figure out if the iPad can, in fact, replace the teacher laptop. Well, I think it can for the majority of teachers. 

The last major hurdle is presentations which is rather complex, so here's some background information first: 

In 2008 I discovered the then called Air Mouse app (Mobile Mouse, today) from RPA for my iPhone. This allows one to control their computer as they move around the room, basically a cheap yet feature rich presentation mouse. Fantastic, so instead of being locked to my computer, I can be next to the rascals just in case. Moreover, just recently RPA added Presentation Mode for the iPhone. Presentation Mode doesn't work on the iPad, well, not as of today, but I'm sure it's in the works. The glitch with Presentation Mode on the iPhone is the slides and speaker notes are very small due to screen size limitations.

Then in January 2010 my projector bulb started its slow agonizing death with no available money for a new bulb, so my mission was to find an alternative or make do without. HUH?! Well, as serendipity would have it, LogMeIn's released Join.me just as this crisis hit. (If you have not tried this, I highly recommend you give it a whirl; it is the #1 teacher tool. Join.me is very simple; it privately shares whatever is on your computer screen via the Internet. Go check it out.) [Side Note: I have a lab of 20 computers and the district has 1:1 netbooks.]

Now, with Join.me and Mobile Mouse in my toolbox, I didn't need my projector, nor have I used it since. Plus, the process of an impromptu presentation for a two minute demonstration is now possible; it actually, takes less than 30 seconds to setup. No time for those rascals to get momentum, and it's a game... I read the numbers wicked fast. Who's going to get there first?

There is one major drawback by not using the projector - impromptu whiteboard teachable moments. When I used the projector, I would project directly onto my 8 foot whiteboard which I could then write on to further explain the concept as needed. (Then using my iPhone camera take a snapshot of the whiteboard and later add it to the presentation with speaker notes). Using Join.me, I cannot do this. (Well, at the time I didn't think it possible....read on.)

Another glitch, over the summer I started moving everything to Google Apps, DropBox, SugarSync and box.net; I am really tried of making backups. The glitch? Mobile Mouse's Presentation Mode does not work with Google Presentation. So back to using it to simply control the computer which keeps me free to mingle with the rascals.

The HURTLE: But there's got to be a way, where I can have it all, right?

I want to be able to move around my room while seeing and controlling the presentation in my hand AND write on the presentation as if it was projected on the whiteboard regardless of the presentation software I used to original create it.

YES, Waston, there is.

Step 0: Make presentation.
Step 1: Save/export presentation as a PDF.
Step 2: Upload PDF into cloud (Dropbox, SugarSync, box.net, etc.).
Step 3: On your iPad download PDF.
Step 4: Open PDF in AirSketch (AirSketch broadcasts a whiteboard AND reads PDFs).
Step 5: Launch browser on laptop.
Step 6: Direct laptop's browser to IP address from AirSketch.
Step 7: Launch Join.me on laptop.
Step 8: Give Join.me numbers to students.

Now, I can have my presentation in my hand. I can control it, write on it, and with those edits/additions, save the presentation as a new PDF and email it to whomever.

Technical Side Notes: No AppleTVs or HDTVs for those who were thinking of AirPlay. Back to my technique: The trick is to have the laptop physically plugged (Ethernet) into the network. I have tried broadcasting just from my iPad 2, but it bogs down. It is better to piggy back it off the laptop. Now, to wait patiently until AirSketch adds a recording feature. 

What a difference an iPad makes...

This past July I finally made the leap and bought myself an iPad 2 for my birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me! And still to this day it amazes me the psychological impact my iPad has made on my motivation to "get things done".

Being a Geek (yes, that's a capital Geek) teacher, I am constantly teaching, battling, and playing with technology all day, so when I get home, I'm brain-drained. Yet most nights I have piles of homework (grading or planning), so I sit there in my home office with my laptop trying to get things done, trudging along feeling pressured to "just get it done" - not being relaxed, not being creative, not being very positive.

Again, being the Geek teacher, I am knowledgeable of all the tricks of getting things done quickly, this program for that, that technique for this, and this website for that - this is not the problem. The problem is the stress of the day following me home and instead of relaxing while being imaginatively clever, I race just to get those things done, no extra thought, no extra tweaking, just get it done.

Now, with my iPad, YEAH!, I'm still doing basically the same thing as above (working all day with piles of homework). The difference? I'm not sitting at a desk, I'm home reading, surfing, discovering and when something about work pops into my head I spend time doing that then go right back to reading, surfing, discovering until the next work-something jumps to the front and demands attention.

It's all about location. My iPad has freed me from the psychological desk trap and all it means - racing against the bells, quick, before the next interruption, and the dreaded at least it's done. I find my finished products are a little more snazzier which entices the need to share the joy. 

The joy? 

I highly recommend any tool that frees one from the desk trap.